John Carpenter's original two "Halloween" movies were my first immersion into genuine non-supernatural horror. I can't remember if I read the novelization of the first movie first or after seeing the film, but the story stuck with me in ways other inferior movies such as "Friday the 13th" and its endless supply of decreasingly coherent sequels did not. "Halloween" had a single mastermind behind its concept and execution, from story to casting to direction to even the music. It is auteur horror at its finest.
The sequel, co-written by Carpenter, continued the story by setting it on the same night and providing new revelations about Michael Meyers and Laurie Stroud that the director has admitted not being overly pleased with. Carpenter is notoriously candid and, I think, hard on himself. The second movie may have lacked the uniqueness of its predecessor but it was a solid follow-up, especially thanks to the expanding of Donald Pleasance's character Loomis.
This latest film has decided to dump the events of the second film and its subsequent non-Carpenter produced sequels, some of which weren't bad. In this direct sequel to the original, Michael Meyers was apparently captured after Dr. Loomis shot him and has spent forty years in a mental institution typically silent and seemingly unresponsive. When a pair of podcasting "journalists" show up to try and interview him, it is only when he sees his iconic William Shatner mask that he shows even the slightest glimmer of a reaction.
Sadly, Donald Pleasance passed away in the mid-Nineties, so the weight once again fall on the shoulders of Jamie Lee Curtis just as it did in "Halloween H20," the first attempt to make a direct follow-up to the original. That film reeked of crass commercialism. Its sequel was such a ridiculous farce that even Carpenter has expressed befuddlement at its existence. So, how does this new one fare?
Better, for sure. For one thing, there's an obvious and genuine love for the source material on the parts of the filmmakers, an infectious enthusiasm that makes even the less successful elements of the film more palatable.
The story is solid. Laurie Stroud never got over the attempt on her life or the deaths of her friends. Since the events of the second movie never took place, she has become a rather tragic, sad character similar in almost every way to Sarah Connor in the second "Terminator" film. Laurie has spent decades learning how to fortify her home and protect herself for what she considers the inevitability of Michael's return. Her relationship with her daughter is strained and her granddaughter just wishes she would move on in life.
Curtis portrays the present-day Laurie Stroud brilliantly, somehow reminding us of the innocent girl in the original while creating a whole new character. Wil Patton is also great as the police officer who stopped Loomis from killing Michael all those years ago. There's even a new doctor who was Loomis' student but his take on Michael Meyers is very different from his mentor's. In fact, he's involved in a plot twist that shouldn't work. But it does. In fact, most of the movie works.
The minor quibbles I have are mostly technical. For instance, the cringe-worthy teen dialogue/characters really show how well Carpenter wrote the scene where Laurie and her friends are walking home from school in the first film. There's also a scene where Laurie and Michael are going to face each other that stretches on to the point where the supposed "scare" is more a relief that the plot is once again in motion. There are also some rather clumsy references to the other films, including Laurie referring to Michael as "The Shape" and the attempt to recapture the creepiness of Michael's original escape from the mental institution. There's also the ditching of plot points from "Halloween II" that really fleshed out the story. But those facts didn't diminish my enjoyment.
The gore is a bit much but that's too be expected. I usually find excessive gore to be cheap and lazy, an easy way to horrify without actually creating true horror. And while the filmmakers do tow the line, they never cross it.
I do think a sequel would be a bad idea but since this movie broke box office records for a female-led horror movie's opening weekend (who the hell keeps these stats???) it's obvious they will ruin a great conclusion with another film.
Still, while this one is the only one, it's a great follow-up.
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