Review of Halloween (2018) by Nicholas L — 20 Oct 2018

As a long time fan of the "Halloween" franchise I was intrigued when I learned that Horror Master John Carpenter would be taking a hands on role in the latest installment of the fabled saga that Carpenter himself unleashed onto the world way back in 1978.

In fact, this was the first Michael Myers Halloween film that Carpenter had been involved with since Halloween II in 1981. I was even more intrigued to learn that this latest installment would completely disavow the storylines from every other Halloween film that came AFTER the original 1978 classic.

If that wasn't enough, it would be divulged in one of the first official trailers of the new film that Michael Myers, aka "The Boogieman" and Laurie Strode, the survivor of the first stab fest in 1978, ARE NOT BROTHER AND SISTER.

For fans of the series, it was revealed in the 1981 sequel, "Halloween II" that Myers and Strode were siblings and that he wanted to kill Laurie, much like he killed his other sister, Judith Myers when he was 6 years old, which was documented during the opening scenes of the 1978 original film.

So, we are left to wonder, why is Michael Myers so hell bent on finally killing Laurie Strode after all of these years. Well, when you see this latest installment you would be hard pressed to get any clarity to that answer.

So, this film is really another redux of a sequel to the original 1978 film fast forward 40 years. So, instead of Michael getting up after being shot six times by Michael's psychiatrist and falling off the balcony of Tommy Doyle's house only to continue the nights rampage in the 1981 sequel, Michael is apprehended and is incarcerated at a state mental hospital where he has remained for the last 40 years.

As far as Laurie Strode goes, again played by original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis, the last 40 years have not been kind to her. During this film, the audience learns that she has been married and divorced twice, she has 2 kids, one of which, her daughter, was taken from her custody when the girl was 12 years old.

She also spent the last 40 years living in constant fear and paranoia and also preparing and praying that Michael would escape custody and, once again, come after her. Her back woods home was basically a fortress built on the fear that Michael would come after her again, decked out with security cameras, flood lights and enough weapons for a small army.

But without giving away too much of the plot, what I really enjoyed about this movie was that it did pay homage to the films that came before it even if those storylines were basically erased from history.

When I say paying homage to the other films I'm referring to that several of the scenes of this film were framed to look like or resemble scenes from the previous films, which fans of the series will know what I am talking about.

But at the end of the day, this was a pretty good horror movie that resembled and had the traits of its 1978 predecessor, genuine scares without getting too bogged down on trying to figure out what made Michael ticked.

Just like the original film, this installment still really didn't divulge why Michael is obsessed with Laurie and that makes Michael that much more dangerous and that much more frightening, to wonder what set Michael off and why, after 40 years, why he still had an unquenchable thirst and desire to kill, and to keep on killing, of which, me may never know the answer to.