Halloween is back and better than ever
I checked all my closets with an outstretched arm…I locked and re-locked my doors…I looked through the backseats of my cars with a Maglite…because Michael is free again.
“Halloween” is back and better than ever, with more guts, gore, and brutality than before.
“Halloween” is an intense and tight action-horror film that sees the force of nature that is Michael Myers pitted against her familiar foe Laurie Strode.
In this iteration we are given the “true” backstory of Michael Myers and the majority of the series is Red-coned in favor of a more grounded story.
Michael escapes and uses his familiar morbid flare to murder his way to Laurie Strode’s door.
David Gordon Green’s “Halloween” is a return to form for the slasher and is a genre-heavy franchise addition that serves up heaping piles of fan service.
Green’s direction provides a number of callbacks to scenes in previous Halloween films that will reward seasoned viewers without alienating newcomers.
Danny McBride is a welcomed addition as an additional screenwriter whose addition to the film shone more clearly than any other.
In fact, if anyone steals the show from Jamie Lee Curtis it’s Danny McBride’s screenwriting.
However, Curtis is brilliant in her return to the character. Curtis’ performance is measured and patient in ways I was not expecting.
I buy her character at her strongest, at her funniest, and at her weakest. As a female character in a slasher movie, she may be the best of all time.
Another standout aspect of the film is the score. John Carpenter returns to deliver another chilling and memorable score that provides several Easter eggs for fellow horror sweaties.
Unfortunately, there are some flaws with the production. While the story is solid for the most part a lot of the dialogue feels pieced together in the editing room and the only authentic moments seem to be moments of humor.
Also, some of those moments of humor interrupt the tension in a way that can hurt an audience’s suspension of disbelief.
However, overall the humor adds an unexpected and delightful levity to break up the cornucopia of skull crushing.
