Halloween (2018)

Premiered October 19, 2018.

In 1963, the town of Haddonfield, Illinois was shocked when 6-year-old Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) stabbed his sister Judith to death on Halloween night.  Myers returned to Haddonfield 15 years later and murdered three teenagers.  Myers was shot and later caught by the authorities placed in Smith's Grove Sanitarium.

Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) escaped Myers that night, but the traumatic experience has weighed heavily on her every day since.  Her home is a veritable fortress, stocked with dozens of guns, security cameras and secret hiding places.  She has prayed every night that Michael will escape so she can kill him.  Laurie's experience has also negatively impacted her relationship with her daughter Karen (Judy Greer).

Laurie has a better relationship with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), who is looking forward to attending a Halloween dance with her boyfriend Cameron (Dylan Arnold) and their friend Oscar. (Drew Scheid)

Myers has spent the last 40 years incarcerated in sanitarium.  He's being treated by Dr. Ranir Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), who took over when Michael's previous doctor Sam Loomis died.  On October 30, Myers and other inmates are scheduled to be transported by bus to a maximum security prison and Sartain accompanies them.  However, Myers escapes from the bus and heads to Haddonfield.

While police pursue Michael, with help from Laurie and Dr. Sartain, Myers goes on another Halloween killing spree.  Laurie and Karen are worried about Allyson when they are unable to contact her (due to her cellphone being dropped in a punch bowl by Cameron).  When they suspect Michael will target Allyson, Laurie and the police decide the safest place for their family is Laurie's fortified house.

It will all culminate in a Halloween duel to the death between Laurie and Michael!  Will Laurie finally exact revenge on the man who has haunted her for four decades?  Or will Michael finally take down the only one who survived his 1978 attack?

J.A. Morris says:
When I reviewed the original 1978 Halloween movie here, I mentioned that it wasn't very good, but it was the best slasher film I could think of.  I have a similar opinion of this sequel.  It should be noted that this film ignores any of the other sequels.  This is fine with me because Halloween II (1981) was bad.

Jamie Lee Curtis is the best thing about this movie.  It's understandable that an encounter with a serial killer could turn a survivor into a one-woman army and adversely impact her relationships.  Curtis' scenes with Judy Greer are good too, they make the mother-daughter dynamic feel realistic (even though Curtis is a bit too young to be Greer's mother).

Director David Gordon Green and his co-screenwriter Danny McBride give us just enough call-backs and references to the original film.  John Carpenter's Halloween theme music still sounds great in a movie theater and the new music Carpenter and his team created blends nicely with his classic tunes.

However, it's still a slasher movie with slasher movie cliches.  Michael Myers (who would be 61 years old at this point) is still inexplicably nigh-invulnerable.  He takes multiple gunshots, gets hit head-on by a fast-moving car, is stabbed yet remains as strong and dangerous as ever.  I guess we're supposed to believe that his desire to kill gives Myers an "adrenaline rush" that enables him to survive?  It strains credulity.

Also, at the end of the 1978 movie, Myers disappears after being shot.  How was he apprehended?  Why was he not placed in a maximum security facility at that point, rather than 40 years later?  It would've been nice to at least have some exposition that answered those questions.

Donald Pleasence brought a lot to the Halloween franchise with his portrayal or Dr. Loomis.  It's not the fault of the filmmakers that Pleasence isn't around (they can't raise actors from the dead!), but his absence reminds you how important Loomis was.  Haluk Bilginer does his best as Loomis' replacement, Dr. Surtain, but the character isn't very well defined.

Halloween is a decent sequel that (hopefully) closes the book  on this franchise (for a few years, at least) and it's worth seeing for Curtis' performance.  I'm giving it the same rating I gave the original.

J.A. Morris' rating:

2 jack o'lanterns.