Halloween continues to scare 40 years later

Directed by David Gordon Green and released Oct. 17, Halloween serves as a direct sequel to the 1978 John Carpenter film by the same name, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

The film takes place 40 years from where the original ended and tells the story of how that horrific night has affected survivor Laurie Strode, portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis. Laurie has severe PTSD from being attacked 40 years ago and has lived her life preparing for the return of the boogeyman, also known as Michael Myers, portrayed by Nick Castle. Michael escapes the institution where he was being held captive, and he goes straight to finishing what he started many decades ago. Laurie must use everything she has learned about self-protection to keep her and her family safe. This time Laurie won’t be the victim.

The original Halloween is a classic that changed the way horror movies were made from that point on. The film was shot in under a month and was a surprise hit after its release grossing around $70 million worldwide, according to The Numbers. It’s a simple film about babysitters who are attacked by a psychopath. The main character, Laurie Strode was written by Debra Hill and was meant to represent innocence. Throughout the film, it is clearly shown how Laurie differs from her friends Annie, portrayed by Nancy Kyes, and Lynda, portrayed by P.J. Soles. Laurie and her friends are stalked and attacked by a mental patient, who the kids Laurie are babysitting refer to as the boogeyman. All of Laurie’s friends are killed by the masked man and she is saved by Michael’s psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis portrayed by Donald Pleasence.

Forty years later and Laurie still has not recovered from that night, which is why she has been preparing herself in case Michael ever escaped. Laurie’s obsession with weapons, and booby-trapping the house, has caused her daughter Karen, acted by Judy Greer, to be taken away along with having a rough relationship with her granddaughter Allyson, played by Andi Matichak. Laurie has prayed that her boogeyman would escape so she could kill him, and while Michael is being transported to a different facility, the bus “crashes” and he escapes the night before Halloween.

The film series has a huge fan base that has grown larger with every generation that has been introduced to it, so it is no surprise at the amount of hype this movie had leading up to its release. The movie delivers what it advertised, which was the Michael and Laurie showdown fans had wanted ever since a new Halloween film was rumored years ago.

The way the scenes were shot along with the soundtrack set this film up to be terrifying. There was a lot of comedy, which is not something people expected, but the writers did a great job at keeping the movie serious enough to be horrifying. A great scene was one that was shown in the promotional trailers. Spoilers. The scene is about Allyson’s friend Vicky, portrayed by Virginia Gardner, while she is babysitting. The young boy she is babysitting is scared and asks her to shut the closet and when she tries to, Michael emerges from inside and slashes her with his knife while the little boy curses as he runs off for help. This scene was terrifying and comedic at the same time and was acted very well by the actors. The final act of the film was very enjoyable, because it includes the showdown and built the most tension. The opening credits were awesome because they were a re-creation of the opening credits from the original.

This movie was not without its flaws though. There was a lot of time spent building up characters that ended up dying with a non-memorable death, or an off-screen one. When a death was shown it was usually from angles where the audience could only hear the sound effects or see the killer and victim’s feet, which was weird because this is a horror movie.

The film would have been more enjoyable if they had more screen time with the new group of teenagers. Most of the secondary actors were killed off fairly quickly after the first death took place, and more chase scenes between Michael and his victims would have been a great addition.

The last thing that would have been great to see was a scene with Michael and Allyson alone. Allyson was not attacked by Michael at all which is something that should have happened and was very disappointing when the credits started rolling and it never happened. The ending was terrific except for, spoilers, the “death” of Michael Myers. His apparent, death scene could have been more climactic if it didn’t come so unexpectedly. It was surprising that two hours had passed by already and it felt like the main part of the movie was just getting started, but then it ended. It felt like there was more that needed to happen, a chase scene perhaps, like in the original when Michael chased Laurie from one house to another. He could have chased her through the woods or out on the road, just something more needed to happen. It’s been 40 years, and the writers couldn’t have come up with a better conclusion?

Spoilers: The “death” of Michael Myers was also less dramatic due to the recent rumors that another Halloween film might be in the works. Let’s hope those rumors are just rumors unless they can come up with a creative way to continue the story that wouldn’t ruin this film’s ending. Probably not though.

All in all, this film was worth the wait, even if it could have used another 20 minutes. Along with the return of Curtis as Laurie Strode, Castle reprises his role as Michael, in some scenes, for the first time since the original according to halloweenmovie.wikia. Carpenter also was involved in this film, as he helped work on the well known Halloween theme score.

It’s good to know that Hollywood can still push out a good slasher film here and there, especially with so many recent and repetitive supernatural demonic films. For the return of all these original actors, along with the new interesting skilled cast, Halloween deserves an 8/10.