Halloween (2018)
/“There's a reason we're supposed to be afraid of this night.”
Filmology Rating: 2.75 out of 4
It’s that time of year again, time to gather around the smoldering fire to hear stories of things that go bump in the night. Time to hear stories of lost innocence and murders so cruel that will make your skin crawl. It’s time to hear to story of how the Boogeyman returned to the little town of Haddonfield to cause a sea of red on Halloween night.
It’s been forty years since The Boogeyman returned to the small town of Haddonfield and murdered five people. But since that time, the town has remained quiet. Nothing unexpected has happened in the town, which might be the problem, the stillness brings an ignorance that nothing sinister will occur. Everything changes when The Boogeyman returns to the unsuspecting town, bringing his quiet terror with him.
Times have changed for the horror genre since we got the last Halloween film nearly ten years ago, we have gotten such mind bending slashers like It Follows and You’re Next, but it does feel good to see the godfather of all slasher films return to the silver screen again. In many ways hearing the John Carpenter theme again felt like reuniting with an old friend, but you realize that that old friend has decided to go with a more hip style than when you last saw them.
The element that the marketing team would like everyone to talk about is how the film looks at trauma and how a female can take control of her life to become the hunter instead of the hunted. I’m all for female empowerment especially after the recent Kavanaugh hearing, but it needs to be earned. Nothing in this film felt earned, especially since most of the beats in the film have been done in the franchise. Yes, I understand that this film is hitting the reset button but those other films still exist, it’s not like they have been wiped from existence. When looking back at some of the strong woman who have graced the silver screen, such as Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman, Jamie Lee Curtis doesn’t hold a candle to them. The other woman confront their fear and take ownership of it to power it into something nearly godly while Curtis is a wreck lose who has let her trauma take control of her life. It would have been nice to see a badass Jamie Lee Curtis taking complete control of her life but we are left with only a little nugget of that concept, leaving me wondering why I bothered to be excited for this film.
The biggest sin of this movie however isn’t a negligent look at trauma but it’s how unscary the film actually is. While I have seen the original Halloween a dozen times, I still find myself having that otherworldly feeling leaving the movie; realizing that real horrors do exist and they could be waiting for me anywhere. This retelling of Halloween is more focused on the gore elements and how the kill happens rather than the interpretation of the kill which your mind would create. Your own imagination will always offer a better kill than the one that a filmmaker will show to try and titillate those with psychotic fetishes.
The film even brings up multiple subplots that don’t advance any of the story, they are simply in the film to up the body count. While I understand that modern horror audiences want to see gore while racking up a high body count, I rather see a lower body count with a meaningful story. The body count of the original film is doubled shortly after the first attack but you never have any empathy for any of the victims nor do you understand why The Shape is killing them. This film, like many of the previous installments which this film tries to ignore, attempts to theorize why Michael has developed such a killer personality but since no concrete explanation is given you find the entire subplot to be a time killer. The film turns into a unintentional comedy when dealing with that main subplot and you find yourself wondering if anyone will kill you if you try to go for the exit.
Perhaps I’m just jaded by the amazing horror films that I have seen lately, Hereditary, A Quiet Place, and Get Out just to name a few, but I also feel that if you are making a film that it should strive to be the best. Nothing with this latest installment feels like the best, nothing in this film rivals the simplicity of the original film. While that doesn’t necessarily make this film bad, it just makes it feel slight and wasteful which to me is a worse crime than being bad.
Rating: Rent It
-Jonny G
Halloween is a sequel to John Carpenter's original Halloween and stars Jamie Lee Curtis once again as Laurie Strode.
It's 40 years after the Michael Myers killings and Michael has been locked up ever since. Laurie is a distant hermit living in the woods, waiting for the day Michael returns so that she can kill him. Only this time her family is in danger and she's prepared for the return of Michael Myers.
All nostalgia and hype aside from this film, I enjoyed it mostly, but it is largely unfocused at times. This movie ignores all the sequels and that's for the better because this film really has some weight to it.
The director of this film is David Gordon Green who isn't well known for horror, but he should be now. This film has such a great atmosphere to it and it literally feels like a Halloween movie. This literally puts you in the mood right away with the opening credits and my god....THE FONT! They used the same font as the original Halloween and when I saw that, I knew Green had love for the original.
Jamie Lee Curtis is the highlight of the film. Now, Here. Right here, Hollywood. This is how you do a strong female protagonist. Screw Wonder Woman, let's all get behind Laurie Strode because she is a badass in this movie. She has trained for 40 years for the return of Michael Myers. And I think what really makes her a strong protagonist is that fact that she is terrified of the return of Michael, but when he does return she does not hesitate to face him because she is protecting her family. THAT is a strong female protagonist. What a great character dilemma!
I also really like how they played up the fact that Michael Myers is more than just a man in a mask, but rather "The Boogeyman." There were hints in the 1978 film that Michael was pure evil and not just a man and the film goes really go deep into that. This film is also a lot more violent than the original. You can really feel the weight of the deaths in this film. They are brutal and harsh and that's what makes Michael Myers so frightening, is that he will not stop and cannot be stopped.
The new musical score to this also adds a lot of extra weight to certain scenes and did not butcher the original.
Some issues I had with the film was that there were some pacing issues and that can be due to too many characters. At a point in the second act, the film tries to focus on too many characters, like Laurie's daughter, granddaughter, a babysitter, a therapist, a cop, Michael Myers, and Laurie. And it got way too choppy and that resulted in less focus on Laurie and her family, which was one of the disappointments of the film.
There is so much to mine with Laurie as a character in this film and how the traumatic events in 1978 effected her mentally. But the film wants to focus on other crap. There is a side plot with Michael's therapist (Donald Pleasence stand in) which was a total waste of screen time. It felt like commentary on exploring evil, but it was useless.
There are also lots of jump scares due to our favorite horror production company, Blumhouse. This film has jump scares accompanied with a loud clanging noise to startle the audience, but you don't need that. You have Michael Myers! One of the most frightening horror villains ever!
This is also quite the comedic film (thank Danny McBride for that). Why is Danny McBride even a writer on this? There were some times where the comedy was in place of something that is supposed to be scary, but it did not ruin the tone.
But I loved how the film wrapped up in the third act, which was incredibly strong. It was so contained and small, just like the original Halloween and that's what it had to be; a smaller story in a large world.
This is one of best horror films of the last few years and seeing a good slasher film was really refreshing from all the stupid demon and ghost movies.
Rating: See It
-Nolan