This movie is getting back to the basics of the original Halloween movie from 1978. Halloween fans will love it but if you’ve never seen a Halloween movie you’ll do just fine. There are enough flashbacks to catch anybody up on the story of Michael Myers and his murdering of his sister. You hear a recording of his psychiatrist calling him pure evil and that he should be killed. Forget any storylines that have come after the 1978 original. The writers, one of them being Danny McBride went directly from the first one. There are a few jump scares but this is a lot more than that. John Carpenter was the master of building suspense that leads to a really inventive and totally gross way to kill somebody. And forty years later it’s even bloodier.
If you are a real Halloween Aficionado, which I am not, you’ll notice a lot of nods to the original. A hovering face reflected in a window, a ghost made of a sheet, a body that vanishes, and those dang slated closet doors where all murders and monster hide. But the biggest difference and the major drawing card for this movie is the character Laurie Strode, played again 40 years later by Jamie Lee Curtis. She is not the surviving victim with all kind of emotional problems we saw in 1998’s Halloween H2O. She is an avenging angel that has one mission and one mission only, to kill Michael Myers once and for all. She was the hunted, now she is the hunter. She has her house set up like a crazy survivalist with secret rooms, reinforced doors and windows, million watt flood lights, and an arsenal of weapons like you wouldn’t believe. She is estranged from her daughter Karen, played by Judy Greer. Karen spent her entire childhood learning how to shoot and fight so that she would not be a victim. DSS removed her from the home when she was 12. For her it was a horrible childhood and she resents her mother for it. Karen has a daughter Allyson, played by relatively unknown Andi Matichak, who adores her grandmother and wants her in her life. Will Patton plays a well-meaning police officer and Haluk Bilginer plays Dr. Sartain, Michael Myers psychiatrist that has his own set of problems.
Jamie Lee Curtis was an unknown actress doing bit parts who took the part of Laurie Strode in Halloween in 1978. She stared in 3 more and was a voice in 1.
The fact that she comes full circle and is taking the offensive gives this movie a completely different perspective. The fact that they were able to do this and still make a solid Halloween sequel speaks highly of the writers and directors.
1 hour and 46 minutes, Rated R horror violence and bloody images, language, brief drug use and nudity.
As you know I’m not big on horror movies but that being said this did what it was supposed to do. Scare the crap out of me numerous times.
My Score: 5 Cold Buds