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Halloween

(David Gordon Green)




Halloween is an interesting film. It blew up at the box-office and over performed. Why is that? Was it good marketing? Good timing of release? The talent involved? I think it has to do with all that mixed in a blender, but I'd lean more towards the fact that we have David Gordon Green and Danny McBride bringing Myers back to the big screen. Look at the Nightmare On Elm Street remake for example. The director has nothing but music videos on his resume. The film felt and looked so generic that it didn't stand out. You have a guy in that film who can kill you in your dreams, but the CGI mess and lack of creativity hurts it. Then we have the Friday the 13th remake which fares a little better, but is directed by yet another music video guy. I'm not saying music video directors are bad, I'm saying they usually have a style. That style is 'frantic' and it fit the Platinum Dunes vision. Finally look at the Rob Zombie Halloween. Zombie is a music video director...granted it's his own music videos but whatever. The difference with him is he loves the genre, but has only made one decent film. His obsession is in the wrong place for Michael Myers, he wants the violence and gore, the dirty and grotesque. That doesn't really fit with the Myers lore. So why does this film feel different? It has patience.

40 years after the events of the first film, Laurie Strode still hasn't moved on. She has become a recluse, transforming her home into a makeshift panic room of sorts. This obsession with the masked killer has cost her everything. Her daughter won't speak to her, her granddaughter has little to no relationship with her and she has multiple failed marriages. When she learns that Michael Myers has escaped after a prisoner transfer mishap, she decides to put those decades of training and waiting into use. The hunter becomes the hunted.

But not really. The last act in this film had potential, but I feel like it falls just below of being satisfied. She had 40 years to prepare and we get her with a gun closing doors basically. It could have been more of a Horror-Home Alone scenario which could have been interesting. A little underwhelming for my taste, but the package as a whole was indeed satisfying. Green and McBride show their love for the original with all the winks and nods. There are so many references and homages to Carpenter's Halloween that I know I must have missed a few. The opening credits has that orange font, classic soundtrack and a pumpkin. Oooh, the nostalgia. But something is different, the pumpkin is rotted and slowly reversing back to its original form. This is McBride and Green telling us right from the start that they are going back to basics. They are reviving this monster, this evil.

The film is self aware, Strode even calls the new doctor "New Loomis". Basically saying what the audience is thinking. I do wish the film had taken more of an interest in Strode and less in the cardboard cutout teens that get killed. Maybe dive more into her PTSD, her family problems, make this a deeper character study. It's hard to ignore the themes present in this film though, very timely with the #MeToo movement. There is one shot in particular where we see the three generations of women banded together that feels like a punctuation point. Judy Greer plays the daughter and she has one moment that was a crowd-pleaser. I'm not too familiar with Andi Matichak who plays the granddaughter, she does an okay job, nothing stands out from her performance though.

A great one-take of Myers going on a small killing spree was delightful. As was the gas station bathroom showdown. Sequences like these show that this was a passion project and not cash grab. There is a lot of attention to detail here, we even get a shot of the neck wound Myers sustained from the original film. I wonder if Green will come back for the inevitable sequel.