Man that was one hell of a movie. Definitely the second best in the series. Everyone played there part very well. I was hearing of comedy overkill in this film but honestly it was well placed and did not phase me one bit. Score was abit average but nice to hear at certain times. They took some homages from the first thats pretty damn clear but Myers was straight up relentless in this . The kill that kinda threw me off was
the kill with the woman on the phone putting down the blinds. I uttered f'eing hell when he just chucked her like a ragdoll like he was disgusted by that kill lol"
Yea it was basic . Its been a while since ive seen a good slasher in the cinema but i kinda forgot how savage he was with that kitchen knife. Maybe im just overwhelmed because its nice to have a break from the possession horror films. Anyway the build up of that particular scene was fantastic all done in one tracking shot.
Just got back from the theater, and oh man, I absolutely loved it. So I've only ever actually seen the first one, and I ended up rewatching it earlier to go along with today's viewing. It really does just add to the richness of this one. All the little nods to the original were fresh in my mind and great to see.
This film is brutal in all the right ways, but also very tense. The best part of the first one is the paranoia and building tension, I think this one did a really good job at emulating that same kind of feel and atmosphere. Just a case of every piece of filmmaking being just put together with love and care. The cinematography and score (that damn score is magnificent) just fully draw you in, immersing you in the world.
For the most part I found all the acting to be really good. Jamie Lee Curtis is fantastic. Laurie is such a wonderful character. She's badass but not without fear and vulnerability. They could've easily just made her this gung-ho hunter, but they didn't and it was absolutely amazing. Nick Castle and James Jude Courtney are so damn great at being the Shape. His mannerisms and movements are terrifying, but also can convey some humor in movements. They really did a great job at creating a character through only movement, and deserve a ton of praise.
The rest of the cast are all pretty good. I thought all the teens were great, and the little boy being babysat was funny as all hell. Only people I really had an issue with were Allyson's parents. Not that I think either of them were bad, but the dad was just a little off to me, and Judy Greer (who I love) was a little too known for me. I see her in the same kind of role as the mom in a lot of roles, so she took me out a little. Neither of those are issues with the film, just very minor nitpicks.
I do have some other issues with the film that aren't spoiler related. I agree with the pacing issue. It does slightly falter in the beginning and then there is one moment in the finale that could've been better edited. Then there were some characters being stupid for the sake of the plot. None of them were overtly bad and they're few and far between, but they did come at some critical moments which kinda stunk.
Going to go into some random spoiler thoughts bellow, but I can firmly say this is in my top 3 of the year for films. I can't wait to go see it again. 9/10
The dinner scene was absolutely heartbreaking. Now that's some fine acting by JLC, I was a little choked up.
Little disappointed that the tracking scene wasn't longer and that we saw almost the whole thing in the trailer. My fault for watching it, but would've been nice for a little more.
The motion sensor sequence is not only one of the best horror sequences, but it an amazing sequence in general. One of my favorite scenes this year.
Carpenter's score for the following scene of Allyson confronting the Shape for the first time was jaw dropping. That man, was truly on his A-game.
I really didn't like the doctor subplot/twist's execution. Not a bad idea on paper, I really liked how everyone was trying to force Laurie and Michael together. I think it really stumbled in how it went about it. More manipulation of the events would've been better than him straight up killing a man and driving Micheal to the house. Glad it didn't take up too much time.
I also didn't mind the sandwich scene. Was a little longer than necessary, probably could've cut the first half, but I laughed. Speaking of humor, it was great to see Michael's twisted humor. The jack-o-lantern head was both disturbing but kinda funny/cool at the same time. Loved the imagery in the whole film.
Laurie searching the house for Michael was super tense. The final set piece was just fantastic all together. Really loved seeing what Laurie planned come together over the course of the scene.
Very interested in where they end up going in a possible sequel. The ending left a couple of different ideas open. Wonder if they'll stick to the original idea they had when they wanted to film this and a sequel back to back, or shift it around a lot.
One thing I think they missed out on is Michael becoming sort of an urban legend/celebrity serial killer and it rubbing off on the general public. Mass marketing of his mask being a popular costume in that town would've been an interesting thing to do, especially to see how Laurie deals with it and finding the real Michael harder.
Yeah that is one thing I appreciated about this movie regarding the characters. I liked most of them. The only one I didn't care for was Alyson's boyfriend, whom we were obviously not meant to like anyway since he was a cheating *****e.
Agreed. I was very surprised by how much I liked each of the characters, and was actually afraid/upset when they met their fate. Was refreshing to see just genuinely good people meet an unfortunate fate.
