John Carpenter’s Halloween is my favorite horror film, and probably the first film that I remember seeing. I love Jamie Lee Curtis. I watched every entry of the Halloween franchise, even the ones without Michael Myers and/or Jaimie Lee Curtis and the one when Michael briefly became MacGyver and started killing people in massive explosives. The exception: the disrespectful opening scene of Halloween: Resurrection made me leave the theater. My favorite sequel is Halloween H20: 20 Years Later mainly because of the final showdown, which was gorgeous and visceral. Regardless of whether or not Halloween, the reboot and direct sequel to the first movie, is good, I was going to see it. My approval is another story.
I realize that my review may make me look like the asshole fan who thinks that I know better than executive producers Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter and the son of the original producer. I know on an intellectual level that if they are happy with the end result of Halloween, then that should be enough for me. I didn’t think that Halloween was as strong an entry as it could have been. It felt as if when the filmmakers nailed something, they got it, and we were in for a great ride, but then the next scene would show that they didn’t quite understand what made this entry work then fumble, then recover, which made it uneven and hard to get swept away by the ridiculous premise.
Halloween felt like a mash up with Terminator 2: Rise of the Machines with respect to our scream queen as an older Linda Hamilton. This impulse was excellent, and when the film took the traditional scenes from the first installment when Michael appeared in Laurie’s periphery or in the neighborhood, but substituted Laurie for Michael, it was a great choice. The filmmakers should have done it more consistently throughout the film instead of making Michael strike some of his traditional poses. The strongest element of this franchise has been the idea that Laurie and Michael are two sides of the same coin, cut from the same cloth.
Unfortunately one of the reboot mistakes was that Halloween dismissed the mythological strength of the franchise. They are no longer siblings. Instead the implication is that in his own sick twisted way, he is obsessed with her like a demented crush. While it is topical in an Elliot Rodger way, Michael Myers is timeless evil, and it diminishes him. Along those lines, there is a plot twist that they use to further diminish the idea that he is chaotic evil by bringing in a new Dr. Loomis, but I saw it coming a mile away and hated it. I want to take up a collection plate for Will Patton.
Along the lines of the heroine mashup, if you have a Sarah Connor, then Halloween has to have its John Connor. We get two generations descended from Laurie Strode, but the movie waits too long to let these women show what their mama and their grandmama gave them. Like The Long Kiss Goodnight, we should have seen flashes of Laurie’s daughter revealing her mother’s influences, wanted or not. I think that Judy Greer could have handled it, but they didn’t give her a chance until the denouement. Also I’m not sure if I buy Greer’s husband as her husband. She is a therapist, and he does not seem like a match at all. I didn’t think that the final showdown worked. Jamie made some dumb mistakes that I don’t genuinely believe that she would make although I appreciated the implicit apology for Halloween: Resurrection. One word: headshot.
Halloween was really funny in the ways that it distinguished itself from the original, particularly in the way that the supporting characters interacted. The teens were way more likeable in this version, but I was surprised that Cameron didn’t play a bigger role. The hunter and his son, Vicky and Julian, Vicky and Dave, Allison and Oscar and the two officers chatting while on duty were hilarious counterpoints to all the killings. For me, humor is an integral part of horror. I also loved the implicit skewering of the first season of NPR’s Serial Podcast. These creative choices were perfect. Also Haddonfield, IL has black people now, which is super realistic, including the way that they respond to all hell breaking loose. I usually hate children in horror movies, but I loved Julian.
I have a tiny quibble about Michael. If Michael can escape, he usually will do it without hurting people until he gets to his killing ground. To get to his mask, he didn’t have to go in there. Also I don’t recall him willy nilly killing adults not sinning before unless they were an obstacle. When they were yelling at people to go inside, I thought, “Why? So he can kill them in their home. They aren’t safe inside or outside.” I had flashbacks from The First Purge. Sansa knows!
I’m not a fan of the editing or the director’s work. When David Gordon Green wasn’t imitating Carpenter’s iconic scenes, there were too many cuts and close ups, which ruined the pacing and visually undercut the moments when he successfully captured the ambience of the original. David Robert Mitchell showed that he had the chops in It Follows to direct a Halloween sequel, but who knows how these things work. The Where Is Michael periphery shots were excellent at grabbing my attention, but this concept is dropped except for the first confrontation scene with Jamie and Michael! The motion detector scene fell flatter than it should have considering the great one-sided dialogue.
On a shallow note, I’m miffed that Jamie looks more like she did in Halloween: Resurrection than Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. I know that she has more important things to think about than her hair, but that is exactly why she would cut it. You don’t want anyone to be able to grab your head.
My audience was refuse. Everyone was reading the Kindle on their phone, posting sexy pics to Instagram or web surfing. I felt as if I was in someone’s living room watching a movie. I’m so glad that I went to church today, was raised to be respectable and could hear the voices of my ancestors because I struggled from the beginning to the end not to say anything, but when I got shushed for laughing, I wanted to cuss people out. Full disclosure: I did do this once during a big screen showing of Halloween over a different issue, but this film was not worth it. So literally flashing lights in people’s faces in a dark movie theater is cool, but laughing when something is funny is not? If I had the higher ground, I may have, but don’t have your back to an enemy. Where is Kathy Bates when you need her? I’d rather that they talked, which the two girls beside me did as they compared photos.
Halloween is ai’right. It was uneven with brief flashes of brilliance. If I could have taken the denouement from Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, taken out the plot twist and used the supporting characters in this film, it would have been a strong sequel. Wait until it is available for home viewing or go to a matinee.