'Halloween' (2018) Review: A Messy, but Very Satisfying Sequel

The night SHE fought back.

By: Josh McCormack 

David Gordon Green's direct sequel to the original 'Halloween' is attempting a tricky balancing act. 

On one hand it is a film about the effects of trauma on a victim of abuse and how that bleeds into their relationships with people they love. It also wants to be a bloody slasher movie, wherein gore hounds will be satisfied with its body count. In the end, it effectively pulls off both, but I can't help but wonder how the overall movie would have benefited by favoring one type of movie over the other. 

With this criticism out of the way upfront, I do want to let the reader know the most important thing; the new 'Halloween' is a really good movie. It has issues, but it's one of the best sequels in the franchise and I think it may even be better than 1981's 'Halloween II', which is a personal favorite of mine. There are issues, as I mentioned and will go into with more detail, but it's important to be upfront about this thing and say that, overall, David Gordon Green's 'Halloween' does not disappoint.

What makes 'Halloween' work, even when it falters around the mid-point, is the conviction of its cast and crew. Arguably no 'Halloween' movie in the franchise has had this much passion poured into it behind the scenes. Writers Green and Danny McBride (Yes. THAT Danny McBride) are self-proclaimed fanboys of the original film and it shows. The callbacks, while more subtle than I was expecting, are still plentiful and dig deep into areas only a niche fanbase might understand.     

The cast is also the best in any 'Halloween' film. Judy Greer continues her streak of being cast as a supporting role in tentpole movies ('Ant-Man', 'Planet of the Apes', 'Jurassic World', etc.), but here she's finally given a lot more to do. Her performance as Laurie Strode's daughter, Karen, is a very integral part of the story. Just as integral is newcomer, Andi Matichak, as Laurie's granddaughter, Allyson. In many ways this is more her movie than anyone else's with David Gordon Green kind of setting her up to be Laurie 2.0 given the fact that she's about the same age as the horror heroine in the original film.

But of course, it's Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode that makes the biggest impact. Jamie Lee seems to be energized by this movie in a way I haven't seen her in years. Both on screen and off, her passion for this project is just infectious. This version of Laurie Strode still knows Michael Myers is out there since this canon ignores all sequels, leaving us with just the first one. She's become a survivalist. A woman whose trauma of the abuse inflicted upon her forty years ago has left her distrustful of the outside world, secluded from her family and wanting vengeance in the form of killing Michael Myers. Curtis plays this wonderfully, never making her character an exaggerated loon that it could have been. While those around her tell her that forty years have passed and she should let things go, the wounds of that night are still fresh and that makes this film seem more timely than ever. 

Then there's "The Shape" himself, Michael Myers. 

The mythology of Michael Myers has been so bogged down in backstory and crap about mysterious cults that I was almost convinced Michael would never be scary again. Boy, was I happy to be proven wrong. Michael Myers is a brute force of evil in this film as he was originally envisioned. The way he's filmed to the way he's performed is incredibly impactful. Now that the character is free of the bloodline between he and Laurie Strode, his killing seems to be more indiscriminate and dispassionate. In one of the more shocking scenes in the film, the movie follows Michael in a wonderfully orchestrated one-shot where Michael goes from house to house on Halloween night, randomly killing people in their homes. It's violent, shocking and scarier than anything in most of the sequels.

Another hugely important part of this reboot is John Carpenter's involvement. The director of the original film (and one of my favorite filmmakers) seemed to be completely disillusioned with the 'Halloween' franchise after his involvement in the failed 'Halloween III: Season of the Witch'. But producer Jason Blum finally seemed to get him back on board and his creative consultations shows in this film, since it feels more like a Carpenter movie than most of the other entries in the franchise.

But the thing about Carpenter's involvement that is even more exciting is that the man could revisit his classic score as the film's composer, as well. John Carpenter's scores have always been some of my favorite in movie history. From the original 'Halloween' to 'Escape from New York' to 'Big Trouble in Little China' all his scores are simple, but incredibly unique and badass. The score here, in which he worked with his son and guitarist Daniel Davies, feels like a perfect conglomeration of all his sounds from the past. It's not just a retread of the original movie's score and when Carpenter does bring back those iconic themes, he does so with an interesting twist. 

However, as I mentioned before, it doesn't ALL work. 

For starters, the teen side characters feel more in line with something from one of the goofier sequels rather than the original film. They're horny, they're kind of annoying and sometimes their meta comments on the point of rehashing something from forty years ago just seems lazy.

The humor is also something I can see being contentious amongst fans. I personally don't think there's enough of it to get in the way of the film's dramatic impact, but with that said, I didn't laugh very much when the film was trying to be funny. One incredibly frightening moment around the midpoint of the film loses its impact when we cut to a comedic close up of a character going, "Oh shit!". 

The biggest issues come in the transition between the second and third act when the movie starts to lose its focus and momentum and focus on a poorly conceived subplot about Michael's new psychiatrist. It's different and there's definitely something interesting in the fate they hatched up for this character, but it's handled really poorly and just derails the focused narrative for a solid ten minutes. I don't want to get into specifics because it is quite spoiler-y. 

As I said at the start of this review, the movie also tries being two movies and I wish it focused more on the trauma of Laurie Strode than it did the hacking up teenagers stuff that has plagued all the other sequels. However, it does an effective job at both of these things, so I guess I can't complain too much.

'Halloween' is the sequel that the original film deserves. It was never going to reach the heights of that original film, but it honors it more than any movie in the franchise by keeping the stakes simple while still trying to be scary. 

It has its issues, but it also has some of the best moments in the whole franchise and some of my favorite sequences I've seen in a mainstream horror flick in years. 

Lord knows this franchise has seen too many sequels, but after this one I'm okay with spending another Halloween with Michael Myers. 

BONUS: RANKING THE 'HALLOWEEN' MOVIES BEST TO WORST

  1. John Carpenter's 'Halloween'

  2. 'Halloween III: Season of the Witch'

  3. 'Halloween' (2018)

  4. 'Halloween II' 

  5. 'Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers'

  6. 'Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later'

  7. 'Halloween Resurrection'
  8. 'Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers'

  9. Rob Zombie's 'Halloween II'

 10. 'Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers'

 11. Rob Zombie's 'Halloween'