August 18, 2018
Written by: Alan B. McElroy
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris
Budget: $5,000,000
Quote: "Hey, I got a town full of beer bellies running around in the dark with shotguns! Who's gonna be next? Somebody's wife? Somebody's kid? I can't stand by for that."
Trivia: In the original script the opening shot was of a long hospital corridor suddenly blowing up and throwing Loomis from the explosion, in a reference to the end of Halloween II (1981). In order to show how Loomis survived. it was later decided the film should not have any connections to the predecessors and the explosive opening was never shot.
Alright, I was up in Hollywood at a hotel waiting to see my friend's band open up for The Weirdos (if you haven't yet, do yourself a favor, find and listen to their album Weird World) while I watched this film. Maybe I wasn't in the right head space when I watched it but I could not get into this film.
It takes place ten years after Michael tried to kill Laurie at the hospital and he's been in a coma since then. Somehow both he and the world's worst psychiatrist turned detective Sam Loomis survived Loomis blowing up the room they were in. Oh, and Laurie died in a car crash sometime over the past ten years (they couldn't afford Jamie Lee so they had to do something to explain her away). While being transferred to another hospital, Michael wakes up after hearing Laurie had a daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). From there it is the usually, Michael killing randos on his way to get Jamie. He throws a guy into a power voltage thing causing the power to go out throughout town. Eventually he gets to Julie's house. There is the cat and mouse games with Julie, her babysitter and her babysitter's boyfriend. Eventually Michael is killed. Then End?
Some observations:
* There is a moment when a group of drunks at the local bar decide to immediately put down their eleventh drink of the night, get into pickup trucks and try to get Michael as a vigilante mob. The sheriff seems nervous about this, but not nervous enough to do anything.
* Julie has reoccurring nightmares about Michael yet chooses form a Halloween store the exact clown costume Michael wore when he killed his sister as a kid.
* A photograph of Jamie Lee is all the Curtis we get in this film.
* At one point, the babysitter and her boyfriend are locked inside the house. The front door apparently also needs a key from the inside as well. Her boyfriend gets the bright idea to have the babysitter shoot out the door handle. Seems reasonable enough. However, afterwards the boyfriend briefly touches the hole in the door and exclaims, "we're locked inside!" Seems like piss poor film writing to me.
* The police station massacre seen was pretty brutal.
* Michael puts a thumb through someone's skull.
* Despite having "risen from the dead" numerous times, everyone seems content to assume Michael is dead after being hit by a car, and shot into a mine shaft.
* The very ending was cheesy and Dr. Loomis is still a terrible doctor.
* The movie really made me miss the guiding hand of John Carpenter. John, where are you when we needed you most?
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