The Shape is one of the most famed and pervasive characters in American horror iconography. His façade is engrained into the American film canon to such an extent that reinvention seemed like the only thing the character needed. But, that’s not exactly what David Gordon Green does in Halloween, a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s masterful 1978 film that served as the launching pad for the slasher genre. In many ways, this is what a 2018 update of the Halloween mythos should feel like. We don’t question evil in the same way we did forty years ago, it has become a necessary fact of life in contemporary society.
What Green does focus on is the human toll that trauma takes on its victims. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) can’t live a normal life anymore, her daughter was taken from her for being an unfit mother, she drinks too much to quell her anxieties, and she lives in an elaborately designed safe house for the inevitable moment when she will meet Michael Myers again.
Green’s film, true to form with the original, is light on plot and actually could’ve shed an entire story line. The film is framed by two podcasters wanting to make a true crime narrative about the killings in Haddonfield committed by Michael Myers. This is how Dr. Sartain (Haulk Bilginer), whom Laurie slyly refers to as “the new Loomis,” is also introduced. He has been Michael’s doctor for a number of years and looks at him as a curiosity to be studied, unlike Loomis who saw the genuine deadness in his eyes.
These two plots combine to show a script reaching to build a more fleshed out plot. The problem is that Halloween doesn’t need more elements to add to a full-on experience. This whole plot loop is at odds with what the rest of the film is trying to accomplish, and in doing so, makes a few grievous missteps that diminish some of the emotional trajectory of the story.
In addition to this plot the story follows Laurie, her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), and her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), as they all confront the continuing grief of the Laurie character. This central story is so strong that the audience can forgive the over-complication of the film as a whole. It is in this family dynamic that Green and his screenwriters, Danny Mcbride and Jeff Fradley, are able to burrow into the physical and psychological terror at play.
Just like the ’78 film, it takes a minute for Michael to fully emerge as the killer we know him as. Green teases what he is capable of during a well-choreographed sequence at a bus crash, but it is a bathroom set piece that shows what the audience is in store for. Michael, substantially more than the original, is a brutal killer. Green focuses on the sheer strength of The Shape and his ability to smash, stab, and crush people to death.
Once Michael finally arrives to Haddonfield, we follow him through one elaborate killing spree that seemingly plays out in an unbroken take. It might seem that he is killing indiscriminately, but at the heart of the sequence he is going from house to house in search of Laurie. One of the best lines of the film comes when Laurie says, “He’s waited for this night… he’s waited for me…I’ve waited for him.” The film has fated these two, the attacker and the victim, to meet once more.
This is where the film does truly become a parable about victimhood and predatory masculinity. Laurie will be incapable of getting over her fear until he is once and for all removed from this planet. She has been preparing for this night for forty years, and this time, she knows what’s at stake.
It is very difficult to see Laurie’s house and the added protections and not think of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford wanting a second front door in her home. Of course, this was on no one’s mind when making the film, but principal photography was completed during the Me Too movement. The final standoff between the three central women and the Shape is a microcosm for three generations of women facing off against their assailant, finally coming to terms with decades of repression, manifesting itself in the physical.
Interestingly, nearly all the men in the film are emasculated by their buffoonery, or their feeling that what they want they can take. There is a definitive crumbling of the patriarchy in this film that centers the women as the rightful top of the food chain.
Jamie Lee Curtis commands the screen with a righteous ferocity. She plays Laurie as highly competent and ultimately wounded from her past. It is the kind of role that she seems born to play. Curtis is an actress that never became the type of marquee star that this film suggested she could’ve been. But, here she is at 59 opening a movie to nearly 80 million dollars domestic on opening weekend.
Matichak and Greer both shine in their parts, too. Matichak shows empathy and curiosity, she must have carefully studied the Curtis performance from ’78. I don’t know how, but Judy Greer just never made it as more than a certain type of actress. She is always a welcome presence on screen, but here she gets her most substantial role in many years and bites into it with aplomb. She also gets one of the movie’s great moments near the end, you will know the moment as soon as it happens. It will likely go down in the horror lexicon as a crowd-pleasing character reversal that garnered momentous cheers in my theatre.
Most welcome though, is the return of the iconic score, with new music composed by Carpenter himself. That synth driven, otherworldly tones are likely more famous than the films themselves. Green employs the score beautifully by teasing the audience with an opening credits sequence that is a mirror of the original.
While it isn’t without flaws, when the movie clicks, it really clicks. Everything falls into place and offers a movie that lingers on the brutality so that when the emotional stakes hit you, it comes as a surprise almost. And, with this film, the Halloween franchise is done. There isn’t anything left to say beyond this film. But, Blumhouse Productions just saw the 80 million dollar opening weekend and gathered a room full of writers to crack the code of where this franchise is to go next.
— Peterson Hill
Forty years after the original 1978 Halloween (Directed by John Carpenter), Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode in the 2018 remake, Halloween (Directed by David Gordon Green). While the OG Halloween positioned itself as the best of John Carpenter’s famed franchise, the remake leaves a bit to be desired. Situated in an alternate universe where no other Halloween movie has existed since the original, Laurie and knife-wielding killer Michael are no longer brother and sister. Was the 2018 remake Rob Zombie-terrible? No. But did it need to be made? I’m not so sure.
