Hey Guys!
If in the case that you have not yet seen the 2018 version of Halloween, this article will be giving away a lot of details about the film. Go watch it first, then come back. No, I will not be waiting for you.
2018 saw a new tale in the Halloween franchise released. In an interesting move, that film disregards all previous films except for the first one that was released in 1978. This means:
- Micheal and Laurie are no longer related
- Micheal is no longer part of the Curse of Thorn cult
- Laurie’s two children Jamie (Danielle Harris) and John (Josh Hartnett) no longer exist
- Jamie’s son who was also targeted by Micheal due to the Curse no longer exits
- Laurie is no longer dead
- Micheal was not roaming the streets after the first film ended
- Nick Castel is the one and only Shape
- Halloween III may still exist in this universe as the costumes are shown in this movie
“Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.”
The original 1978 Halloween is considered the progenitor of what has been called the Golden Age of slasher films which took place between 1978–1984.
John Carpenter’s third feature film has since spawned ten sequels/reboots with the newest release, setting several box-office records. Two more movies are in the works, Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends.
A considerable legacy for a little $300,000 independent film.
I have always liked this movie, yes it is somewhat dated but it still works for me. I don’t mind the low death count, nor the lack of blood and gore that has to be the norm for all horror films now. I miss the days when filmmakers used to make films with the “less is more” attitude. Now, with big budgets and CGI, horror has become a gore-fest with a paper-thin script.
Halloween, at its core, is a simple movie. John Carpenter was able to make a simple tale of the boogeyman into a taught suspenseful thriller. This was done with relatively no-name actors with Donald Pleasance adding gravitas to his small but vital role.
If you have not seen it in a while, check it out again. Plus, it helps the new sequel.
“Laurie Strode confronts her long-time foe Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.”
I was a bit apprehensive about this film when it was announced. In particular, Danny McBride as one of the writers. At the time, my only knowledge of him was from the movie This Is The End, and I hated his character. I also heard that that is pretty much his style in the comedy roles he does. An asshole was going to write a Halloween movie??? Oh boy!
I was glad that it was going to ignore all of the previous Halloween films as I had only seen the first three and H20. Another plus was having both Carpenter and Curtis back for what was to be the final Halloween movie. Since it ended up making over $255 million worldwide, it was inevitable that more would be on the way.
The trailer, however, did have a vibe of the original movie so I had hope that it would not suck, but when it came out, word was that it was a bad movie. I didn’t bother to see it.
Flash forward to Halloween season 2019 and I decided to give it a go, but only after watching the original first. That was a wise move as I could see how they were connecting the two films. For the most part, it worked.
There are 19 kills in this movie, far more than the five in the original. The gore factor was amped up in this movie as well. I did not think that it added to the movie, I think it was not necessary.
I wish that they had given more time for Laurie’s arc. She has been traumatized by the events from the first film but they kind of made her the crazy old lady too scared to leave her (heavily fortified) home. I would have liked to have seen more Laurie, and less of the other characters that all die in this movie.
Having said that, I did enjoy the film and see it as a worthy sequel to the original. Just forget about all the other ones as they no longer matter, and frankly, the more they tried to explain Micheal, the dumber it got.
As for the need for two more sequels to this, well, that’s a discussion for another time.
Stay angry my friends.
