Film Review: ‘Halloween’ Masters the Art of the Horror Sequel

“Halloween” had three tasks: be scary, justify its existence, and redeem Laurie Strode. It does all three to brilliant effect.

When the new Halloween was first announced, it already seemed unnecessary. The eleventh film in a franchise started forty years ago, it would be the fifth “reboot” of the series, another new mythology and story to learn. Sure it was bringing Jamie Lee Curtis back to her iconic role of Laurie Strode, but that happened twenty years ago with H20: 20 Years Later and Halloween: Resurrection, each film wasting the actress’ potential and the latter film killing her off in a scene fans have hated since the film’s release. So what could a new Halloween do in 2018? What would writer/comedian Danny McBride and indie director David Gordon Green bring to the table that had disappointed since the 80s? Well, I am happy to report that after ten tries, someone new finally made Michael Myers into a scary villain once again.

Poster for the new film Halloween, from director David Gordon Green

The film immediately sets itself in the present, as two “investigative journalist“ (podcasters) go to Smith’s Grove Mental Institution, home to one of the most notorious serial killers of the past century—Michael Myers (actor Nick Castle reprising his role from the original, sharing it with James Jude Courtney). Never shown head-on without his mask, Michael has been here for four decades, just waiting for his chance to break out again. Meanwhile, in Haddonfield, Laurie Strode has been holding on to that same desire. Just as Michael wants that taste for blood, Laurie needs to finally get the closure she was denied 40 years prior when “The Boogyman” escaped back to Smith’s Grove. Both are preparing for their own sequel they’ve waited decades for.

Michael Myers in the new film Halloween

Coming in at a solid 106 minutes, the film takes about half an hour of exposition to really get going. Explanations about the previous movie’s nonexistence (a thrown-off line establishes everything save the 78 original as “made up to make sense of” the original crimes), clarifications about where Laurie has been and so on slow the film down but after a while, the film gets going. Laurie deals with the return of her tormentor and in the process attempts to defend her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. Judy Greer and Toby Huss star as parents Karen and Ray, each incredible actors who frequently play second fiddle to others in films and TV. Here they are given a chance to really shine, as is their daughter Allyson. Played by Andi Matchak in her debut role, Allyson is a scream queen debut that earns her place in a Halloween movie, a franchise that birthed Curtis herself.

Curtis, of course, steals the film from the fresher faces around her, and every time that we watch her deal with the remaining trauma from her attack 40 years prior, the film is electric. The idea of inherited trauma is key to the film, with Judy Greer and Andi Matchak each able to convey the hurt that they have felt from their mother’s own assault, Greer’s Karen working now in the mental health field after being taken away from her mother by CPS at the age of twelve, while Allyson attempts to reconnect with her estranged grandmother by helping her overcome Myers’ crimes. If the first Halloween is about a senseless killer hunting victims, this is a movie all about how victims make sense of a killer.

Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in Halloween

The opening credits show a rotting pumpkin in reverse, the pumpkin seemingly re-inflating. This is exactly what has happened to the film itself, with McBride and Gordon Green finally finding the life in the franchise that has been dormant since the seventies. The dialogue is sharp (sometimes it is heavy on humor, but it is easy to forget that the original Halloween was funny as well), the scares are effective and more importantly, it finally feels like a John Carpenter movie once more. The creator of Myers and the modern slasher as a genre, Carpenter’s influence on horror are embraced instead of shunned.

Carpenter returns to this franchise in an active role for the first time since Halloween III, doing the score and producing, sharing a credit card with Curtis. And so the Halloween franchise returns to these two most important creatives, giving us a horror movie that finally and truly scares. In an era of reboots and remakes and sequels and more, it isn’t easy for a movie like Halloween 2018 to justify itself. But with loads of scares and a talented cast, Halloween stands up to the test of time and terror.

Halloween hits theater nationwide October 19th.