What’s so great about horror remakes is that fans and critics alike seem to have vastly different reactions to them. I’m happy to hear that thousands of fans enjoyed the Halloween remake and that it’s made $91.8 million at the global box office opening. In the wake of films like Get Out (2017), it feels like horror films are being taken seriously again. Some fans are not impressed by the new Halloween, while others outright hate it. I would give the remake a C+ as it genuinely tried to be a good slasher, it just wasn’t.
I tried going into the 2018 experience pretending no other Halloween has ever been made. But it’s difficult to avoid comparing remakes to their originals. I am a huge fan of the 2010 Michael Bay Nightmare remake not because it’s anything like the 1984 original, but because it’s vastly different. The question I have for every horror remake is, what can I learn? The 2010 Nightmare finally answered the question that yes, Freddy molested children. House of Wax’s 2005 remake brought some actual plot and character development to an otherwise two-sided tale. What exactly does the Halloween remake add to the franchise?
Well, we find out that Laurie Strode got older? That her children and grandchildren think she’s weird? Although Laurie’s character has been “training for decades” she only uses outdated weapons and can’t perform a simple armbar. This Halloween is so far removed from the original yet stands to add so little to the franchise.
I was definitely on the edge of my seat all 106 minutes of the film, but why? Jump scares. This remake isn’t big on character development, plot, kills, or gore, but there were a lot of jump scares. Although many amazing slashers have jumps scares, Halloween seemed to rely solely on audio for its scare factor. I’m not saying that any horror fan is actually going to be scared by a slasher, but a bit of actual fright might help.
I like horror films that give me heart palpitations or at least some goosebumps. Movies like I Spit on Your Grave (1978), SAW (2004), and Get Out (2017) make me view the world a little differently as I leave the theatre. Suddenly a bump in the restroom makes me jump, a small boy waiting for his mother seems to be screaming, “Red rum! Red rum!” But leaving Halloween, all I wondered was, should I do my laundry when I get home?
And again, it’s not always possible to scare a horror fan, but horror should at least make us uneasy. Watching Halloween felt like I was driving sober and noticed a cop following me for a few miles before turning off. I’m used to slashers that give me adrenaline pumping scares, that make my drive home feeling like I’m trying to get two pounds of drugs through airport security while high on crystal meth. I want to walk out of a slasher being just as scared as I am to walk alone to my car at night. While I applaud Jamie Lee’s acting, she didn’t have much to work with. The new Laurie Strode isn’t related to Michael, doesn’t really have PTSD, and has one drink the entire Halloween night.
I suppose if Halloween 2 (1981) through Resurrection (2002) never existed, Laurie would have mild PTSD symptoms but not quite as marked as if she experienced repeated trauma. I’m glad to live in a world where Resurrection never existed, as that was an abomination of a movie. However, Halloween: H20 is still one of my all-time favorite Halloween remakes. In H20, Laurie Strode had real-life PTSD symptoms, nightmares, meds that didn’t work, inability to form any semblance of a normal relationship, rage, fear, the list goes on.
The Laurie Strode we get in the 2018 Halloween has a ton of guns, with very little knowledge of how to use them. 2018 Laurie is not afraid of Michael and has little else to her life’s story than being presumably agoraphobic (though she has no problem leaving the house). The new Laurie hands off a revolver and says, “take this, these guns never jam,” while anyone who’s ever shot a revolver knows they jam all the damn time.
What’s even more confusing than what’s happened, or not happened to Laurie Strode, are the other characters in the film. There are inexplicably two random British podcasters with no knowledge of psychology, murder, or possibly don’t even have college degrees, that are somehow interested in the story of Michael Myers. A yawning 35 minutes go by as we watch old ass Michael Myers, sans mask, stumble around, while these two blithering idiots interview people for their podcast. The only benefit to the random podcasters’ existence, is that I get to see podcasters die, which is cool if you’ve ever been forced to listen to BBC talk radio.
Other than that, the characters are given no defining characteristics, other than just being Millennials. For 35 minutes, we get no blood, no humor, just exposition upon exposition and off-screen deaths. However, the final 30 minutes of the film are really entertaining. With the random Millennials and Brits offscreen, Laurie and Michael can finally face off. Although we haven’t seen enough blood to warrant an R-rating so far, the ending brings innovative kills and brutal gore we’ve been waiting for.
We finally get to see a crushed brain, some realistic looking blood, and a battle between Laurie and Michael. When Michael arrives at Laurie’s NRA man-cave of a house, he breaks through the glass door and strangles Laurie Strode. Luckily for Laurie, strangling is one of the dumbest moves a killer can pull, just pivot and you’re free. It truly is an amazing ending, with suspense, twists and turns, and finally, some blood. But I’m not sure a cool ending makes up for the filmmaker’s lack of knowledge regarding Michael Myers and basic human psychology.
I suppose there are worse ways to spend one’s Saturday night?
— The Final Girl
Editor’s Note: If you’re interested in more Psycho Drive-In discussions about the classic horror franchise, Halloween, check out Kelvin Green’s “ABCs of Horror Day 3: C is for Carpenter” and “ABCs of Horror Day 12: H is for Halloween“, The Final Girl’s “ABCs of Horror 2016 Day 7: C is for Jamie Lee Curtis” and “Scream Queen Revisited: Halloween H20“, Corin Totin’s “Halloween (1978) vs Halloween (2007)” and “Halloween II (1981) vs Halloween II (2009)“, Raul Reyes’ “Women in Horror: Danielle Harris and Halloween 5” and Paul Brian McCoy’s “Schlock & Awe 02: Dr. Sam Loomis“.