"Halloween" (2018) - Film Review
It’s hard to justify the return of Michael Myers, the looming boogeyman who made his first appearance in 1978’s Halloween. In 2018, after ten Halloween movies in that forty-year span (some outright sequels, others attempted reboots), Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is back for Halloween. One would think those forty years would have given the town of Haddonfield a sense of clarity or compassion toward Laurie’s enduring trauma, but that’s not the case.
Laurie was last seen in Halloween: Resurrection, but 2018’s Halloween is a sequel to the 1978 film of the same name, essentially erasing the ten films and plotlines that came after it. This practice is called retroactive continuity (or retcon) and this might be the most egregious example of it to date. On the one hand, it’s wonderfully refreshing to have a sixty-year-old woman play the lead in a slasher movie, something that would not have happened had they picked up where Halloween: Resurrections left off with Laurie dying. On the other hand, rendering all of those in-between films meaningless feels like a disservice to what made the franchise so enduring.
This retconning does explain why all of Haddonfield has written Laurie off as a town loner and a doomsday prepper. She’s built a fortified house and rarely leaves it, just in case Michael ever returns. Laurie has been drinking for most of her life, and she lost custody of her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) when she was twelve. Karen now has a child and rarely speaks with Laurie.
Universal Pictures
As expected, Michael escapes and makes his way back to Haddonfield with the goal of finishing what he started. What follows is a paint-by-numbers slasher film with a synth score that harkens back to the 1978 original. It can feel frustrating at times that all the residents of Haddonfield have to do to evade Michael’s wrath is walk just a tiny bit faster. His pace is lumbering and slow and yet he has no trouble catching up with anyone trying to escape him. The movie is also trying to make a statement about how people become desensitized to ghastly murders, but it never quite gets to anything of substance. So much of the film feels like a retread of the 1978 original and doesn’t stand on its own until the final confrontation among Laurie, Karen, and Michael.
As a standalone, Halloween (2018) was a satisfying end to Laurie’s long years of nightmare (before they announced sequels). Finally, with Michael trapped in a burning basement, Laurie could have stopped looking over her shoulder. She would have been able to bridge the gap between herself and her daughter and find the help she deserves. Now, however, the impending sequels cheapen this journey. All of her work and growth will be for nothing, just so Laurie can be put through more trauma. We know that there is a contractual obligation to keep Michael Myers alive, and it begs the question that the series will never be able to answer: why?
Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Letterboxd, and YouTube.