So I had a great time with this movie. It's a solid, well made modern day Halloween movie. The direction and the score are on point here and I really enjoyed this take on Michael Myers. He is as brutal as ever and once he is unleashed in Haddonfield it truly feels like a rampaging monster is on the loose. Jamie Lee Curtis is also fantastic in this as well as the majority of acting across the board being very solid. All of that being said there are some pretty glaring problems IMO. Pacing being the biggest one, especially in that rushed first half as well as there being too many of those typical horror movie tropes that just bugs the **** out of me every time in one of these movies. A few I don't mind, but there were way too many instances of characters doing and saying stupid cliche things where you know they were just being set up to die. I also think some of the comedy bits could have been cut entirely like the bit with cops and while I did like the scenes with the little black kid the jokes kind of took me out of the intensity that was suppose to be in that scene.
I did love that final showdown in the house though.
There were some nice nods to the original in that sequence.
I cannot stop thinking about this movie guys. This really made my year honestly. As a massive horror fan, a massive fan of the franchise and the original being my all time favorite. This was everything I wanted it to be and even more. I am so unbelievably happy.
I am glad you loved it so much Broseph 44. Who knows maybe after a few rewatches it will grow on me because I definitely want to see it again. Michael is done is so well done in this movie and I knew we were getting something special after that bathroom scene. Such a brutal scene, but seeing his ferocity and anger come out in that sequence is what sold me the most. To me it honestly felt like 40 years of rage was being released all at once and from then on it made sense to me why he would be so unrelenting, although I love the fact that it was still scary how random his killing spree was. I do wish we got more shots of him covered in darkness because while I can appreciate they were at least trying to capture that aspect of the original it was handled in a much better way IMO. It is definitely not an easy task recapturing that level intensity.
As a massive Halloween fan I was disappointed with this film. Didn't hate it, had some good elements. It's definitely above most of the sequels, though that's not hard to do lol. To go from the start I wasn't jazzed about the placing of the opening pumpkin credits. Should have been placed before the Smith's Grove scene imo. As it is it's a sudden jump cut that took away the slow building tension of that scene. I wasn't a fan of the
first scene between the journalists and Laurie. The scene added nothing to the story. Laurie simply said believe in the boogeyman and then get the F out of my house. We've heard the whole boogeyman speech a thousand times. No real shocker
. As someone mentioned earlier, the new Doctor Loomis character
would have been a great twist and added something to the original film if we found out that due to being a student of Loomis, this guy was the one who gave Michael those driving lessons and helped him escape the first time in '78'
. It would have been a great unknown connective tissue between both films. As it stands, his character and his intentions were frankly pointless to the film. I also wish the film had focused on Laurie more and her struggle. This is where H20 is a better film imo. In that film Laurie had some problems with drinking, terrible nightmares, thinking she sees Michael everywhere she goes and she's extremely overprotective of her child. A far more realistic version of trauma and the effects it has on someone's life. H20 started her off as still a scared 17 year old girl who never got over it, to the end of the movie realising that she had to be a strong woman now and face that demon head on if she's ever gonna live her life. This film having her preparing her whole life for his return and having traps set, takes away the tension of Michael's return because you know Laurie as a character is wiser, more steadfast and headstrong. That's just my view. I also felt the third act to be very rushed and the confrontation with Michael to be to brief. I have more things I didn't like but I'm on 2 hours sleep and I'm dead tired. As of now I'd give it a 6.5/7 out of 10. I will watch it a few more times to see if I feel differently, however as it stands now I still feel H2 and H20 make a better trilogy with the original than this film does as a direct sequel.
As a massive Halloween fan I was disappointed with this film. Didn't hate it, had some good elements. It's definitely above most of the sequels, though that's not hard to do lol. To go from the start I wasn't jazzed about the placing of the opening pumpkin credits. Should have been placed before the Smith's Grove scene imo. As it is it's a sudden jump cut that took away the slow building tension of that scene. I wasn't a fan of the
first scene between the journalists and Laurie. The scene added nothing to the story. Laurie simply said believe in the boogeyman and then get the F out of my house. We've heard the whole boogeyman speech a thousand times. No real shocker
. As someone mentioned earlier, the new Doctor Loomis character
would have been a great twist and added something to the original film if we found out that due to being a student of Loomis, this guy was the one who gave Michael those driving lessons and helped him escape the first time in '78'
. It would have been a great unknown connective tissue between both films. As it stands, his character and his intentions were frankly pointless to the film. I also wish the film had focused on Laurie more and her struggle. This is where H20 is a better film imo. In that film Laurie had some problems with drinking, terrible nightmares, thinking she sees Michael everywhere she goes and she's extremely overprotective of her child. A far more realistic version of trauma and the effects it has on someone's life. H20 started her off as still a scared 17 year old girl who never got over it, to the end of the movie realising that she had to be a strong woman now and face that demon head on if she's ever gonna live her life. This film having her preparing her whole life for his return and having traps set, takes away the tension of Michael's return because you know Laurie as a character is wiser, more steadfast and headstrong. That's just my view. I also felt the third act to be very rushed and the confrontation with Michael to be to brief. I have more things I didn't like but I'm on 2 hours sleep and I'm dead tired. As of now I'd give it a 6.5/7 out of 10. I will watch it a few more times to see if I feel differently, however as it stands now I still feel H2 and H20 make a better trilogy with the original than this film does as a direct sequel.
