Green’s 2018 effort Halloween is good for a cold night in, but lacks the spooks of the 1978 classic.
Michael Myers and Laurie Strode return to face off forty years after the fateful night of October 31st, 1978. The result is one of the better Halloween sequels to grace the screen.
Starting with the original Halloween in 1978, John Carpenter captured dark magic when he first introduced the world to Michael Myers, a seemingly unstoppable killer with a fondness of boiler suits and a certain William Shatner mask. Halloween essentially created an entire sub-genre of horror and pioneered the would-be tropes that have since plagued horror films – including several of Halloween’s descendants. I’m looking at you H20.
However, the 2018 sequel to Halloween, also called Halloween, was a surprisingly good continuation to one of mine, and many other’s, favourite films. It follows on from the events of the 1978 film, forty years later as Laurie Strode (portrayed by the fantastic Jamie Lee Curtis) must fight off Myers once again.
Overall, the David Gordon Green-directed Halloween is pretty good. It is what you would expect from a sequel like this, but certainly isn’t anything groundbreaking. I believe this showcases one of Jamie Lee Curtis’ best performances and really shows that she has matured into a more confident actor over time. I would also comment that Andi Matichak’s big screen debut as Allyson Nelson – Laurie’s granddaughter – was a well-performed first film role, despite some clunky dialogue which is no fault of her own. I also thought that the score, whilst keeping hold of the classic Carpenter music from the 1978 film, had a more up-to-date sound, without ignoring the iconic, ticking theme.
One issue I do hold with Halloween though, is the way it portrays Michael Myers as a normal, greying old man. This isn’t necessarily a huge problem as he is a human, but throughout the film series he has been portrayed as more than that. He is shown as an almost-supernatural entity – think of his famous disappearing acts in the 1978 original. In some ways, this takes away from the legend of Michael Myers. He is still horrifically evil, but this open recognition of his humanity does take a little away from the overall scariness of the character.
This, however, is my main point. Despite the fact that Myers is creepy, I do wonder if audiences no longer find this sort of film genuinely scary. Halloween was pretty well-received, and made 225 million dollars worldwide, but I think this is partly due to the character of Michael Myers himself, paired with a classic Halloween-time release. In my opinion, this Halloween is not a genuinely scary film, but we have seen this type of movie so many times before by now.
Whilst I am looking forward to two planned sequels to this film, due for release in 2021 and 2022, I really hope that something new is done with the character of Michael Myers. Obviously, he is a pretty one-dimensional character, but some good writing could help to add to the myth of Michael Myers as a whole.
Whilst 2018’s Halloween lacks the eeriness of the original film, I don’t think it was a bad addition by any means – like I said before, I certainly think it is one of the better films in the series. However, I really hope that in it’s sequels, the creators can bring back some of that genuinely scary magic and reinvigorate the character of Myers even further to make a properly scary Halloween film once again.
I would certainly recommend Halloween. It is an intriguing enough way to spend 106 minutes on a dark, October night and certainly won’t feel like a waste of time. However, if you want a really good film night, I would start with the 1978 original before any other.
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