October 20, 2018
Written by: David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Jeff Fradley
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak
Budget: $10,000,000
Quote: "I always knew he'd come back. In this town, Michael Myers is a myth. He's the Boogeyman. A ghost story to scare kids. But this Boogeyman is real. An evil like his never stops, it just grows older. Darker. More determined. Forty years ago, he came to my home to kill. He killed my friends, and now he's back to finish what he started, with me.
Trivia: On the tv, a newscaster can be heard describing the events of the original film as "the babysitter murders". This was originally the title Carpenter wanted for Halloween (1978).
After more than thirty five years, and a bunch of really bad sequels, John Carpenter is finally back with his brilliance attached to a Halloween movie again... and all is right once again in the universe. I felt that this sequel was the strongest Halloween since the original two, which makes it a bit confusing why there is so much animosity on the internet in regards to the movie. Jamie Lee Curtis, reprising her role as Laurie Strode, does a great job of demonstrating the emotional and psychological turmoil that a final girl would have to continue dealing with decades later. Carpenter has also rewritten a new iconic synth-heavy score for the movie and even Nick Castle has come back to reprise his role as Michael Myers. What this movie offers is not a reimagining of the Halloween story (like Rob Zombie's movies) or even building on the legend like many of the 80s and 90s sequels did, but instead it is a return to basics. It is a straightforward sequel following the events of the first movie without any Michael Myers backstory, supernaturalism, or extra elements added. It is simply a story of Michael's bloody return to Haddonfield as he attempts to finish what he began and Laurie's attempts for survival and revenge. Bloody and gory as hell, this is the sequel the originals deserved.
The movie begins with two reporters going to the Sanitarium where Michael has been kept for forty years to interview him. It is here that we learn that Michael hasn't spoken during those forty years from the new Dr. Loomis. Careful cinematography makes sure that we never actually see Michael's entire face but we get to see the abysmal environment where he has been confined these past decades. Even after producing his mask, Michael doesn't move, let alone talk to the reporters. Meanwhile in Haddonfield, Laurie seems to be losing her grip on reality terrified that Michael is going to return. She now has a daughter Karen (Judy Greer) who resents her for the survivalist way she was brought up (shooting training, making traps, etc) and a granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) who seems to just feel sorry for her. However, Laurie, will show them all how right she was because as Michael is moved to another prison one night, the bus he was on crashes and he is able to escape, however, not before killing a child. This early child murder really lets the viewer know that the rules have changed in regards to what can and cannot be done in movies. This make a scene later in the film, when Michael walks through a house with a crying baby, all the more terrifying.
The next day, Michael runs into the two reporter dummies at a gas station, murders them, and takes his iconic mask. Michael's murder rampage will then lead directly towards the Strode house. There are a handful of random killings as Michael walks in and out of houses. He enters the house of one of Allyson's friends, where she is babysitting a kid who is sleeping upstairs while making out with her stoner boyfriend (sex and drugs: two big no nos in horror). Michael murders them both, but the boy escapes. Laurie having heard the commotion, makes it to the house and sees Michael in the upstairs window shooting him in the shoulder and forcing him to retreat. Michael then runs into Allyson, killing and impaling one of her friends before stalking her. Luckily, a sheriff and the new Dr. Loomis are able to run Michael over. Unfortunately, the new Dr. Loomis is a weirdo who kills the cop, puts on the Michael mask and shoves Allyson and Michael's unconscious body in the backseat with a plan to take them straight to Laurie's house. He has some weird obsession with Michael's mind and curiosity about Michael meeting Laurie again. Allyson is able to escape by tricking the newer and dumber Dr. Loomis, by telling him that Michael talked to her and if she lets her go she'll tell him what he said. He falls for it hook-line-and-sinker, she escapes, and Michael kills him like any other random nobody.
Allyson is able to make it into Laurie's house while outside Michael is killing cops and Allyson's dad. Now the female line of the Strode family is inside Laurie's house which is equipped with weapons and traps. Laurie sees Michael outside, is able hide for a bit and then goes hunting for him around her creepy house (there are all these mannequins and mannequin parts everywhere that Laurie uses for target practice... a very eerie sight to be search for a murderer in). I won't spoil the ending other than to say it has a couple great moments and leaves the viewer with some satisfaction... but not completely.
I love that Carpenter, along with writers Danny McBride (who knew Kenny Powers could write horror?!) and David Gordon Green stripped all the extra layers off the Halloween movies to get back the the basics. That was what made Halloween, Friday the 13th, and many of the other original slashers so great! They weren't about monsters or supernatural beings, they were about simple people that for one reason or another (or no reason) snap and begin murdering people in brutal ways. That is certainly what made the original Halloween so scary. It was even billed that way with the tagline, "The Night He Came Back." A simple concept. Michael who killed his sister has come back to murder others. This movie brings back that same simple concept. Forty years after the original "babysitter murders," Michael has returned to kill others.
What this movie does have that the others didn't is sheer brutality. With the extreme loosening of moral standards over violence and the more relaxed views of the MPAA, Halloween 2018 is able to get very gory and really allow Michael to become the monster that he is capable of being. As I mentioned earlier, one of the first kills is a child, the first child that Michael kills in the eleven movies. This sends a strong signal to the viewer that this is a new Michael Myers capable of anything. Later in the film, the new Dr. Loomis has his head crushed, and the two dummy reporters a brutally beaten to death. Some of the earliest kills are the most gory since Michael hasn't gotten any weapons yet. More than a slasher, the first part of the film Michael bludgeons people do death with his bare hands.
The movie also has a lot of throw backs to the original film. During one moment, Laurie is forced to jump out a window in order to escape Michael landing flat on the ground. When Michael looks out later, her body is missing, recreating the ending of the first movie, except with Laurie instead of Michael. Also, there is a great moment when Laurie meets Michael's new doctor and calls him the new Dr. Loomis, because that is exactly what he is. Later Allyson is being chased by Michael and beings running down the street and knocking on doors yelling for help but no one being around. Another recreation of a terrifying moment from the original film.
The movie is not entirely without flaws. It gets dangerously close to getting ridiculous with the new Dr. Loomis when he kills the cop and kidnaps Allyson because he was in love with Michael's mind. When he put on Michael's mask, I panicked, thinking that he was going to turn into Michael... a haunted mask kind of deal. Luckily, that idea never comes to fruition and he is unceremoniously killed like every other one of Michael's victims.
I'm not sure what people's beefs with the film was? Either way, I loved it. By far the best sequel since the original two! Although Carpenter said this would be the last Halloween movie, I suspect the insane amount of money its made will spawn a few more. Curious to see where they go from here.
...what's your thoughts?
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