Halloween (2018): Review by @Kush_Hayes
“We’re doing a sequel to Halloween.”
“SO WHAT!?”
“We’re ignoring the last six sequels plus two remakes.”
“...Im listening…”
“The guys from Eastbound and Down are producing, writing and one of them is even directing.”
“What have you been smoking?”
“Jamie Lee Curtis said shes down.”
“Say What!?”
Thats kind of how the press release for the sequel/RetCon/SoftReboot of John Carpenters 1978 Halloween was announced.
Having only seen H20: Halloween 20 Years Later, my first question was “How is this different?” I didnt need to see the original. I had known enough of the character from school yard lore, it was very easy to just fall into that story. And to be critical it was a mild cartoon of itself. It was like any 90’s slasher movie that was homaging the slasher movies of the 1970s, of course this was during that wave that everything was modeled after 1996s SCREAM.
Danny McBride and Writer/Director David Gordon Green take the rules SCREAM identified and threw them out the window under a moving car and then threw a brick at its twitching heap. This movie can be visually brutal at times. No one is safe. No one has to bend a moral compass. And Michael Myers has never been happier.
I took the time to watch the original a few days before and to be honest, if I were to review that today, it would get Two maybe Three Blueberries its just so dull. But here is the thing about that, it is the cornerstone for all the slasher movies I would see in the 1980s. You dont have Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, or even Nightmare on Elm St without this movie. Still, quite dull in my honest opinion.
This movie however, I was on the edge of my seat most of the time. As noted above theres brutality, but theres so much more to it. There is suspense, and mystery, as well as terror and thrills. There is a genuine story encompassing the characters portrayed in this movie, all of them traumatized by Michael Myers or The Shape, some never having even met the monster before this movie. A great blend of light and shadow and using corners and all the classic tricks used to elicit emotions from its audience.
My one strong critique in this movie, while they dont make Michael Myers a supernatural being (as opposed to a few now forgotten sequels), he is unnaturally strong in this movie. Yes, in the original he was picking up guys with one hand, ok… but for this story, hes rather immobile for these past 40 years. Unresponsive to everything is what we are told. Yet, this man who is between mid 60s and 70s is still picking up full grown men with one hand. Hes breaking heads right off their spinal cord. Sometime removing the head entirely, or just letting it dangle.
I suppose if thats the only nit I pick, thats not a bad thing.
I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Despite my opinion of the first movie, I think this was a perfect sequel to it. A perfect companion to this story about a horrible thing that took place once upon a time in the sleepy town of Anywhere MidWest USA.
Five out of Six Blueberries.
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