Halloween October 19, 2018

"The new Halloween 
SUCKS!" 

 -Nameless Facebook Troll

Hee! I'm starting my review of the new Halloween with the first review I read after seeing the movie! And yes! I totally . . . DISAGREE with the "reviewer" who wrote the above quote. But he's not alone. WAY too many negative reviews to take any of them seriously. What I've read of the reviews so far there's a dislike for the new sequel because  . . .  "well, dang it, we don't like new movies based on the movies we grew up on! Nothing can replace the movies of our youth!"

Yes, I understand the sentiment. The popular art of our youth is always important to us, it's after all . . . our youth! But to base your opinion on whether a movie is a good movie or not solely on a desire to keep the memory of your "youth" forever alive is ridiculous. When the remake a movie or create a new sequel to an original script, they don't destroy all the copies of the older movies, the ones you grew up on. They are still there, and you can watch them whenever you want. There. Problem solved. 

For this lover of the original Halloween and the Laurie/Michael storyline, I think this sequel is the best of them all. Okay, Yes! I am a big fan of Halloween III: Season of the Witch, WHICH I just learned there is sequel in the works for 2019! Yea! BUT it is NOT a sequel to the original Laurie/Michael storyline and ANY sequel worth it's horror socks should be based on the original, a continuation of the original story . . . but I digress!

Halloween 2018 is a "perfect" sequel; it does two thing that I think a sequel needs to do:
1. The storyline doesn't "repeat" the story of Laurie and Michael but expands on it.  
Yes, I can hear you yelling at me, "What do you mean?! It's exactly like the storyline in the original Halloween!" Yes, I understand why you're yelling at me (please, use your diaphragmatic breathing skills you acquired in you Voice for the Stage class when yelling . . . it will save your voice.) because it might look like the same storyline . . . but it's not.

It is a continuation of the story but from forty years later.  Of course, that doesn't mean that the screenwriter couldn't just repeat the same story . . . but they don't. One big difference, and maybe the only difference, between Halloween today and Halloween forty years ago is Laurie and Michael. Laurie is nothing like the high school girl she was before she "met" Michael:

Laurie Strode: Do you know that I pray every night that he would escape?

Hawkins: What the hell did you do that for?

Laurie Strode: So I can kill him. -moviequotesandmore.com/

And that is the big change in Laurie's life that made me sit up and pay attention. She's no longer fodder for a psychotic killer, she IS the cunning, ruthless killer . . . just like Michael. AND Michael? Yeah, he's changed too, at least, to me. He's even more dangerous and the brought back the idea that there is something more than human about him.  

2. A good sequel needs to pay homage to what has gone before in the franchise.
And this movie has some kind of Easter Egg from every franchise sequel out. Okay, at least that's what I'm told . . . I have seen all the sequels and the remakes but I don't remember everything that went on in them. But I do know the Halloween III has some goodies thrown in there as does Halloween 2. However, there's a neat little bit of juxtaposing characters that goes on it one scene that received a small round of applause from the audience. Not gonna tell you what it is. 

So, though I hear a lot of bad mouthing going around on Facebook, I think this sequel will appeal to most lovers of the franchise. And I hope this is just the beginning of beautiful relationship between Blumhouse Productions and Halloween. 

GRADE 93% = A-