Halloween (2018)
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Halloween Movie Review
Halloween is a 2018 slasher film directed by David Gordon Green and starring Jamie Lee Curtis. It’s a very good reboot sequel.
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“He’s waited for this night…
He’s waited for me…
I’ve waited for him…“
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This is an obvious case of a franchise retcon. Michael Myers escapes prison and is after Laurie who isn’t related to him at all and the rest of the franchise is entirely ignored in favor of this one serving as a direct sequel to the original 1978 flick. I found it problematic at first, but they genuinely did a good job at doing this so I ended up being fine with the retcon itself.
What I wasn’t fine with was the utter lack of any stronger atmosphere in the end product. The movie certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the original when it comes to genuinely creepy and atmospheric moments and strong build-up which are all done away with in favor of immediate horror.
And I have to say that they succeeded at that because this movie is very effective at generating fear in a couple of truly phenomenally imagined horror sequences. The bathroom cabin one is been there, done that, but it’s so well done that I didn’t mind its familiarity. The car sequence is very creepy and wonderfully realized. And of course that entire third act is superb. I didn’t find it scary at all, but I just loved how these three related women all teamed up against Michael and how Laurie outsmarted him with a perfect trap. That was superbly done and I did not find it unbelievable at all.
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So Jamie Lee Curtis’ performance isn’t the greatest here, certainly not her best in the franchise, but Laurie herself is excellent and I loved how smart and careful she was here. Michael himself is a force to be reckoned with and once again a reminder of how physically powerful and merciless he truly is.
I have to say that I really liked this entire family with Karen and Allyson being very well developed characters and I really appreciated the strong family bond the three had and the conflict between Laurie and Karen was so well portrayed. And Dr. Ranbir Santain is such an interesting Dr. Loomis successor and the twist surrounding him was well executed and I ended up really liking it in the context of the story and the car horror scene.
This Halloween is very well directed by David Gordon Green and I have to say that he really managed to make a more straightforward, more direct movie in the vein of the original and the fact that he didn’t flood it with unnecessary details and explanations really went into its favor at the end. I did like the various smaller references to the first movie and they were subtler and very good overall.
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I found the pacing good, though at first it was quite slow. The score is good, but not the most memorable one in the franchise, though I did like the use of the original theme. The dialogue is also quite solid. The kills are fine, but overly bloody. Overall, I found this movie one of the best sequels in the franchise, but I would still put ‘H20’ above it in terms of my personal ranking.
The 2018 Halloween reboot sequel serves as a retcon for the franchise and I really liked how it served as a direct sequel to the original 1978 flick. I wouldn’t call it as great as many would say having in mind the atmosphere and the build-up were sorely lacking, but some horror sequences, though overly bloody, were so memorable and so well imagined that they provided immediate thrills. The characters are also well developed and I found the third act where the entire family battled against Michael superbly executed.
