The latest incarnation of the Halloween franchise offers itself, much like any other film in the series featuring Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her seminal role of Laurie Strode save for the original sequel, as a soft reboot.
Apparently, this is the latest film that disbands any other sequel, including the original follow-up, Halloween: H20, and Halloween: Resurrection.
This time, Laurie has become the Dr. Loomis stand-in, she’s been waiting for Michael Myers to return, and she spends the film prepping and hunting down the killer.
The film is an above-average sequel to the original.
It isn’t an awakening or a revelation to the franchise, it’s a fair follow-up that does not necessarily run the risk of beating a dead horse but doesn’t bring anything new to the franchise either.
The film is a hybrid; it offers a new story with the continuation of both Laurie and Michael Myers, while at the same time offering direct and indirect homages to the original film as well as the sequels.
While it is fun to watch Jamie Lee Curtis reprise Laurie in a purposeful way, the real star of the picture is the new score from John Carpenter with help from his son Cody as well as Daniel A. Davies.
The new score, including an updated version of the original theme, adds an exhilarating feeling to the film, both enhancing the terror and shoring up the moody atmosphere of impending doom.
Aside from Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role, as does Nick Castle as The Shape/Michael Myers for just one scene (the rest of the movie Michael was played by James Jude Courtney).
The casting of Castle is more than just an Easter egg for diehard fans but adds an air of sensibility and authenticity to Myers, showing that he’s not just a man, but an older man.
The same man who has been patiently awaiting unchaining himself and heading back to Haddonfield for unfinished business. The rest of the cast is populated with characters actors in Judy Greer as Laurie’s daughter, Toby Huss as the son-in-law, and newcomer Andi Matichak as Laurie’s granddaughter. They all do an ample job, but the most welcomed addition to the Halloween franchise is Will Patton as a new character who is retroactively written into the events of the original film.
While Patton is excellent in his role, and a pleasure to see on the big screen again, his character comes to the fate of being sorely underutilized.
Halloween comes forty years after the original, and while it will very well please the thirst of champions of the original film and its sequels, it inevitably is a sequel that has its interesting moments and brutal kills, yet it’s just another Halloween sequel that doesn’t come anywhere close to the original film, and is still finding its footing in the tiered ranking of the sequels.
It is better than most of them, but due to some hollow story arcs and flat humour, the film lags somewhere behind the original sequel that should remain the benchmark of a follow-up to the original film.
While John Carpenter remains an executive producer and crafts a remarkable score for the new film, and wrote the screenplay for the original sequel, it is perfectly understandable why he’s left the franchise alone and never came back to the director’s chair; there is nothing that will ever come close to the genre setting masterpiece that remains the original Halloween.
Review by Frank Mengarelli
Summary
The latest installment of the Halloween franchise offers some thrilling moments and an incredible score from the creator John Carpenter, but the film is an above average sequel that lags behind the original follow-up to the genre setting masterpiece that is the original film.
