Movie Review: Halloween (2018)

Halloween **** / *****

Directed by: David Gordon Green.

Written by: David Gordon Green & Danny McBride & Jeff Fradley based on characters created by John Carpenter & Debra Hill.

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode), Judy Greer (Karen), Andi Matichak (Allyson), James Jude Courtney (The Shape), Nick Castle (The Shape), Haluk Bilginer (Dr. Sartain), Will Patton (Officer Hawkins), Rhian Rees (Dana Haines), Jefferson Hall (Aaron Korey), Toby Huss (Ray), Virginia Gardner (Vicky), Dylan Arnold (Cameron Elam), Miles Robbins (Dave), Drew Scheid (Oscar), Jibrail Nantambu (Julian), P.J. Soles (Teacher).

 

There have now been 11 Halloween films over the last 40 years – 10 of them featuring Michael Myers – and it continues to be the best horror franchise of its type. This has been a series that has tried, with varying degrees of success, to reinvent itself over and over again throughout its run – from the strange third installment, which omitted Myers altogether, to H20 which brought the franchise into the Scream era, to the two Rob Zombie movies, in which he attempted to make two movies about trauma – the first, about Michael’s trauma, and the second about Laurie’s. You may not like all of these attempts, but you have to admire the franchise for attempting them – especially since its closest contemporaries – Friday the 13^th and A Nightmare on Elm Street – mainly seem content to keep repeating themselves over and over again (even if, Jason goes to space, he’s still Jason). This newest version, which jettisons everything in the mythology that didn’t come from the 1978 original – gets exactly what has set this franchise apart from the others – mainly, “final girl” Laurie Strode herself – the survivor of the original massacre, who has become as iconic a character as the killer himself – something completely unheard of elsewhere in the genre. The movie takes seriously the trauma that Laurie suffered that night 40 years ago, and how it has affected her entire life. It is also just a really, really entertaining horror movie. So while it still doesn’t come close to the level of perfection the 1978 version is, it’s about as good of a sequel as anyone could expect 40 years later.

 

The premise of the new film is that ever since that night 40 years ago, Myers has been institutionalized, where once again he doesn’t say anything or do anything – he simply sits and bides his time, waiting for his chance to escape and kill again (the movie doesn’t explain how he got captured, since of course the finale of the original is him getting away – but no matter). Once again, Myers is due to be transferred – this time to a maximum security prison, on October 30^th again (they should have at least delayed it until November 1^st). And of course, once again the transfer goes wrong – and Michael comes back to Haddonfield – determined to finish what he started all those years ago.

 

The movie introduces us to a pair of podcasters as a way to give us the information we need – where Michael has been, and what happened to Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the years since. She has essentially become a survivalist, living in her remote home, which she has fortified and booby trapped and filled with weapons. Her paranoia has cost her two marriages – and her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer) who she lost custody of when she as 12, and the relationship is still strained. Now, Karen has a daughter herself – Allyson (Andi Matichak) – who is, of course, the same age Laurie was 40 years ago. This gives the movie a chance to give us a lot more teens lined up for slaughter (also, thankfully, the film seems to know the podcasters are kind of annoying – and dispatches them when they are no longer needed). The world’s worst psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis is of course long dead, but he has been replaced by his protégé, Dr. Sartain (Haluk Bilginer) – and I’ll leave it to you to discover if he’s as bad at his job as Loomis clearly was.

 

The director this time is David Gordon Green – who isn’t the first name you’d think of to do a horror movie. His days as one of the most promising indie filmmakers in the world (George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow, Snow Angels) is far back in the past – and although he has become somewhat of a journeyman director in the years since, he knows how to make a movie – and this is one of his best. While the film is more violent – with a higher body count, and more blood – than Carpenter’s original film, for the most part he follows Carpenter’s lead in that the violence isn’t as brutal as you may expect it to be – and for the most part, he allows the victims to be people first, before they are killed. Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising since Danny McBride is one of the screenwriters, but the film is also quite funny at times – best of all is a little kid named Julian, one of my favorite additions.

 

Green and company’s reverence for the original film is evident throughout – there are a lot of references to the original film – in dialogue, in visual gags and setups, etc. – but this isn’t here just as fan service. It works here, and Green and company use them to upend our expectations. And the filmmakers also are smart enough to know where the emotional core of this film will be – in the three generations of Strode women, all of whom are smart, strong and resourceful – even as their family bond has been tested and strained over the years (or perhaps because of it). By now, Curtis could do this role in her sleep – but she doesn’t. She brings real pathos to her role here – as we see the price of the trauma her – and how it has been passed down to future generations.

 

The one thing that I think could have made this Halloween even better is had it been a little bit scarier. The film is fun and entertaining, emotionally resonant, and tense – and yet, I don’t know if I ever felt the true, bone deep terror, that the best horror movies make you feel – including the original, that still does it to me, despite the fact that I’ve seen it about 10 times now. But the movie does pretty much every other thing right, so I guess we cannot have it all.