MovieRewind: Halloween (2018) - Review

“Movie Rewind” is a series of reviews with scores, focusing on movies that are 1 year or older, and whenever I watch a movie that fits the criteria, there will most likely be a review left for this series.

Thanks.

Director, David Gordon Green (comedy director icon of Pineapple Express), takes the Halloween franchise by storm, essentially restarting the franchise for the second time (first done with the remake, Halloween, directed by Rob Zombie, in 2007). However, this time around we get a direct sequel to 1978's Halloween, taking place 40 years later, and scraps all the original sequels, in favour of an entirely new timeline.

After being captured back at the end of 1978's Halloween, Michael Myers has spent 40 years in a criminal psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane, and 2018's "Halloween" starts with a couple of young investigative journalists - with a crime podcast, who want to interview the psychopath, Myers, and so they visit the psychiatric hospital. Once there, the two journalists attemp to start a conversation with Myers, but to no avail, but as it turns out these two individuals has in their procession Myers 'Halloween night' mask, having retrieved it from an old psychiatrist. The old-worn mask is held up towards Myers, but again, he shows no signs of interest.

The two young journalists proceed with their investigation into Myers past, and visit Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), the once victim and survivor of Myers, to ask her questions about her past on that fateful 'Halloween night' 40 years ago, but Laurie is reluctant to tell them much, other than that he is a monster, and will one day return.

Laurie is extremely paranoid, seeing visions of Myers violent return to Haddonfield, and as such lives an isolated existence, while her house is kitted out for home defence - with weapons, secret doorways, locks in weird places, and Laurie's slice of hell for Myers should he ever come knocking. Laurie's whole persona feels akin to that of "T2's" Sarah Connor, as she is plagued with thoughts of an evil that nobody else believes exists, and will become the necessary evil to fight evil, in turn, destroying her pasts demons for good.

Laurie has an estranged daughter, Karen Nelson (Judy Greer), who she has had an unbalanced relationship with her whole life, as Karen was taken away from her mother at the age of 12, due to concerns of her safety. Laurie wanted her daughter, Karen, to have the fight in her necessary to kill Myers, should he return, and tried teaching her to use guns, knives, and traps, which of course is what led to the courts decision to remove Karen from Laurie's custody as a child. Now, however, Karen is a grown woman, and has her own daughter (Laurie's granddaughter), Allyson Nelson (Andi Matichak), who becomes close to her grandmother, Laurie, as blood is thick enough not to dwell on the past.

Meanwhile, in a rather disturbing (yet, obviously expected) turn of events, Myers escapes from his incarceration after a transport bus is overturned that he was in, and the scene is left with just a bunch of psychiatric patients wondering the street, along with no evident signs of Myers.

As Laurie persisted and knew, Myers does in fact return to her hometown, Haddonfield, and the whole movie becomes a bloodbath, as the once quiet town becomes a manhunt for Myers who brutally murders anyone in his path.

Surprisingly, our director Green, seems to have an incredible handle on this new story he is telling, as the entire runtime for "Halloween" goes by a breeze, with very little to complain about, and most certainly brought back fans of old and new, to bring the Myers nightmare to a new generation of slasher horror fans. The origin story behind Myers is magnificent, Laurie's descent into madness is a reckoning of things to come, and the entire town of Haddonfield is a place of a haunted past, revisited.

The acting performances from the cast is seamless, with Jamie Lee Curtis stealing the show with her unwavering portrayal as a hardened family-protector, who will go to any length necessary to keep her loved ones untouched by evil (that of course being the psychopath, Myers). We get equally marvelling performances from Judy Greer and Andi Matichak, Laurie's daughter and granddaughter, as we see them descent into the madness that Laurie has lived for the past 40 years.

Michael Myers, once wearing his old mask again, now old and worn, immediately becomes violent, and in the eyes of a psychiatrist, pure bred evil. The masked killer is played incredibly well by James Jude Courtney, who brings a feel of unstoppable power to that of the character, as he stares ominously at his surroundings, and people, as though they are nothing more than an object needing to be removed.

"Halloween" is truly a movie about the face-off between Strode and Myers, as the two clearly have unfinished business, and all roads lead to them coming face-to-face one final time, or so you may believe (as we now know there are sequels). This is by far the most impressive Halloween franchise movie since that of the original 1978 Halloween, but it's not a perfect movie, as expected by many, but still remains a damn good sequel (to 1978's Halloween).

The issues with the movie, at least as far as can be seen, is the circumstances that bring Myers to Laurie Strode's remote property, as it all feels too coincidental, and despite the convenience of leading straight to the final act of the movie, this didn't sit right as it takes away from the clever thinking behind the movie, and adds questions marks for quality. The plot of the movie is a good one, but the sub-plots for the road Myers takes in leading back to Strode all feel a bit too forced, and not nearly as clever as one might expect.

Still, this is a strong entry into the Halloween franchise, and despite minor plot issues it is a great movie, well deserving of a 4/5 stars.

With a meagre budget of just $10 Million, the new "Halloween" did not disappoint - grossing worldwide, $260 Million, making this movie an instant blockbuster, and of course has led onto two sequels, "Halloween Kills", and "Halloween Ends", giving light into the movies intrigue, turned profit sucess, as the Halloween franchise is one of the most (if not, the most!) popular slasher franchise ever produced.