Halloween (2018) Universal/Horror-Thriller RT: 106 minutes Rated R (horror violence and bloody images, language, brief drug use, nudity) Director: David Gordon Green Screenplay: Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green Music: John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies Cinematography: Michael Simmonds Release date: October 19, 2018 (US) Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle, Haluk Bilginer, Will Patton, Rhian Rees, Jefferson Hall, Toby Huss, Virginia Gardner, Dylan Arnold, Miles Robbins, Drew Scheid, Jibrail Nantambu, Michael Harrity, William Matthew Anderson, Diva Tyler, Brien Gregorie, Vince Mattis, Omar Dorsey, Pedro Lopez, Charlie Benton, Christopher Nelson. Box Office: $159.3M (US)/$259.9M (World) Body Count: 17
Rating: ***
Michael Myers is back yet again in Halloween, a direct sequel to the original 1978 version that not only ignores ALL the subsequent installments, but completely hits restart. Fairly early on, it dismisses the notion of Michael and final girl Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) being brother and sister with a snarky line about it being “something people made up”. The screenwriters Danny McBride and David Gordon Green (who also directs) have returned Michael to the role of a killer without a motive, a boogeyman, as they felt giving him actual motive made him less scary. Psychiatrist Sam Loomis, played by the late Donald Pleasance, described him as “pure evil”. That’s the only explanation we got in John Carpenter’s original; it was all we needed. It’s what made the original Halloween so effective. That’s why it’s still regarded as a classic of the genre four decades later.
Obviously, the new Halloween is NOT a classic like its predecessor. It is, however, the best Halloween since number 4, released 30 years ago almost to this day (10/21/88). Yes, it’s better than H20. The story picks up 40 years later with Michael Myers securely locked away in Smith’s Grove Sanitarium. His new psychiatrist, Dr. Sartain (Bilginer, Rosewater), allows a couple of podcasters (Hall and Rees) to interview him for their true crime show. After failing to get him to speak- why would he, he hasn’t uttered a single word in 40 years- they show him his old mask. Still, there’s no reaction. He later escapes from a bus transporting him to a maximum security prison and makes his way back to Haddonfield leaving a bloody trail of bodies behind him.
Laurie Strode has never gotten over the events of that fateful night in 1978. She’s spent the last 40 years preparing for Michael’s inevitable return. She lives in a fortress and keeps weapons handy at all times. Her issues- PTSD, agoraphobia, severe paranoia- have resulted in two failed marriages and a bad relationship with her estranged daughter Karen (Greer, Ant-Man) who was removed from her custody at the age of 12. Laurie worries for her safety as well as that of her teenage granddaughter Allyson (Matichak, 666 Park Avenue). Halloween night rolls around and Allyson heads off to a dance with her boyfriend (Arnold, Nashville) while her best friend (Gardner, Runaways) babysits. Michael is on the loose. Laurie, with the help of local cop Hawkins (Patton, Armageddon), tries to get her family out of harm’s way. Of course, her daughter doesn’t believe her. She thinks Mom is losing her mind…. again. It all leads to a big showdown between Laurie and Michael.
I really liked Halloween. It’s a nice return to form for the series. It has a decent amount of suspense, but it’s not as scary as one would like. HOWEVER, the body count has been upped significantly. It has a good amount of gore a few really cool kill scenes. There’s this one excellent staged sequence where Green films Michael taking care of business through windows from outside the houses. It’s clear that Green and McBride are fans of the original Halloween in the way they reference it throughout their movie. PJ Soles, who costarred in the original, contributes a voice cameo as a teacher in a scene that will be very familiar to fans. Not only that, they manage to work in references to the other Halloween movies even the third one (look for the Silver Shamrock masks among the trick-or-treaters). It’s a clever little shout-out to fans of the franchise.
Curtis is very good as an older, deeply psychologically scarred Laurie Strode. I always felt that her story arc should have been the main focus of H20, not all the business with her teenage son and his school chums. The 1998 movie was a total product of the post-Scream era when horror flicks more closely resembled CW shows. This Halloween pays Curtis’ character the attention she deserves while still giving ample time to the teens. Their characters are one-dimensional at best; they don’t have a tenth of the personality that Laurie and her friends had in the original. To be truthful, they’re nothing more than lambs for the slaughter. Greer does a fine job as the daughter who resents Mom for her dysfunctional upbringing. The three generations of Strode women is actually a nice touch.
Nick Castle also returns as Michael aka “The Shape” while stuntman James Jude Courtney plays him without the mask (we still never get a full shot of Michael’s face). It’s great to see Castle back in action; Courtney does the role proud.
A lot of Halloween works. Some of it doesn’t. It’s a little slow-going in the beginning. Some will argue that the same can be said of the original. I disagree. Carpenter used the time to effectively build up suspense. Green tries to do the same with less success. It meanders a bit before it really gets down to business. Once it does, it’s a pretty cool horror movie. Like I said, it’s not a classic, but it’s the best scary movie playing in theaters right now. It doesn’t have quite the same feel as the original Halloween, but it comes very, very close. In short, it’s a good movie and a fine choice for a Friday night fright flick.
