Halloween (2018)

Tonight I went and saw the new “Halloween” movie, which came out last week, and now I will let everyone know what I thought about it.

Slasher films have never been particularly scary, even in their prime around 1975-85, which David Gordon Green’s “Halloween” tries to celebrate. Richard von Busack said in his review, “Like flaunting the silly Satanic emblems of heavy metal, it was more of a tribal custom—and the deeper you were in the country, the more their paraphernalia repelled boors and evangelicals.”

Busack continued, “John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) flaunted the same old Knifey McKniferson that all later sequels and ripoffs came to use. But it was better looking than it needed to be, and keyed up with an unsettling synth score.” It’s main star, Jamie Lee Curtis, had a scary traumatic experience, getting viewers into the right state of mind even before the teens get killed.

The 2018 movie ignores all of the sequels, saying that Michael Myers has been in a hidden state since he was arrested at the end of the original “Halloween.” We see him, played by Nick Castle and James Jude Courtney, in a mental asylum, where the patients are chained to cement blocks the size of car engine blocks. His inner murderer is summoned by two British podcasters calling themselves investigative journalists, played by Rhian Rees and Jefferson Hall. To try and make him speak, they wave Myers’ now rundown pale mask at him.

Laurie Strode, reprised by Curtis, always knew he’d come back. She’s now old and hiding in a house in the woods she build. Dealing with the visiting English reporters, Laurie shakes off the guilt about how her own daughter Karen was taken away by child services when she was 12: “If she’s prepared for the horror of this world, I can live with that.” Being haunted by an immortal murderer might be hard to think of. Busack said, “It's a little easier to understand the horror of being raised in a bunker by a prepper.”

Now an adult and married, Karen, played by Judy Greer, is a mother trying to keep everything normal, and not doing a good job. It’s evident that Michael’s last victim will be Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson, played by Andi Matichak. The men will be the victims, from Alyson’s father (Toby Huss), filled with dad jokes, to psychiatrist Dr. Ranbir Sartain (Haluk Bilginer) and Deputy Frank Hawkins (Will Patton), to Cameron (Dylan Arnold), Alison’s boyfriend, who’s Halloween costume is Bonnie Parker while Allyson goes to Clyde Barrow. Busack noted, “Green and his co-writers are aware of the gender-switch in this slasher for 2018: the men die, and the women turn the tide.”

Busack continued, “Green (Pete's Dragon, et al) isn't a brilliant pop-up engineer, but he provides a great deal of texture, and a credible idea of how the cycle of violence turns. The vivid autumnal colors give this a chill, and the titles are played over a reverse time lapse of a jack o'lantern rotting: coming back from the grave, or at least the compost heap.”

Myers, nicknamed “The Shape” to make an already scary threat even more, is filled with the usual contradictions. Busack noted, “He lumbers like Frankenstein's monster and yet he's faster than the eye can see.” Green gives the film some room with quiet moments, such as the nice dialogue between Allyson’s friend Vicky (Virginia Gardner) and the young boy she’s babysitting (Jibrail Nantambu). Two slacking cops on watch (Charlie Benton and Christopher Allen Nelson) discuss sandwiches. One says that it’s the bread wrapping that makes it a sandwich. Inside could be anything from Vietnamese tidbits to peanut butter. Busack mentioned, “As critic J. Hoberman once noted, the slasher audience was the most democratic audience in the world: They didn't care who got it, as long as someone got it.”

Busack commented, “So per Hoberman, the killings are the bread.” However, the filling in this sandwich is Curtis’ one strength and weakness leading up to one of her PTSD breakdowns at a celebratory dinner for Allyson. Her Laurie is both weak and frightening.

It’s easy to see why some fans were dissatisfied with this: They went to see a horror film and they started to see a drama. Some of the murders have emotions to them. Some of it is a little frustrating. Busack said, “Laurie, who turned her house into a stockade of closed-circuit cameras and floodlights, nevertheless keeps the interiors dark; most people wouldn't give that monster a square inch of shadow.”

“Halloween” isn’t scary, but like the film that made it, it’s moody. Busack ended his review by saying, “What does survive is the malice endemic to the genre. Here is the pessimistic side of the ancient cinematic pleasure of watching Buster Keaton or 007 bouncing back from certain death. Here, instead are a series of morbid resurrections, featuring the unkillable quality of motiveless, mute, faceless evil.”

Now in all honesty, I think this might be the third best in the franchise. I don’t think the original two movies will ever be topped, but this one is perfect to watch after the original movie. If you watch the 1981 “Halloween II” or this movie, either one will leave you satisfied with how it ended. However, the more I think about it, I think this new movie might be the best of all the sequels. I don’t think anymore need to be made, but if they are planning anything else, I wouldn’t be surprised. However, I can finally say that I like a movie in this franchise after a long string of bad sequels. To reassure everyone, you are safe enough to go to the theaters to watch this movie and not feel like you wasted your money watching this.

Thank you for joining in on my review tonight. Stay tuned next week to see what movies I will end “Halloween Month” off with.