Halloween (2018)

Before I get started on reviewing the latest instalment of the Halloween franchise directed by David Gordon Green let me just give some trivia that will help you understand the movie before I begin my review…

• ·         So this movie takes place 40 years after the original Halloween. (The original one also released in October like this one. Great strategy Universal Pictures!). If you’re interested in watching this movie then what happened in the original Halloween is pretty much common knowledge. If not, then here’s the common knowledge in a nutshell: indestructible supervillain Michael Myers attacked nubile scream queen Laurie Strode and got arrested. At least that’s the knowledge required for this movie - I remember the culmination being much spookier.
• ·         Because this movie is a direct sequel to the original, you can ignore the assembly line of sequels that ran between the 80s and 90s, and the two previous attempts to reboot the franchise (2007, 2009). Which in a way, works for this reviewer. I mean who’s got time to spare 15½ hours to watch Michael getting maimed, stabbed, burnt, exploded then still come back without a scratch. I mean, after a while even you will forgot which scene belong to which sequel due to its repetitiveness.
• ·         In one of the articles, I read the director sir Gordon Green wanted to portray Michael Myers as an unstoppable killer without the Cult of Thorn: a supernatural cult that gave Michael his invincibility, immortality and the lesson that "if you have great power, you can screw over everyone". This change isn’t highly noticeable but it helps us subconsciously emphasize with the good guys because if they kill him in this one, he won’t come back again. But after seeing how much fun this movie was and looking at the box office records it broke, I’m guessing early development on a sequel will begin shortly. I mean it’s not like horror movie villains need well-developed excuses to come back and horrify us.

Anyway on to the movie, I’ll refer to our villain as "Mikey" because it rhymes with Laurie and allows me to take a creative liberty of mocking him (without having to face the consequences). I know he’s not actually going to come for me but let’s take liberties and see where this review goes.

Halloween’s central protagonist and Hollywood’s scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie) has aged, matured yet still looks as beautiful as she did forty years ago. She’s now turned into this badass from the Schwarzenegger-Stallone school of maim-n-kill. She’s got guns, booby traps, explosives and just about every thinkable invention to counter the threat of Mikey. Ever since he was institutionalized, Laurie developed post-traumatic stress disorder been waiting for the opportunity to kick his ass. However this experience has taken an emotional toll on her. She’s a divorcee, alcoholic, grandmother who doesn’t get to see her grandkid, all these problems she’s been through I hope Mikey dies slowly and painfully!

Moving on to the grandkid, we have Alyson Nelson who will portray the role of the school-going virgin whose friends will die because… that’s what always happens. The killer goes for boring friends of the circle to spice up the fun then kill the ones that we care about. In this instance, I don’t care about anyone who got killed because we don’t get enough development on them. They serve as bowling pins to be knocked down until Mikey gets to Laurie and Alyson.

There’s a lot more characters to make this venture interesting. There’s two podcasters Aaron and Dana who want to interview Mikey. Only in a horror movie we would find such idiots who invite trouble. These two morons make the mistake of going right into the killer’s face to send this invitation. You might as well just give him Laurie’s address while you’re at it. The climax will come an hour earlier and a bunch of innocent people will be spared from Michael’s wrath. Though I guess this won’t justify the ticket price I paid so I’ll go with Gordon Green’s route. There’s also the policeman sir Frank Hawkins who’s out to help the good guys. If you’ve seen enough horror movies you’ll realise the police don’t prove handy and this movie is no exception. There’s also a doctor sir called Ranbir Sartain. It’s customary for all Halloween instalments to have a psychiatric doctor or a high figure of the medical word assisting the protagonists. Normally I don’t have a problem with the doctor characters because they speak lingo that bounces off my head and they always narrate bad things happening to the good guys ("unfortunately we were unable to remove the bullet from the head", catch my drift). This doctor however has a twist regarding his character that completely threw me off. At the time, I was in awe that I was unable to predict something but now when I look back at the movie I’m confused whether I should appreciate this twist or call out its unnecessariness.

Now on to a bit of story structure. So there’s two subplots going on. On one hand, there’s Mikey escaping the asylum and killing off everyone he sees in his mad pursuit for death. On the other hand there’s Laurie’s grandkid Alyson having the time of her life at the Halloween dance. Unfortunately good old Mikey sniffs out her location and his victim list engulfs her friends including Oscar, an innocent teenager who tried to channel his "inner 50 Shades" with Alyson before she rejects him. Wow he didn’t get to fulfil his last wish before death! These two subplots are linked via Laurie and her daughter/Alyson’s mother Karen who plays an integral part in the climax. There’s some disagreements between Laurie and Karen regarding the former’s unhealthy obsession with Mikey. But thankfully the movie doesn’t waste too much time dwelling on them.    

Saving the horror till the last paragraph. I was expecting heart attack jump scares but unfortunately didn’t receive any. Probably because I could predict most of the jump scares. Probably because I’d seen the original Halloween and realised this movie also follows a similar template where the last forty five minutes is an elaborate suspense-filled bloodbath. To the film’s credit, I couldn’t predict whether Laurie, Karen and Alyson were going to survive. In terms of death scenes, there’s a guy’s jaw ripped open, Mikey scaring his victim by scattering the previous victim’s teeth (my favourite scene), a kid dying, a kid’s babysitter dying and the lights going on and off before another victim gets axed. One aspect I admire of the horror is that Mikey’s face is never shown. We’re aware from the start he’s an old man but we never get to see his face. It’s always the back or the side of his head. I think it helps that we don’t get to see this murderer’s face.

Overall I’d say the movie served its purpose to entertain the audience. There’s plenty of jump scares for the fainthearted, Jamie Lee’s badassery deserves a watch and there’s plenty of franchise loyalists who will enter cinemas to make comparisons. It served its commercial purpose at bringing back its budget ($15 million budget vs $246 million worldwide gross). If you have a penchant for slasher films, Jamie Lee Curtis or are looking for a good time pass, Halloween is the best bet for you.