I've been looking forward to seeing Halloween (2018) for some time. When it was revealed the horror flick would be directed by David Gordon Green, who was also writing the script with Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley, it got the horror junkie juices in me flowing. This was going to be the perfect opportunity to really land a successful sequel to the original Halloween movie; especially so with the decision to write it as a direct follow-up to the first film, rather than allowing all of the various sequels that have bogged down the franchise in later years to play a part. With John Carpenter also returning following his work on the 1978 release as an executive producer, fans knew this would tick all of the right boxes.
© Universal Pictures
We come back to the small town of Haddonfield in the modern day - 40 years after Michael Myers (Nick Castle, James Jude Courtney) was captured and incarcerated following the murder of five of Laurie Strode's (Jamie Lee Curtis) close friends. In those decades since his imprisonment, the serial killer hasn't muttered a single word to his doctor Dr. Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), staff at the facility he's encased in, or any of his fellow inmates.
Laurie meanwhile is a woman who has allowed a destructive obsession over Michael to take over every aspect of her life. Her house is fortified as if she's preparing for war, and she made what was deemed to be a terrible job of bringing up her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), losing custody of the child before she was even a teen.
With her family life completely shattered even to this day, Laurie is a woman who lives in solitude, but who finds a little relief in the relationship she secretly shares with her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak). When the time comes for Allyson's graduation, Laurie's head is elsewhere however. Michael is moving facilities, and Laurie wants to take the opportunity to rid the world of his "pure evil" once and for all.
Fortunately for Laurie, she gets what she's been hoping for ever since Michael was locked away: the chance to take him down when he escapes from the bus which was transferring him to another hospital.
From this moment on, the scares come thick and fast. Michael isn't a man who likes to waste time, and so he spends his Halloween night tracking down the Strode family, murdering anybody who gets in his way. This means he goes straight back to a killing spree of teenagers and police officers, using a variety of slaughter techniques to bring their lives to a shocking and early conclusion. Strangely enough, the most gruesome isn't one that involves a weapon, but simply his foot and a lot of force.
The cinematography used throughout Halloween is one of utter beauty. There are modernised shots interwoven throughout the narrative, but an abundance of those that wouldn't feel out of place in a horror film of the late 70s. Michael Simmonds has done a tremendous job and must be applauded for his work.
Lighting and shadows are utilised to create a hugely suspenseful string of scenes in which you're never quite sure if Michael's the hunter, or the hunted, as Laurie puts all of her decades of training to use. From a regular resting heart rate of around 85 beats-per-minute, to one in which my watch tells me rose to around 142bpm during these sequences, it's clear that Green has done his job as a director in turning this into an exciting and intense affair.
Then of course, there's the music. For those of us who are huge fans of the original Halloween, it forces the hairs on our arms to stand to attention with Carpenter's opening tones.
Despite a couple of silly moments, this is as good a follow-up to the original film we could have ever expected. If the rumours are true and we'll be seeing another return to the big screen for Michael at some point in the next couple of years, we hope it does just as well.
A fantastic sequel and a truly scary horror. What else is there to say?
Halloween (2018) is in cinemas now.
Tagged in Halloween