I'm almost done with my rewatch, I just finished H18, so far only the 5th part has annoyed me because it is very chaotic and wastes the potential of H4 ending. Ressurection is so bad it's good and I only have everyone's favorite movies left which is Rob Zombie's Halloween.
Now about H18... We all know that this is a perfect movie, but I will write what I didn't like anyway.
- Too exaggerated opening, nobody would shout at the patient like that, I know they wanted to create tension, but it was artificial and unreasonable, because the mere presence of Michael and a gentle piano in the background created amazing atmosphere.
- The beginning is too dragged out, Michael doesn't run away until 30 minutes in, which is because too much is going on, the pace is too fast and there are too many characters, in the original everything is minimalistic in this respect, even the cast and everything except Michael's escape is simply very slow and almost too quiet and that's why it builds the atmosphere so well.
- Exaggerated Rambo Laurie... I understand her trauma, I understand her isolation from the people, I understand her interest in weapons, but everything about Laurie was turned up to 11. House Trap, the scene where she screams to herself in the car... Just too much and cartoonish. Adult Laurie was much better in H20 where she is at the same time sympathetic as in the original, as well as rough and oversensitive as in H18. Much, much better.
- Terrible humor, nobody watches Halloween for that, in the original if there was humor, it was subtle, or it wasn't directed towards the viewer, but it was happening between the characters to show their relationship. Here we have an annoying kid who destroys tension with every presence. Vicky dies, he shouts "oh ****!" (I remember people in the cinema laughing until the end of the sequence). Cops talking about brownie when Sartain injures Hawkins... The kid talking about his dance class before Michael runs away... And my favorite "oh no ... I've got peanut butter on my penis."
- As Allyson escapes through the woods and stumbles over Laurie's shooting range, we have a really weird typical for Blumhouse movie montage with "creepy" noises and whispers, lots of cuts and then a strange scream from Allyson that doesn't fit the scene at all, because it's just mannequins around her, and yet she screams louder than when she was sitting next to Michael.
- Sartain is a terrible character, he brings nothing to the plot, it's the worst kind of plot device.
- The whole movie Karen is scared and she panics, literally the whole movie, and then when Michael appears in front of her and she doesn't know what happened to Laurie, suddenly the music goes off and Karen changes look on her face and says confidently "got you". I don't buy it, it's just anti-climatic, I know it was supposed to show Karen's strength, but they could show how she despite her fear decides to stand against him instead of doing something like that... I don't buy that, you don't stand in front of Michael and play a tough guy, especially if you've been scared of him throughout the whole movie.
Lots of criticism, criticism that I didn't have in 2018, but for a while now, I have seen everyone portray this movie as perfect and criticizing other films for similar or lesser flaws and this had some influence on my reception of this movie now. It doesn't change the fact that it's still one of my favorite Halloween movies, 8/10, it's the best version of Michael right after the original and all about him is on point, music and cinematography have never been as good as in this movie and I'm counting the days until Halloween Kills which seems to be even better than the last one.