Midnight Horror Review: Halloween (2018)

A little known fact about me is that my favorite movie is the 1978 slasher classic John Carpenter's Halloween, which I first watched when I was a seven-year-old. Thanks, Grandma!

Of course, I also like all the sequels (maybe not Resurrection) and I tolerate the Rob Zombie remakes. So, naturally, I was looking forward to watching Halloween (2018), which is the third film in the franchise with that title. Did I watch it in the theatres? Sadly, no, I didn't get a chance to the see it on the big screen. My town only has a one-screen theatre that is run by volunteers and they hardly ever carry rated R movies. Instead, I had to settle on reading the novelization by John Passarella. You can read my review for it here!

Directed by David Gorden Green, the 2018 film ignores the entire Halloween franchise except for the original 1978 film, which basically means that Laurie Strode (played once again by Jamie Lee Curtis) isn't the sister of the masked serial killer Michael Myers.

Confused yet?

3/4 of the film is more or less a rehash of the now-forgotten sequels, where Michael escapes a prison bus transfer, steals back his original mask, and returns to Haddonfield, Illinois to do some trick-or-treating with a butcher's knife. Sounds familiar, right?

On his path of destruction, Michael accidentally runs into Laurie's granddaughter Allyson Nelson (played by Andi Matichak), which leads to a weird situation with his current shrink, Dr. Ranbir Sartain. Seriously, what the hell were the writers thinking with this part? Since they're wanting to do sequels, why kill off the mad doctor?

The last 30-minutes is the so-called "final confrontation" between Laurie and Michael, as well as Allyson and her mother, Karen (played by Judy Greer). Why did the writers rename the daughter? They should have kept the name as Jamie Lloyd and brought back Danielle Harris from Halloween 4 & 5. (Yes, I'm well aware the actress who played Jamie also played a different part in the Rob Zombie films.)

Final Thoughts

Well, at least Halloween (2018) is a hell of a lot better than the Scream-ripoff Halloween: H20. The acting is excellent, the cinematography resembles the original, and the soundtrack is amazing, which was co-composed by John Carpenter.

What I didn't like about the film was the stupid evil doctor subplot that went nowhere, the silly scene with the two cops talking about sandwiches, and Allyson's clueless father who wasn't too worried where his daughter was when a serial killer was on the loose.

Overall, I liked the film, but I didn't love it! There were plenty of great scenes that I enjoyed, especially the ones with the babysitter, her boyfriend, and the funny kid. The ending could have been done better. Either Michael or Laurie should have died, but instead the writers/producers decided to leave it open for future sequels.