Movie Review – Halloween

Don’t get me wrong, HALLOWEEN (2018) is a solid movie. It has almost everything we were promised – a complete sidestep of the 7 sequels, a clever setup, Laurie Strode, and Michael Myers. What did this movie in was the anemic script and 2-dimensional supporting characters and the hype machine just couldn’t deliver.

It is 40 years later and Smith Grove Sanitarium has learned all it can from Michael Myers (Nick Castle, James Jude Courtney), so they’re transferring him to a maximum-security prison to serve out his incarceration. Dr. Ranbir Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), his current physician knows this is a bad idea because he personally has yet really plumb the layers of Michael’s psychosis.

Meanwhile, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has been living with the post-traumatic stress of being nearly murdered by the Babysitter Killer. As long as he’s alive, she lives in fear of him returning. She outfits her house, her property and tries to even prepare her daughter for his inevitable return. This, of course, makes her the Crazy Lady and even when things go inevitably south, she has a hard time being taken seriously.

I loved the first half of this Halloween. The character commentary on why the Babysitter Murders of 1978 weren’t that big of a deal in 2018, the gaslighting of victims, the slow burn build up. I was ALL IN. Then we were introduced to Allyson (Andi Matichak) and Halloween fell into the predictable movie we’ve sadly come to expect.

And frankly, I expected better from Blumhouse Productions.

I didn’t like the number of throwaway characters. I wanted more Oscar (Drew Scheid) and Sheriff Barker (Omar Dorsey) – who doesn’t love a lawman in all black. The weak 80’s final girl running and screaming, and the weird flip signaling beginning of the 3^rd Act. So much potential that fizzled before it had a chance to begin. I wanted to fangirl this so hard, but literally everyone makes bad decisions that no one should ever make in this movie, which ultimately ended on a very satisfying note.

Kudos for including a clip of my FAVORITE short-lived television series (Voyagers, NBC, 1982-1983), because I’d know that red and white striped shirt anywhere, and the clever quips delivering fan service, but it just wasn’t enough.

More McGuffin than marvelous, Halloween may wipe the taste of some of the sequels from your mouth, it still leaves an empty feeling.

Halloween (2018) is rated R for swears, boobs, people getting shot, people losing jaws, people losing teeth, people getting stabbed, lots of blood, and the mayhem that comes from single-minded murder.