Halloween 2018 -- A Review

By:  Marco Sanfillipo

The Halloween series has a complicated history. The iconic horror franchise has garnered quite a few sequels and reboots, with none of them particularly matching the quality of the 1978 original. The premise of its newest entry, which again pits titular Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) against Michael Myers (Nick Castle/James Jude Courtney) on Halloween night 40 years later, was actually done before in Halloween H20 (1998). The only difference between these two films is that the filmmakers wanted a clean slate, making the new film a direct sequel to the first one. This means that Laurie Strode and Michael aren’t related—a plot point introduced in Halloween II—and that his kill count is only limited to those that he killed in the first movie.

What really separates this film from others in the franchise is that it’s more of a generational tale of three Strode woman who react to the events of that Halloween night in different ways. First we have Laurie Strode, the sole survivor of Michael’s 1978 killing spree, who responds by stockpiling weapons and living in a house built to keep Michael out. This paranoia has negatively affected Laurie’s relationship with her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), who wants nothing to do with her after growing up in fear of Michael’s return; and granddaughter Allyson (Andy Matichak), who wants nothing more than to have a relationship with her grandmother.

But Halloween is padded with ancillary characters to explore the relationship in a more meaningful way, making them feel like cannon fodder as Michael takes them off one by one. In other words, the movie has two narratives: one being about Michael and his rampage on Haddonfield, and the other about the Strode family drama. Laurie feels like a secondary character in her own story, and that’s problematic for a movie that is marketed off of her return. It’s a shame, too, because the Strodes are what make the movie, no matter how much the writers try to make us care about the characters that meet Michael’s knife.

I wished we spent much more time with Laurie and her family, but Halloween is still a horror movie in the end. It’s a much more brutal film than the original 1978 film, and deservedly so. Michael makes up for the time he spent at Smith’s Grove as his kill count rises and he gets more violent with his victims that span all ages. The most horrifying aspect of the movie, though, is that these characters are going about their lives, and they don’t know that they’re in a horror movie until it’s too late. The thought that Michael can walk around in Haddonfield and blend in with everyone because it’s Halloween night while he commits these violent acts is more than unsettling, and the film delivers on that fear.

Halloween a film with many callbacks to other movies in the series that fans will no doubt pick up, and remains an entertaining entry for new fans alike. A person that might get too squeamish might want to miss this one, but this film is a must-see for horror buffs.

All in all, Halloween is a worthy entry for a franchise, and like Michael, the franchise can’t stay dead.