Harry Situation Reviews: Halloween (2018)

“I met him fifteen years ago, I was told there was nothing left, no reason, no conscience, no understanding of even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong. I met this six-year-old child with this blank, pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes, the Devil’s eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him and then another seven trying to keep him lock up because I realized that what was living behind that boy’s eyes was purely and simply... evil.”

-Samuel Loomis, Halloween (1978)

Halloween is the newest entry in the popular slasher film series of the same name, developed this time around by Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Production. It features the return of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and Nick Castle returning as the iconic slasher villain himself, Michael Myers. The film was directed by David Gordon Green, who is best known as the director of Pineapple Express; co-written by Danny McBride, who often collaborates with Gordon Green; and produced by legendary horror director John Carpenter, the original director and writer of Halloween.

This film serves as both a direct sequel to the original Halloween and a retcon of the whole series, wiping a clean slate across the other Halloween films in the series, including the two Rob Zombie movies. It’s been 40 years since Michael Myers had his murderous crusade in the fictional town of Haddenfield. Now he’s escaped once more, donning his iconic mask, and returns home to finish what he started. The sole survivor of his first rampage, Laurie Strode (reprised by Jamie Lee Curtis), has been waiting for this day for a long time in hopes that she may finally put an end to Michael Myers on Halloween night.

I never thought I would get so excited for a new Halloween movie, but after watching the first trailer numerous times, I was immediately pumped for it. And how did it turn out?

I freakin’ loved this movie.

Oh my god, the buzz you’ve been hearing about this movie is true. This is the best Halloween sequel ever made (which isn’t saying much when you compare it to the other sequels).

First major positive is Jamie Lee Curtis’ performance as Laurie Strode. In the first film, she was a victim. Here, she’s a survivor, and she’s been preparing all her life for Michael’s return. She’s pretty much an awesome combination of Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley. The film also does well of showing how traumatized she is after her first run-in with Michael, and how much it damaged her relationship with her family.

And speaking of family, we get to meet other members of the Strode family, like Laurie’s daughter (played by Judy Greer) and her granddaughter (played by Andi Matichak). I like these characters. They’re great additions to the Halloween mythos. I also like how they have different relationships with Laurie Strode. The granddaughter wants to keep in touch with her grandmother while the daughter believes that her mother is way too paranoid.

But the other major positive is of course the literal face of Halloween, Michael Myers. He is still as menacing as ever in this film as he was in the original. He’s everything he needs to be. He’s silent, he’s scary, he’s unstoppable, and he looks fantastic. His mask looks old but effective. And I like how that people in this film have studied him and tried to get him to utter a word out of him, yet he never does. Maybe because pure evil has no true voice. Or maybe because to speak would mean that you are human, and since Michael never speaks, he’s not human. He is truly a force of evil.

Like the original Halloween, this movie knows how to build good tension and deliver some good scares. There were legit moments where I jumped because I wasn’t expecting it. And probably the most intense moment in the movie is towards the climax where Laurie and Michael are caught in a game of cat and mouse. It was pure edge-of-your-seat terror. But what makes it all better was the fact that there were no jumpscares present in the whole film. We audience members get so spoiled with jumpscares that it’s nice to have a horror movie that does away with them all.

And surprisingly, there were some actual funny moments in this movie. I mean it. There were some dialogue that got me laughing. What’s nice about it was that none of the humor felt forced and didn’t detract from suspense and terror surrounding this film. Shane Black should have taken notes from this film when came to writing and directing The Predator.

But I think the major downside for this film was the fact that were quite a large number of characters that didn't do much for the film. Will Patton plays a police officer in this movie, but sadly doesn’t offer much. There’s the dad married to Judy Greer in this movie, but doesn’t offer much. There’s another psychiotrist whose main role is to serve as the new Samuel Loomis, which they literally called him that in the film. He didn’t offer much other than a big twist that I never saw coming. And honestly having said that is already spoiling.

Overall, this was a fantastic film. This film successfully recaptures what made the original Halloween so good to begin with. I don’t know how a team of actors and directors that have done comedies end up making great horror movies, but I hope to see more in the future. I absolutely loved this movie. Not only do I think this is one of the best Halloween sequels (arguable as good as or better than the 1981 Halloween II), but this is also one of the best movies released this year. The year’s almost done and all I’ve seen so far were disappointments. It is so good to not only have a great horror movie, but a great movie to have seen in theaters this year.

I’m definitely going to go out on Halloween night to this movie again!

Positives:

-Laurie Strode

-Michael Myers

-3 generations of Strodes

-Good thrills and scares

-Good humor

-Recaptures effect the original

-Love letter to original

Negatives:

-Some pointless characters

Final Grade: A

Doo-do-do-do-doo-do-do-do-da! Doo-do-do-do-doo-do-do-do-da!

So there’s my thoughts on Halloween (2018). I guess the one other downside I can think of is why call it Halloween again? Now we’re gonna be more confused when we talk about Halloween.

“Hey man, you want to watch Halloween?”

“Are you talking about the original, the sequel or the Rob Zombie remake?”

“I don’t know anymore.”

Any who, have you seen it? What were your thoughts? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out more reviews and scares here on Prose!

Best Quote:

Laurie Strode: “Happy Halloween, Michael.”

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