Halloween (2018)

2018’s Halloween, directed by David Gordon Green.

Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Rhian Rees, Jefferson Hall, Toby Huss, Virginia Gardner, and James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle as the Shape.

What is it about?

Taking place after the original film, John Carpenter’s Halloween, 2018’s Halloween is set again in the town of Haddonfield, Ilinois. 40 years have passed since Michael Myers’ murderous Halloween spree that introduced us to teenage “Final Girl” Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Psychopath Michael Myers was institutionalized shortly after, and has remained behind bars since. Over that time, Laurie has worked through her trauma inflicted by Michael- by preparing for his return. Training herself, and her daughter, Karen Nelson (Judy Greer), Laurie is hopeful that she can also train her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), against Myers’ formidable presence. After an inevitable hospital transfer goes wrong, Michael is freed- and heads straight for Haddonfield to relive his past glories. With Halloween occurring, and Laurie waiting in the wings- who will prevail this spooky night?

Why is it worth seeing?

Halloween throws away literally 9 movies in the previous chronology, rebooting itself as the only sequel to the original classic film. It’s a move both inspired and cynical- inspired because it throws away a litany of embarrassing sequels and genius squandering follow ups, and cynical because after so much exposure, the case can be made for abandoning the idea all together.

Director and co-writer David Gordon Green brings back the iconic mass murderer Myers, and as mentioned above, coolly dispatches episodes 2-10. The opening titles (itself a reference to the original’s titles of a jack o’ lantern), are a fitting metaphor- we watch a rotting pumpkin brought back to life. Are you saying the franchise was rotten David?


Green brings to the screen the same wide angled slasher sensibility of John Carpenter, and even copies some of the shots with flipped contexts- a welcome wrinkle. Green also tries to replicate the tension of the original, with limited success. The first issue is that he just doesn’t have Carpenter’s penchant for patience- but worse, Green takes the breathless suspense and tense stalking and cuts it out at the knees with scenes of humour. While it’s not a surprise that someone from Pineapple Express brings jokes to the table, it just doesn’t mix with the movie’s homage to suspense tropes.

After comparing this to Myers-less sequels and Rob Zombie’s trailer park interpretations, what else is there to say about a film that’s easily the second best in a now 11 film franchise? Its frustrating in the sense that it has a unique take on an exhausted subject, but the original’s brilliance has been so compromised and replicated so poorly over the past 4 decades that it just feels like its going through the motions. In fact, Curtis’ Laurie reminds me of Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Conner in T2:Judgement Day- that other exhausted franchise about a traumatized woman who refuses to be a victim and becomes machine-like in her quest for vengeance against the thing that has wronged her. Unlike that film, this one is even more assured about the possibility of yet another sequel to follow. Not that I feel confident about Laurie’s chances- to paraphrase Bill Simmons, you would have thought that after 40 years of planning you’d have an unassailable plan for revenge. But my question is such- when is the rom com about Michael looking for a mate so he can produce an heir to haunt the Strodes after he dies coming out? Really, who am I kidding- Myers can’t die.

 

Rating:

3.5/5

Trailer: Click Here.