Review of Halloween (2018) by Aj_Dias_Za — 03 Nov 2018

Although the film can be hit and miss at times, it is by far the best of the Halloween sequels... but that isn't really saying much. While I would recommend viewers should ignore the hype and temper their expectations, there is still a lot of tense, gory fun to be had throughout this installment.

Let me start by saying that I was glad to hear that the creators wanted to go back to the roots of the franchise and ignore all of the sequels that watered down the affects of the original that resonated so deeply with audiences at the time of its release. That being said, I came away from this film feeling as if the creators didn't have a crystal clear vision of where they were going with this movie.

At times it feels like they captured the essence of the original rather well... and then at other times they directly contradicted John Carpenter's vision and "cinema of the mind" approach to the horrible tale of Michael Meyers. One has to also question what the hell they were thinking when they shoehorned in possibly one of the stupidest and least necessary twists I have ever seen in a movie in the third act that is so dumbfounding that it has to be seen to be believed. The film also feels as if it veers into becoming one of the many Halloween rip-offs with the addition of pointlessly under-developed characters used solely for hokey exposition or padding an over the top body count for a Halloween film.

Overall, I think audiences will enjoy this installment for its tense atmosphere, cheap thrills and balls-to-the-wall portrayals of Michael Meyers and Laurie Strode.

Pros:

The mother/daughter/granddaughter dynamic adds some emotional weight to the story.

Jamie Lee Curtis is stellar and her performance is multidimensional and nuanced.

Michael is more frighteningly intimidating and imposing than he has ever been.

Cons:

Terrible, terrible twist that nearly "broke" the whole movie,.

Pointless and underdeveloped side characters added in to pad the body-count.

Under exploring relationship dynamics that showed promise, but fizzle out.

Elaborate scares that try to subvert the viewer's expectations, but only do so because of continuity errors and gaping plot holes.