I had a similar feeling leaving Halloween that I had leaving Jurassic World a few years ago, that I had just seen an entertaining but mediocre movie built largely on nostalgia and the promise of going back to its "roots". The new Halloween movie had the window dressing of JC's Halloween...the music, the opening titles with the pumpkin, the font etc but in the end it just ended up being a mish-mash of the same slasher fare with the same kind of lame characters we've seen in countless other slashers the last 30+ years. Aside from Laurie and her granddaughter the characters were nothing noteworthy and even Laurie's character got a bit hammy so the granddaughter ended up being my favorite character by default. While Michael's mannerisms were nailed and his brutal portrayal was entertaining for the most part I didn't like
the departure from his usual stalking style, especially since this is supposed to be a direct sequel to Halloween. From the time Michael dons the mask he's a straight forward killing machine....no real stalking, no patience, no targeting of anyone specific. He just dives into a killing orgy brutally offing random people I guess to make up for lost time. The tracking shot was nice and all but I felt betrayed the essence of what made Michael different from the rest.
The last half of the movie doesn't feel cohesive at all and is probably one of the most unfocused efforts since H6's theatrical cut. Michael is doing his thing to any random faceless fodder he comes across
until the movie finds one of the most ridiculous reasons to get Michael to Laurie's house. After that "twist" I checked out mentally for a bit because I really couldn't believe the writers couldn't think of something better.
The big showdown was decent but not really anything great enough to justify sitting through this movie again any time soon. And that ending, ugh.
As Laurie and her family were leaving Michael in the burning house my wife whispered the Dr. Evil line "I'm going to leave him alone and not actually witness him dying and assume it all went to plan". I couldn't help but laugh because the stupidity of that ending was true and just undercut Laurie's motivation for the entire movie. You wait 40 years for this guy to come after you so you can kill him but then leave him without confirming he's actually dead? Cmon man.
I had a similar feeling leaving Halloween that I had leaving Jurassic World a few years ago, that I had just seen an entertaining but mediocre movie built largely on nostalgia and the promise of going back to its "roots". The new Halloween movie had the window dressing of JC's Halloween...the music, the opening titles with the pumpkin, the font etc but in the end it just ended up being a mish-mash of the same slasher fare with the same kind of lame characters we've seen in countless other slashers the last 30+ years. Aside from Laurie and her granddaughter the characters were nothing noteworthy and even Laurie's character got a bit hammy so the granddaughter ended up being my favorite character by default. While Michael's mannerisms were nailed and his brutal portrayal was entertaining for the most part I didn't like
the departure from his usual stalking style, especially since this is supposed to be a direct sequel to Halloween. From the time Michael dons the mask he's a straight forward killing machine....no real stalking, no patience, no targeting of anyone specific. He just dives into a killing orgy brutally offing random people I guess to make up for lost time. The tracking shot was nice and all but I felt betrayed the essence of what made Michael different from the rest.
The last half of the movie doesn't feel cohesive at all and is probably one of the most unfocused efforts since H6's theatrical cut. Michael is doing his thing to any random faceless fodder he comes across
until the movie finds one of the most ridiculous reasons to get Michael to Laurie's house. After that "twist" I checked out mentally for a bit because I really couldn't believe the writers couldn't think of something better.
The big showdown was decent but not really anything great enough to justify sitting through this movie again any time soon. And that ending, ugh.
As Laurie and her family were leaving Michael in the burning house my wife whispered the Dr. Evil line "I'm going to leave him alone and not actually witness him dying and assume it all went to plan". I couldn't help but laugh because the stupidity of that ending was true and just undercut Laurie's motivation for the entire movie. You wait 40 years for this guy to come after you so you can kill him but then leave him without confirming he's actually dead? Cmon man.
This is not true, Michael does stalking of the investigative journalists (check him out watching them in the cemetery when they visit Judith's grave). He stalked Vicky and Julian. This was also a return to the more playful Myers who put some Halloween theatrics into his murders.
