Halloween (2018)

“Face Your Fate”

Michael Myers returns home in this direct sequel to the original 1978 Halloween. While being transferred from the facility where he has been locked up for the last forty years, Michael escapes. Michael quickly makes his way to Haddonfield, the town where his original murders took place. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode has been preparing for Michael’s eventual escape and return since her initial encounter with him. This obsessive paranoia has cost her much including the custody of her daughter at a young age. Laurie, her daughter, and her teenage granddaughter have a very strained relationship due to Laurie’s fixation on Myers. Once it is discovered that he is free and killing again, Laurie steps up to protect her family and stop Michael Myers.

The 2018 Halloween does a great job redirecting the Halloween franchise down a new possible path. With the release of this movie, all the other sequels are ignored. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis; (True Lies, Halloween) has no other children, Michael Myers (Nick Castle; Escape from New York, Halloween) is not a supernatural force, nor is he connected to any cult. This allows the writers and directors to work from the most basic building blocks of the character and means that they don’t have to do another origin story so this is not a reboot (yay!).

So how does it measure up to the original classic? Exceptionally well actually. Watching this movie, you will feel excitement, anticipation, nostalgia, and fear; sometimes all at once. Kills are mostly done swiftly, especially early in the film, giving a real sense that Michael Myers is simply a force of evil that will just continue to cut his way through victim after victim. Never stopping. Never tiring.

Even though the film ignores any story from the other Halloween sequels, that doesn’t mean that they are entirely forgotten. There are plenty of easter eggs, references, and mirrored sequences for fans of any part of the series. An easter egg for Halloween III even exists. The fanservice is done in a way that does not detract from the actual film.

The performances of the cast are pretty solid. They help deliver the atmosphere of fear that the movie needs. This is Jamie Lee Curtis’ fifth portrayal of Laurie Strode so you know she has the character down pat, but this time it is vastly different to any other version and Curtis gives us a fresh performance for a redesigned character. The female teens of the picture, Allyson (Andi Matichak; Evol, Miles) and Vicky (Virginia Gardner; Project Almanac, Little Bitches) both knock it out of the park with their performances. When they needed to be afraid, you believed it. I will say that after the film, the most memorable character was the boy Julian (Jibrail Nantambu) who almost completely dominated the few scenes he was in.

Thank whoever it was that said, “Let’s have John Carpenter do the score”. The music in this film is perfect. Some moments, it would slowly amplify the terror until the moment of the scare, other times it acted as the scare with a striking chord. However, it rarely took over whatever was occurring on the screen, instead finding a good balance between the two. The remixes of the original theme made it fresh again without altering it so much that it forgot its purpose, to make the audience afraid.

The effects of the film were top-notch. For such a big budget film, nothing less would have been expected. If the C.G.I. had looked cartoonish or unfinished, it would have drastically hurt the film. Thankfully this was not the case and I never found myself pointing out the graphical effects versus the practical, so they blended well. There is the right amount of blood in the movie to fulfill the slasher fans. Some of the kills are graphic while others you either never see or only see the aftermath of. As far as the gore factor goes, it sometimes with over-the-top, but never overdone.

Now is the time for the faults of the film to be talked about. There aren’t many, but one, in particular, stands out and I will talk about it last. The faults fall onto the story of the film. There are some particular characters that appear to be vital characters and then you find out that they really aren’t. Mostly they turn out to be elaborate transitions to either move the characters or story from one point to another. While that is important because it will move the story along, you may find yourself sitting there thinking, “That’s all that guy did?” One character was a huge disappointment for me. They fell into a grey zone of character development. Either they aren’t fleshed out enough or they needed to be pulled back a bit.

Now the big one that disappointed me. The ending. It felt empty and unfulfilling to me. There is plenty of badassery throughout the final moments (and it seems to pay homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ending a bit), but when the credits start rolling I looked to my wife and in unison, we said, “I didn’t like that ending”. Maybe we will be alone in this opinion, but it is what it is. The ending makes every character involved feel weaker than they should. However, this ending is not the worst nor does it ruin the rest of the movie which was phenomenal.

Even with these few moments, you will not be disappointed if you go see this movie. It was thrilling, enjoyable, and had some decent scares and gore. Forty years after the first film and Michael Myers shows us that he can still deliver the terror we want from our slasher movies.

Rating:

Jack Savage:

This is the way you revitalize a franchise. Halloween is now fresh, but still classic. Michael Myers is as scary if not scarier then when he debuted. Do we want more? Always. Does it need a sequel? No. But if it gets one, we now have a better place to continue from.

Trailer:

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