The Halloween series has had more twists and turns than an unpredictable road, but this newest incarnation manages to measure up to the original that inspired it. This is an effective follow up 40 years in the making and it proved to be well worth the wait.
I think one of the reasons why this standalone effort works so well is because the main forces from the original have returned and they remember the ingredients that brought them to the dance: John Carpenter is back as an executive producer and Jamie Lee Curtis reprises the definitive role of her career and plays it like a rock star who hasn’t missed a beat and can still crank out the hits.
Curtis does return as Laurie Strode who survived the events of the first Halloween now living in isolation even at the expense of not seeing her daughter (Judy Greer) and her granddaughter (Andi Matichak).
Instead, she spends her days training for the inevitable encounter with the psychotic Michael Myers (Nick Castle, the original actor from ’78) and let’s just say she’s as deadly with a shotgun as Uma Thurman’s The Bride is with a sword.
When Michael does make his escape from his insane asylum, he’s got one thing and one thing only on his mind and that is to finish the carnage he started 40 years earlier. The rest of the movie is basically a series of establishing the new victims as well as Curtis trying to reunite with her family and prepare them for the ultimate showdown. I pretty much described the plot in a nutshell.
We do get a lot of scenes of blood in some highly creative sequences, but like the original, this one proves to be much more of a psychological thriller than a flat out gorefest. There’s also a surprising amount of sly humor as in one scene involving a babysitter and a little kid who provides some terrific comic relief about stuff concerning the babysitter and her boyfriend. Danny McBride, who cowrote the screenplay, is probably to thank for a lot of these moments.
Will there be another sequel to this one? Only time will tell, but I wouldn’t mind seeing another one if it proves to be as smart and suspenseful as this one.
Freddy and Jason, take notes. This is how a horror reboot is done.
Grade: B+
(Rated R for horror violence and bloody images, language, brief drug use, and nudity.)
