When
people hear that you are a huge fan of movies, usually the next
question to come from their lips is “What's your favourite movie?”,
and for a very long time my answer has always been William Friedkin's
“The Exorcist”. However, I started doubting the validity of this
recently as, while I consider that film a bonafide 5-star classic, it
is a film that I very rarely watch. Maybe it is the intensity of the
film, I'm not sure, but as brilliant as “The Exorcist” is, it is
not often that I pop it in the blu-ray player to revisit. The film
that I have watched more than any other, and one that I never tire of
watching though is John Carpenter's 1978 masterpiece, the original
“Halloween”. So now whenever that inevitable question is posed,
“Halloween” is my go to response, and honestly I feel much more
comfortable with that answer. Anyway, I guess that is a very long
winded way of saying that whenever a new “Halloween” film is
released, it has a lot to live up to for me. Especially true with
this latest entry, as it is a direct sequel from the original film,
existing in its own universe where all the other sequels did not
happen.
Forty
years after the night Michael Myers butchered three of Laurie
Strode's closest friends, we are witness to how these events have
affected the rest of their lives. Michael, after being captured and
incarcerated once again at Smith's Grove Sanitarium, has remained
dormant and silent, not uttering a single word. Laurie on the other
hand lives her life in constant fear. The events that took place on
Halloween night on 1978 have defined her and she has never been able
to get past them. She has suffered two failed marriages, and had her
only daughter Karen removed from her care (when she was aged twelve),
when it was deemed that her survivalist upbringing bordered on child
abuse. You see, Laurie refuses to ever be a victim again, and has
prepared her entire life to be ready if and when Michael Myers
escapes once more. This time she wants to be the hunter, and Michael
the hunted. And as luck would have it, she will get her chance, as
the bus that was relocating a number of the sanitarium's patients
(including Michael) has just crashed, and Michael has escaped and he
is heading straight to Haddonfield to once again wreck havoc on
whoever gets in his way.
The
timeline of the “Halloween” franchise is one of the most
convoluted in horror history, and this is actually the second time
where a sequel has essentially forgotten all that had come before it
and continued on from the initial night of carnage. Where this new
film differs from “Halloween H20” though, is that the 1998 film
continued on from “Halloween II” where as now only the original
“Halloween” is considered canon. The single greatest mistake in
the franchise, in my opinion, was the decision to make Michael and
Laurie siblings. It made no sense and confuses what makes Michael
Myers so great and chilling; that he is pure evil and attacks with no
purpose or agenda. Finally with this new film they have rectified
this with Michael and Laurie being no longer related, however that
said, it doesn't completely clean up the issue of Michael
predominately stalking Laurie and her family. What is interesting
between “Halloween (2018)” and “Halloween H20” is the way
they tackle Laurie's trauma after surviving Michael's attack. In
“H20” she is a terrified shell of a woman; a functioning
alcoholic who has changed her name in an attempt to move on. The
incarnation of Laurie that is seen in “Halloween (2018)” is
equally as messed up but instead has been preparing herself and her
family to never be in that same situation again. They will be ready
for whatever comes their way in the form of weapons and gun training,
and turning their house into survivalist's dream home. However this
constant focus on “evil” has caused the relationships within
Laurie's family to be strained to say the least.
Personally,
I found this latest chapter in the “Halloween” saga to be
ultimately quite frustrating. There is so much good to be found in
the film, but there is also some elements that just do not work or
come together well. Firstly, let me focus on the good. Director
David Gordon Green has done an outstanding job with the look of
Michael Myers with his attention to detail second to none. Michael's
mask looks spot on, with its aged look giving an extra level of
creepiness to it. What impressed me most though are the little
details, especially the small hole in the neck of the mask where
Laurie stabbed him with the knitting needle in the original film.
