Halloween (2018) Review

Forty years ago John Carpenter put out a film that changed horror forever. Since then film has been using his Halloween as a template for the upcoming subgenre of horror, slashers. Since 1978 the Halloween franchise has churned out ten films, fairly regularly, with a confusing continuity that is all too familiar in comic books. Now, a movie with the same name as the original, and the remake, is ignoring all the sequels and is itself a sequel to the original, hits the big screens to much applause. That movie is...Halloween (2018).

The film opens up with two podcasters visiting Michael Myers. Doctor Sartain, a student of Loomis, greets them and shows them to the visiting area, a checkered playground with patients chained inside taped boxes. Michael is is old man now, face never shown, and the podcasters desperately pleads for him to talk. Frustrated, the guy podcaster then takes out the big guns by pulling out an evidence bag with the iconic mask. The dogs start barking, patients go "crazy," and the podcasters are yelling at Michael "Talk to us!" What started as an interesting, and potentially creepy, scene ended with a huff of laughable tension, which is the movie in a nut shell.

This iteration of the iconic movie has many problems it had to over come. The biggest one is sequel-itis. To be different and take the franchise into newer territory are what sequels should strive for, and yet they were not achieved in this film as it had a conflicting tone of horror and comedy, and a misplaced guidance as to what the original was all about.

One big criticism sequels get across the board are that they're too similar to the original. Here, it's essentially Halloween (1978) because the film constantly references it whether through dialogue or the camera placement copying the exact same scenes and shots. Watching this movie is like someone whispering to you: hey remember Laurie sitting in class and looking out the window? Well here's her granddaughter doing this exact scene, but this time she sees...Laurie. Remember that time patients were scattered across the road when Michael broke out, or when he kills a mechanic off screen to wear his onesie? Maybe you'll like it when the babysitter has to do laundry while watching The Thing. We got all them back in this one! Halloween (2018) has so many references to the original that it takes you out of the movie, and you inevitably are left to ask yourself: Why can't I just watch the original?

Now one aspect of this "sequel" that was new and exciting was Laurie's storyline. Her turning out to be a bad mother and still dealing with PTSD from that night is a great character arc. Jamie Lee Curtis has some wonderful moments, one in particular where she breaks down in front of her daughter and granddaughter in a restaurant, that makes this sequel worth it. Her paranoia, trick house, and desire to move on and stand up for herself are all fantastic story beats that should have been expanded upon, and are instead traded in for boring modern horror, because once they trickle down to her daughter and granddaughter it goes no where.

Judy Greer plays Karen, Laurie's daughter, whom was, and still is, traumatized by her childhood. Laurie taught her how to hunt, shoot a gun, and  many more situations where she instilled her own paranoia and fear of Michael onto her. Karen obviously tried to keep her mother at arms length and had taken years of therapy to function in the world. Again, this is a great dynamic for a mother/daughter relationship, and it allows a horror movie to tackle mental health, if only they actually went through with it. Because, by the end Karen essentially learns that her mother was right to fear Michael and prepare for his ultimate comeback, and that being a good mom who tried to get her life back on track from a traumatic childhood was the wrong way.

Then there's Michael Myers himself. His portrayal in this film was fine. He had a presence, he's scary, but the way we saw him kill felt so wrong. In the original we barely, if at all, saw him kill on screen. We only saw him cut people and the aftermath of his wrath. Here, we're seeing his actions in every detail and it's not appealing. It felt very modern in how the camera focused on the deaths rather than the tension building up to them. Instead the movie loves to show you the ridiculous, and mostly laughable, kills Michael leaves for everyone (looking at you Jack o' lantern kill).

The best part of the film is, like the original, the music. The score to this movie is fantastic, and can be argued that it's better than the original. John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies killed it, pun intended. The updated theme and the modern yet classic take really made the film have personality and the ambiance that it creates for this small American town really pulls its weight more than what is shown on film.

Overall, if you enjoy the Halloween franchise you'll like this a lot. It's a Halloween sequel so you already know what you're getting into. Ultimately,this eleventh installment didn't feel needed nor did it bring anything new to the table other than Laurie's story and the music. The amount of references they put into the movie did take me out of the film and made it quite predictable.

5/10