Halloween (2018).

“I spilled peanut butter on my penis.”

Directed by David Gordon Green

Written by Jeff Fradley

Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, and Michael Myers

The Stage.

40 years after the events of Halloween, Michael Myers escapes yet again and heads after the one who got away, Laurie Strode. This film ignores every sequel up to this point, serving as new canon starting from the 1978 original, but keeping the same title for some stupid reason.

The Review.

I know that some people have this weird affinity to the Halloween series and are very critical of anything that comes to the franchise, like the Rob Zombie remakes that I have not yet seen (which is weird, as the sequels past three were all complete trash)…I am not one of those people. I like the original and I acknowledge it’s importance, but it’s been like most horror franchises in that there have been good Halloween films but the majority of them aren’t good.

Fortunately, there’s a lot to like in this one. The film is very well shot and has some amazing imagery of Michael Myers - as David Gordon Green’s first straight up horror film, I was pretty impressed. Reflections of his mask in the window, the way his various knives glisten, it was all very impressive. A particularly impressive shot of Myers walking down a street during Halloween night forces us to follow him in and out of houses while murdering people. Carpenter updated the score for this picture and I really liked that as well.

Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode, along with two other generations of Strode women. I liked the trickledown of trauma present within the family because of the events of the original - what happened 40 years ago still haunts the elder Strode and that has helped shape their family for many years. Unfortunately, the script isn’t one of the film’s strong suits and we get a pile of unnecessary “teen drama” with Allyson, the youngest Strode, and her friends. All of Allyson’s friends turn out to be scumbags, which seems a little cheap, considering Michael Myers doesn’t need reasons to kill people and we as the audience won’t think that someone deserves to die because they tried to kiss their best friend’s girlfriend anyway. I don’t think that the end of the film gives Laurie Strode the epic showdown that it teases, which is a bit disappointing, and the final battle doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

I’m fully expecting some backlash with this next comment, but here goes - I don’t think Michael Myers is a very interesting antagonist, and there’s really nothing that makes him stand out amongst his slow moving, seemingly invincible dummy peers in the slasher genre. I would have liked to see his character evolve over 40 years in the nuthouse. Hear me out - in the first Halloween, a 21 year old Michael Myers gets out and methodically kills people. He lumbers around until finally, he’s bested. 40 years later, he does the exact same thing. What if, over the course of four decades, he learned out to duck, or even run? Imagine how cool it would have been to see an agile, fast Michael Myers, subverting all expectations all of a sudden. As it is, we get the same, slow moving oaf. I also still don’t understand why Myers appears to be invincible. Gunshots don’t seem to phase him, and as far as I know, he’s still just a regular, flesh and blood person. This is where having a quick Myers would have gone a long way.

The kills we see are brutal, but they’re also a mite boring in comparison to other slashers. Myers is a brute with very little variation to his kills aside from stomping, stabbing, and bashing until his victim is dead. It’s believable (of course I say that within the confines of the Haddonfield world), but not flashy. Not necessarily a detractor from the film, more of an observation. He also kills a couple of podcasters, so I feel personally attacked (kidding, they barked up a stupid tree).

The End.

Halloween is a decent slasher that looks great but still suffers from the moments of stupidity that haunt most films in the genre. The third act is kind of wacky, but there are some cool Halloween moments and fans of slashers or the Michael Myers saga in general should be pleased with David Gordon Green’s first outing into straight horror. It’s certainly a lot better than many of the entries in the Halloween series.