Released: October 2018
Director: David Gordon Green
Rated R
Run Time: 106 Minutes
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Cast:
Jamie Lee Curtis: Laurie Strode
Judy Greer: Karen
Andi Matichak: Allyson
James Jude Courtney/Nick Castle: The Shape/Michael Myers
Haluk Bilginer: Dr. Sartain
Will Patton: Officer Hawkins
When it comes to the origins of the slasher film, most film historians would actually point the finger at Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho as the granddaddy of the slasher. To a certain extent, they are correct. It introduced certain ideas that would serve as a basis for all slasher movies to come. However, I would actually point to John Carpenter’s Halloween as the film that lit the fire for the genre. It was a very unexpected movie and it featured one of the most terrifying villains in cinema history: Michael Myers. After that, we got a lot of slasher villains just popping up out of the woodwork, specifically Freddy and Jason. They would take the formula that Halloween had mastered and took the genre in wildly different directions, for better or for worse. But everything that made the slasher genre what it is today can be traced back to John Carpenter’s film. The film was so successful that it ended up getting not just one, but several sequels as well as a re-make. The problem is, is that those sequels were, shall I say, less than adequate. Rob Zombie’s re-make of Halloween was actually not that bad. I appreciated that Zombie wanted to try and explain why Michael was so…..evil. It’s a pretty solid film, but Zombie missed the part in film school where certain things just didn’t need to be explained. The less said about Rob Zombie’s second Halloween film, the better. Overall, the franchise really wasn’t that good. In 2018, we have a new direct sequel to the original Halloween called……Halloween.
40 years have passed since The Shape terrified Haddonfield, Illinois. 40 years since Michael Myers murdered 5 people and traumatized Laurie Strode. Laurie has spent 40 years preparing for Michael to return. Since then, she’s had a daughter, Karen, who hates her for trying to train her for Michael to show up again. Karen, in turn, has her own daughter, Allyson who wants to connect with her grandmother, but wants Laurie to give up her obsession with Michael Myers. Unfortunately, Laurie’s fears are confirmed as the bus carrying Michael has an accident and Michael escapes. That’s as simple a set-up as you can get in a slasher film. Initially, I was not necessarily a big fan of John Carpenter’s original film because it was too simple, but now I realize that simplicity is what really made the original film so amazing. The one thing that you should understand about this Halloween is that it is a direct sequel to the original film, which means that all the other films in the franchise are no longer canon or part of the story. It is just John Carpenter’s film and this one. That is a very good thing, in my opinion. The previous films ranged from mediocre to god-awful. This time, we get to see Laurie Strode pull a Sarah Connor. Instead of being a victim, she becomes a bad-ass warrior woman that’s willing to kill to protect her family. That’s a far cry from the frightened girl we saw in the original film. It actually feels like a natural progression for the character. After dealing with decades of trauma, she’s decided it’s time to fight back.
Acting-wise, the film is really solid across the board. Believe it or not, the teenagers are not completely annoying in this film. Bizarre, right? In most movies like this, you would actually want some of these kids to get offed in some pretty horrific fashion. While some of the teens do get brutally murdered, you don’t actually want to see them get killed. Not all of them anyway. There’s one or two that deserve it. Andi Matichak plays Allyson, the granddaughter of Laurie Strode, and she’s actually pretty good here. I’ve never seen her in a movie before, but she quite likable. Her mother, on the other hand, I’m kind of torn, because at times she’s a pretentious bitch, but I guess that’s just how the character was written. There were two people that played The Shape in this film: Nick Castle, who played the character in the original film, and James Jude Courtney, but you wouldn’t recognize them, because Myer’s face was hidden by camera shots and his mask. That’s what makes the character so scary. You can’t see his face, so you can’t identify with him. He doesn’t speak a word, either. He’s quite literally the Boogeyman from stories. Dr. Loomis from the original film called Michael “pure evil.” He’s right. The film also doesn’t go out of its way to try and humanize the character. He’s a monster and the film treats him as such. The real star of the show, however, is Jamie Lee Curtis. Once considered to be the “ultimate scream queen,” Curtis has quickly become one of my favorite actresses of all time. She is amazing here. Not only does she handle herself well physically, but she also brings a level of pain and emotional depth to the character that makes her truly sympathetic. You get behind her almost every step of the way, even when no one else does. That’s the strength of Curtis’s acting ability. She’s always been the star of the Halloween films, but this film is where she really gets to shine.
This being a slasher movie, you would expect a body count, right? Well, you do get one. However, these kills are not as over-the-top or as gory as something like say A Nightmare on Elm Street. No, like the original film, the kills here are far more restrained in terms of the violence. In fact, a number of kills actually happen off-screen while he hear some of what’s going on, while others just show the aftermath. Don’t get me wrong: I’m as much of a gore-hound as the next guy, but I really do appreciate the level of restraint here. The goriest moment comes when Michael crushes a guy’s skull. Other-wise, it’s just straight stab-and-slash….exactly what a slasher movie should be. That’s what I think makes Halloween so interesting. It doesn’t waste time with extraneous back-stories, humanizing a villain, or being anything more than what it is. That level of simplicity is one of those things that made the original film such a classic. Will this new film go down as a classic itself? I don’t think so.
In spite of the good things that I’ve said about this film, there are a few things that really bring it down. For one, the focus on the teenagers and their dance was completely unnecessary. This is Laurie Strode’s and Michael’s story, so it should have stayed focused on them. When it doesn’t, the film slows down a little too much. Secondly, the level of humor in the film was a little too much. Halloween is supposed to be a dark thrill ride. I understand having some humor in order to deflate the tension a little bit, but the amount of humor we have in this film made the film’s tone go all over the place. There’s a scene in which two cops are describing what they brought for dinner. Seriously?! A homicidal maniac is on the loose, and you’re wasting your time describing the food you brought to eat? Most of the time, I didn’t laugh at all. I didn’t think the humor and the jokes were that funny. Then there’s the doctor, who I guess was supposed to be the next Dr. Loomis. Instead he comes across as a cheap knock-off.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how good this movie was. Is it going to be in the same league as the original? Hard to say. I’ll have to give it some time. What I can tell you, is that aside from the original film and this, you don’t need to see any other Halloween films. Also there’s just one other gripe. Would it have killed them to give this film some kind of subtitle, instead of just calling it Halloween? Now, we’ve got three movies with the exact same name: Halloween(1978), Halloween(2007), and Halloween(2018). Most days, people refer to the 2007 movie as Rob Zombie’s Halloween, so at least they can be differentiated that way, but the new movie really needed a subtitle, otherwise people new to the franchise are going to be confused. Overall, I would have to say that the 2018 film is a pretty good watch.
My Final Recommendation: Boogeymen aren’t real. Boogeymen aren’t real. 8.5/10.