Not only that, although it is never focused on, Michael is now also
blind in his left eye from the abuse he suffered in the closet from
Laurie as she tried to do anything to survive. It is this care with
all the details that shows just how much Green respects this
character and the original film. The way Michael moves is also very
impressive and believable as the same man, only forty years older, as
that from the original. The highlight of the film is a truly
fantastic sequence, done in one single shot, of Michael walking down
a street of Haddonfield and entering the homes and killing it's
residents. It is a chilling sequence, in its brutality that also
signifies in big bold letters: MICKEY IS BACK!! There is also
another brilliant moment where he dispatches a babysitter (who also
happens to be the best friend of Laurie's grand-daughter) that feels
so reminiscent of the original. Green also brings back the playful
and stalking side of Michael Myers, as we get a reprise of the “ghost
sheet” although in a different way entirely, as well as the fact
that he hides his victims in places to mess with his future victims.
On
the other side of the coin, I also really loved seeing Laurie once
more (played again by Jamie Lee Curtis with extreme gusto), and
thought the additions to her family were great inclusions. Judy
Greer plays Karen, Laurie's estranged daughter and is totally
fantastic in the role. You can feel the love for her mother, while
also being weary of her in the fact that she does not want her life
to be bogged down by her mother's baggage any longer. While Judy
Greer gets “the” moment in the film, I really loved Andi Matichak
in the role of Allyson, Laurie's grand-daughter. She actually has
that sweet innocence that Laurie brought in the original film, and I
hope that the future of the franchise will end up focusing more on
her.
Now
where the film is frustrating is that there is far too much going on
in it. The brilliance of John Carpenter's original film is all in
its simplicity, and I feel that “Halloween (2018)” needed to be
streamlined to have worked at its full. The main problem with the
film is that the story is kind of dumb, with a number of
uninteresting characters. Unfortunately the majority of the men in
the story turn out to be pointless, with a focus on Allyson's
boyfriend turning out to be a major time waster and nothing more.
Arguably the most interesting character in the film is Dr. Sartain,
Michael's current doctor, and someone who Laurie erroneously
describes as the “new Loomis”. What makes him potentially so
interesting is the fact that this is a man who has studied Michael
Myers for forty years and never once got to hear him utter a single
word in that time. He has only studied him in controlled
circumstances and now he finally gets to see his obsession in full
flight, doing what he is famous for. It is an exciting moment for
him, as he finally gets the chance to understand what drives him,
only to discover that there is nothing to understand: Michael is pure
evil. This is all good stuff, but the character of Dr. Sartain and
his story is really badly handled making vital plot points
unnecessarily confusing. If they cleaned this section up, the film
would be so much greater. The other part of the film that I am not
totally thrilled with is the podcast opening. While it seems like a
ploy to appeal to today's audiences, the whole thing ends up feeling
more like an extended excuse for Michael to retrieve his mask.
A
highlight of this new “Halloween” film was getting John Carpenter
back in some sort of creative capacity. While he did not direct the
film, he did contribute to the film's score along with his son Cody
Carpenter and Daniel A. Davies. I must admit that the first time
that I saw the film, I was quite disappointed by the score. I have
realised though that this is more due to what I expected the score to
sound like rather than the quality of the score itself. I was
expecting or hoping it to focus on the music from the original,
rather than use that sparingly and use it as more of an inspiration
like the score does. While I still do not love the new score, my
second screening of the film I was able to appreciate it more for
what it was, rather than what I wanted it to be.
Overall,
despite a lot of great elements within it, this new “Halloween”
was a frustrating experience. I was a huge fan of the attention to
detail shown, and pretty much everything to do with Michael Myers
himself in the film. He looked and moved great, and when he was
stalking and slashing, the movie just worked. It felt like a
“Halloween” film and one that co-existed in the world of the
original. However, the film was bogged down with too many characters
and subplots that took away from the main story more than it added to
it. I felt that the film was messy, and at times the editing was
choppy and if the film was streamlined more to focus solely on the
Strode vs Myers storyline, it would've ended in a better film. That
said, the confrontation between them all was quite satisfying
although I preferred the ultimate ending of “Halloween H20” more
than this one. Still, I do like the film quite a bit, and I hope
that it continues with the younger members of the Strode family
(leave poor Laurie alone now). I really want to love this film more
than I do, but it is still a good “Halloween” movie that I have
no problem recommending to fans of the franchise.
3.5
Stars.
