The Movie

Back in October, when the new Halloween premiered, we ran two reviews. One liked it, the other hated it. I saw it in the theater at the time and enjoyed it well enough, although it didn’t make much of an impression overall. Upon rewatching the film, however, I find myself falling somewhere in the middle and leaning toward a heavy ‘meh.’

In case you’ve been living under a rock, the new Halloween film is a soft reboot by the creative minds behind Eastbound & Down and Vice Principals, pretending that nothing after the first film ever happened. In fact, it even alters the final moments of the first film when Donald Pleasence’s Loomis looked over the balcony and discovered that a bullet-riddled Michael Myers had disappeared. In this timeline, he was shot, captured, and locked away, making his Halloween night murder spree more of an urban legend than the recurring horrifying event that we’ve come to know and love.

Hell, given the rise of school shootings and mass murders that have taken place since 1978, Michael Myers after just one film is a rank amateur and barely worth registering as a threat.

Anyway, this gives rise to the fourth Halloween movie timeline (after the original series, H20, and Rob Zombie’s remake) and fails to really add anything interesting to the concept, especially given how H20 already brought Laurie back and gave her some narrative closure (before abandoning that for possibly the worst sequel in the franchise).

This time, Laure (Jamie Lee Curtis) is forty years older instead of twenty, and instead of really exploring her backstory, the script gifts her with a daughter and grand-daughter, all the while casting her as a PTSD-ridden nightmare and borderline alcoholic/suicide with a gun fetish. When a podcast crew decides to interview Michael Myers for the fortieth anniversary of his murder spree, they help to instigate a brand-new murder spree that, despite some nice kills, still fails to top the horror of [fill in the most recent real life mass killing the news is covering when this goes to print].

There are some creepy kills, some stupid teens, a shitty substitute for the dearly departed Donald Pleasence, and a #MeToo tie-in that manages to make both the actual suffering of real people and the make-believe suffering of these characters seem trivial.

I’m glad Curtis and Carpenter got checks, but if there was ever an example of a film that never needed to be made, this is it. It’s got some good scares, a couple of nice kills, and some plot twists that are incredibly stupid but seem to have been necessary to make the plot work – which, of course, means they suck. Curtis is obviously the highlight here and shines whenever she’s on screen. Unfortunately, there’s a bit too much time spent with the annoying teens than with grandma Laurie. Carpenter’s new score is also a bright spot.

Ultimately, the new Halloween is a serviceable entry in the franchise that serves to provide an opening for more new films if Blumhouse decides the profits warrant such an endeavor. It’s a mercenary way of looking at it, but let’s be honest, there’s nothing about this film that isn’t mercenary. The new Halloween is all about making money. The actors want a paycheck. The creative team wants a paycheck. John Carpenter wants a paycheck. Blumhouse definitely wants a paycheck.

Buy this is you want to give these folks a paycheck but let’s not pretend this film is anything special or groundbreaking. It’s on par with most any other film in the franchise and better than anything with Busta Rhymes in it or with Rob Zombie’s name on it, but that’s pretty much the extent of it.

The Extras

Deleted/Extended Scenes: I’m not going to spend a lot of time on these because most of them don’t really deserve any real discussion. Sure, it’s interesting that Laurie put the gun to her chin before the interviewers arrived, but it doesn’t really add anything to the narrative. The only extra scene that added something and maybe should have been included was “Cameron and the Cops Don’t Mix” since it lets us know what happened to Allyson’s boyfriend after he acted like such a douche at the dance.

I kind of don’t wish he was brutally murdered now.

  • Extended Shooting Range – Deleted Suicide Thoughts
  • Shower Mask Visit
  • Jog to a Hanging Dog
  • Allyson and Friends at School
  • Cameron and Cops Don’t Mix
  • Deluxe Banh Mi Cops
  • Sartain and Hankins Ride Along

Back in Haddonfield: Making Halloween: Discussion with all of the principal creators, writers, director, producers, actors, and John Carpenter about making the film. Boring and lacking in any information worth giving time to.

The Original Scream Queen: I thought this was going to be a look back at Jamie Lee Curtis’ career and how the original Halloween made her a horror icon. It’s not. There’s not much here worth your attention.

The Sound of Fear: John Carpenter, his son Cody, and Daniel A. Davies discuss putting together the score for the new film, building on the original score Carpenter crafted back in 1978. The most interesting part of this is seeing Carpenter talk about his work. There’s not much to this one – just like all of these extras – but it’s the most informative and interesting.

The Journey of the Mask: Boring. Everybody provides soundbites about how scary the mask is, plus we get some common knowledge about how the original mask was chosen and altered for use. All of these extras seem to be made for people with short attention spans and/or no knowledge whatsoever about the franchise.

The Legacy of Halloween: This one looked good. John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, director David Gordon Green, and producer Jason Blum do a literal round table discussion about the making of the film. Unfortunately, the only real glimmer of interesting information here is that Green loved Halloween and had turned down previous offers by Blum to direct something for Blumhouse.

As with all of these extras, a waste of time. There’s not a single extra on this disc that adds anything substantive to the experience. A bare-bones Blu-ray release would have been just as informative.

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