Released: October 19, 2018
Director: David Gordon Green
Screenplay: Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride, & David Gordon Green
Tagline: "Face Your Fate"
Cast:
Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode
Judy Greer as Karen
Andi Matichak as Allyson
Will Patton as Officer Frank Hawkins
Virginia Gardner as Vicky
Toby Huss as Ray
Nick Castle & James Jude Courtney as The Shape
Halloween retcons all of the franchise's canon outside of the 1978 original. Gone is the brother-sister connection established in Halloween II (1981) that was so large a part of the mythos, as well as both of Laurie's previous children from Halloween 4 (1988) and Halloween H20 (1998), and all the crazy supernatural nonsense that went with those campy, lovable sequels. But Laurie remains. In this sequel, it's been four decades since her run-in with Michael, and Laurie has become a doomsday survivalist, hellbent on exacting revenge for the inevitable night that she reunites with the thing that murdered her friends and traumatized her for life. Her estranged daughter Karen and granddaughter Allyson, however, wish that she would let the paranoia go and live a normal life. But it's not so easy for Laurie; she knows that unless she puts Michael in the ground herself, he'll haunt her forever.
This new backstory is established slowly through the film's prologue, which follows a pair of true crime podcasters (Jefferson Hall & Rhian Rees) as they attempt interviews with both Michael, held in captivity at Smith's Grove Sanitarium, and Laurie, holed up in her jerry-rigged isolation cabin. Through their probing, we learn of the crises and drama Laurie has experienced in the years since that fateful Halloween night and how she's changed from the girl-next-door to the woman she is today. Yet event throughout all this exposition and character developpment, there's still time for blood and carnage as Michael makes his escape and begins his rampage across Haddonfield.
And it's quite the rampage. The body count of this new Halloween is far higher than the original, and a good majority of the prior sequels. There's some great, varied sequences of The Shape doing his thing, includig the oft-promoted scene in the truck stop bathroom that also acts as a nod to Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995). The brutality of the kills in the film is also worth noting, as Michael is far more savage than we've ever seen him, barring the Zombie films. Given that in this timeline Michael's been stewing in his rage for forty years and now has the chance to finally unleash it, it makes sense that the kills are extra twisted.What's interesting about the film, and especially that it's been promoted so much as the final showdown between Laurie and Michael, and the theme of predator and prey throughout, is that Michael doesn't actually appear to be hunting Laurie once he escapes. His kills are mainly random, whereas in the original, we see the progression of how he chooses to stalk and dispatch with Laurie and her cronies. In this installment, he doesn't interact with anyone in Laurie's film until late in the film, right before the third act showdown. Which, let's be honest, is why everyone is here after all.
The final face off more than lives up to expectations. It's a sustained, nasty affair that is visceral to watch unfold and emotionally taxing in the best way to experience as a viewer. Laurie's booby-trapped home acts as the perfect battleground, and there's all sorts of unexpected developments that make you wonder just how exactly this confrontation is going to end and who is going to come out on top, if anyone. Several moments are nail-bitingly tense, and the confluence of the main characters at the house during the conflict means the audience is constantly on the edge of their seat in fear of Michael's next offing.
The cast is solid and supportive, with newcomer Matichak grounding the high school sequences that primarily serve as body fodder, and Greer as whiny, disbelieving Karen getting a nice redemptive moment at the climax. Naturally, the film belongs to Curtis, who is sensational in the role that launched her career and still defines her as a performer today. As a vehicle to retunite Laurie with Michael, the film triumphs, but it also succeeds quite well as a respectable, entertaining entry into the larger Halloween franchise and one that should please longtime, diehard fans. Once again, Michael has come home. And so have we.
Halloween
5 - Totally Terrifying
4 - Crazy Creepy
3 - Fairly Frightening
2 - Slightly Scary
1 - Hardly Horror
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