Kids are trick-or-treating, teenagers are misbehaving and Michael Myers is murdering– it must be a typical Halloween night. If it sounds like you’ve seen this movie before, it’s because you likely have.
Directed by David Gordon Green, Halloween (2018) is a sequel to Halloween (1978). Although there are nine other films in the franchise including the two, this one is meant to be the “true sequel” to the first film. The nine other films, all as equally bizarre as the first, can be disregarded in terms of the newest installment.
Forty years after Michael Myers (Nick Castle) goes on a mass killing spree, he escapes the institution he is locked up in and begins his journey to go after the only person who survived his previous attack, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Staying true to the first film’s identity, the movie follows the original cast members Castle and Curtis to build on the foundation of the earliest film.
Green starts his story by showing how Laurie, now a grandmother, has been affected over the traumatic events that happened when she was a teenager. She is highly paranoid and goes to extreme measures to protect herself and her family. Her intensity to be prepared resulted in a lonely life: two failed marriages and an estranged relationship with her daughter Karren (Judy Greer).
However, her paranoia comes in handy; when Michael Myers returns to finish what he started with her, she is prepared to take him on. This is when the repetition starts.
It’s October 30 and Michael is set to be transported to a new facility. In the middle of the night, unknowing bystanders see a group of escaped patients, one of them being Michael. Michael’s slightly eccentric doctor comes to aid in finding the masked patient since the town’s police department proves to be incompetent. There’s a killing spree which eventually results in an irresponsible babysitter’s death. And finally, Laurie and Michael are left to face off. Sound familiar?
Down to some of the lines and stage directions, the similarities are endless. The $10 million budget provided better costumes and effects than the $325,000 budget of the original film, but it could not save the audience from the same corny lines and poorly incorporated comedic relief.
To a true Halloween fan, the newest installment of the franchise is the perfect sequel. Unlike the other movies in the series, this one stays true to the original storyline. The movie does not spiral with strange and confusing plot twists and it certainly does not try to fill the plot holes and inconsistencies made in the previous films. It simply follows a psychotic killer on the loose where nobody is safe until he meets his match for a rematch.
The crowd seemed happy as they clapped and cheered when the lights came back on at the end of the film.
That being said, to someone who is not a long-time Halloween franchise fan, the movie was mediocre. It kept the attention of the audience, but only as part of a series. This movie would not be praised as much had it stood alone.
Having few actually thrilling scenes, the movie was more gory than it was scary. With Michael’s theme song following him around and his unusually slow movements, there was no shock or fear in watching people get picked off one by one.
Rather, there was a lot of dripping blood, mutilated body parts, and of course, plenty of stabbing. Although typically terrifying for a 1978 film, 40 years later, it just felt overdone.
Ultimately, it left the viewers with the same old lessons: if a psycho killer gets loose, make sure you fall every step you take and don’t get back up as he slowly walks towards you. You can scream, but nobody will hear you. Last, put minimal effort into fighting back. There can only be one hero and it probably isn’t you. Happy Halloween.