4. Halloween 2 (1981, Rick Rosenthal)
Halloween 2 picks up exactly where the first movie ends with a highly traumatised Laurie being shipped off to the nearest hospital to recover from her wounds after wrangling with the deranged Michael Myers. After being shot by Dr. Loomis (the Donald Pleasence one - not the crappy Malcolm McDowell one) and falling from a second story window, Michael is hurt but not down. After doing his trademark disappearing act, he re-emerges in the same hospital to continue his attack on the bewildered Miss Strode. It is during this extremely well put together sequel that the filmmaker's reveal the truth about Laurie and Michael's relationship and the seeds are sown for Michael being the pawn of a religious cult which is further explored in parts 5 and 6. After somehow avoiding detection in the hospital despite amassing a considerable body count, Michael eventually catches up to his baby sister and once again attempts to introduce her to his famous knife. Before he's able to finish the job he started in Halloween, Dr. Loomis shows up, shoots him in the eyes (nice shooting Tex) and blows him up. There's no way Michael could ever come back from that attack, right? John Carpenter had no desire to direct this sequel and so the reins were passed to Rick Rosenthal, who would return 21 years later to direct the far inferior Halloween: Resurrection. Although he attempts to recreate the themes and feel of the original, Rosenthal's first attempt at the franchise falls just short of the first movie. However, as a film that was supposed to tie up a story that was never again to be visited, Halloween 2 was a complete success.