HALLOWEEN (2018)

Halloween Movie Review

Forty years after the events of the original Halloween film, Michael Myers has escaped during a transfer, and is heading back to Haddonfield. Meanwhile, we see that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has become a recluse in her fortress of a home, and has essentially become estranged from her family, which includes her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), and son-in-law Ray (Toby Huss of Carnivale).  I was excited to see Huss in this—he was wonderful in Carnivale, but I will always think of him as that dude from the MTV commercials back in the day.

He's not that bright

So this movie is a direct sequel of the original 1978 film, thus dismissing anything that happened after that movie...if you are a fan of the series, you have pretty much come to accept that Laurie is Michael's brother, but that idea didn't come along until the second film, so it is thrown out here--this is handled nicely, as the kids cast it off as an urban legend. I wondered going in if the fact that Michael is pushing 70 would be addressed as well, and it is--they don't really mention his age, but we see an unmasked Michael's profile shot several times, and he is indeed very grey haired. This matters not, as he still unleashes havoc with near super human strength.

He doesn't look a day over 59

The movie is shot similar to the original, which is nice, though in some scenes the camera's focus comes and goes almost as frequently as my girlfriend's when she is doing her homework. Some of the killings are intense, and seeing Laurie as she is now was effective. The actors, for the most part, pull off their performances well, and the story unfolds nicely, but where this movie fails tremendously is in the third act. Leading up to that, we have a set up of Laurie finally finding closure, which is what we all expect--after all, we are told this is the final chapter of the story, but the one eighty this film pulls is beyond disappointing. The twist leading up to the final battle--the one involving Michael's new doctor-- falls absolutely flat and completely takes the viewer out of the movie. There is an opportunity to rebound, however, with the final battle--the fight we have waited 40 years for--but this disappoints as well, as Laurie sacrifices her entire home to kill Michael, but, as we should have expected, we never actually SEE Michael die, leaving open the opportunity for him to come back yet again. The more interesting tease in the end involves Allyson, and may remind you of the ending of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. For all the hype this movie received, and for all the records it broke, Halloween ends up a major disappointment. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5

Halloween Movie Trailer (2018)