Review of Halloween (2018) by Luciusmcgibbon — 22 Dec 2018

I've watched this movie and reviewed it several times over, and this is my lasting takeaway. Green and McBride's biggest claim to fame with this movie is that they didn't insult the Halloween franchise, which is more than can be said for 5, 6, Resurrection and Rob Zombie. They realized that there was great value in abandoning the bullcrap that had been piled onto the original over the years, and they proceeded to make a movie with so much less fat on it. Good on them.

The problem is simply this: they still haven't come any closer to that feeling that sets Halloween apart from any other slasher. They didn't embrace simplicity. They barely gave Michael any of that "he likes to watch" magic. They couldn't resist the temptation to get pretty damn gory. They paced it like a modern movie, which means a lot of moving and shaking from scene to scene. Perfectly enjoyable (hey, it's more Michael,) but shows no deeper understanding of what would have made this a truly momentous horror experience. I don't rate it as any more noteworthy or laudable than H20 was 20 years ago. And for the record, Halloween 4 is still the most accomplished sequel in terms of being tonally faithful to the original.