Why shouldn't Michael be doing random killing? He randomly chose victims to kill in the original. Did you think he was going to pack up and be done for the night if he had succeeded in killing Laurie back in 1978? That was one of the points of the character this franchise sorely needed to return to. Michael is random. Anyone can be a target with him.
Laurie confirmed as much as anyone could confirm that Michael is dead. She trapped him in her fortress basement. Metal bars blocking off the entrance. Then set the whole place on fire. This isn't the Michael of HII and beyond that has survived all kinds of inhuman punishment. This Michael was apprehended after being shot by Loomis, and has been out of commission for 40 years. What would you have had Laurie do? Sit outside until her whole house burns down, then dig through the ashes until she finds a body?
On a side note, I vehemently disagree that Laurie became hammy at any point. She was a brilliant portrayal of a PTSD victim all the way through.
Definitely agree about the awkward placement of the opening credits. That's the most jarring thing to me. Still enjoyed pretty much everything else though. Wish there was more with the kill spree though, simply because I expected there to be more.
This is not true, Michael does stalking of the investigative journalists (check him out watching them in the cemetery when they visit Judith's grave). He stalked Vicky and Julian. This was also a return to the more playful Myers who put some Halloween theatrics into his murders.
Why shouldn't Michael be doing random killing? He randomly chose victims to kill in the original. Did you think he was going to pack up and be done for the night if he had succeeded in killing Laurie back in 1978? That was one of the points of the character this franchise sorely needed to return to. Michael is random. Anyone can be a target with him.
Laurie confirmed as much as anyone could confirm that Michael is dead. She trapped him in her fortress basement. Metal bars blocking off the entrance. Then set the whole place on fire. This isn't the Michael of HII and beyond that has survived all kinds of inhuman punishment. This Michael was apprehended after being shot by Loomis, and has been out of commission for 40 years. What would you have had Laurie do? Sit outside until her whole house burns down, then dig through the ashes until she finds a body?
On a side note, I vehemently disagree that Laurie became hammy at any point. She was a brilliant portrayal of a PTSD victim all the way through.
Michael didn't randomly choose Laurie to kill. She became a target just because she happened to drop the key off at the Myers house and he patiently stalked Laurie and anyone who happened to be with her all day and night. He didn't go from house to house stabbing old ladies and housewives lol. In H78 Michael obviously liked the foreplay of observing his victims before the kill. If H78 followed Michael's behavior in H18 Laurie's friends would have been dead in 5 minutes. H18 just abandoned the patience of his stalking for the sake of a cool modern tracking shot. They nailed his mannerisms and all that but as far as Michael's M.O. he seemed more like a Jason clone.
If Laurie believes Michael is the boogeyman and waited 40 years for that guy to come after her then yeah, she should have confirmed or at least say she wanted to make sure he died and have her daughter pull her away. I could have accepted that. Locking him in the basement and assuming he's going to burn still leaves doubt. And this Michael could obviously take a lot of punishment. She shot him like 2-3 times and he was still ticking. Even Laurie's daughter got a shot in and guess what? He's still ticking. The guy even got hit by a car lol. You don't leave that to chance. And if they have the inevitable sequel it's going to make her look even dumber.
Michael didn't randomly choose Laurie to kill. She became a target just because she happened to drop the key off at the Myers house and he patiently stalked Laurie and anyone who happened to be with her all day and night. He didn't go from house to house stabbing old ladies and housewives lol. In H78 Michael obviously liked the foreplay of observing his victims before the kill. If H78 followed Michael's behavior in H18 Laurie's friends would have been dead in 5 minutes. H18 just abandoned the patience of his stalking for the sake of a cool modern tracking shot. They nailed his mannerisms and all that but as far as Michael's M.O. he seemed more like a Jason clone.
If Laurie believes Michael is the boogeyman and waited 40 years for that guy to come after her then yeah, she should have confirmed or at least say she wanted to make sure he died and have her daughter pull her away. I could have accepted that. Locking him in the basement and assuming he's going to burn still leaves doubt. And this Michael could obviously take a lot of punishment. She shot him like 2-3 times and he was still ticking. Even Laurie's daughter got a shot in and guess what? He's still ticking. You don't leave that to chance. And if they have the inevitable sequel it's going to make her look even dumber.
Yes, he randomly chose to kill Laurie. You just pointed that out yourself. Anyone who dropped a key off at his house could have been targeted. Or he could have randomly chose someone else if nobody had dropped a key off. He went back to Haddonfield to kill. He wasn't waiting for someone to drop something off at his house. That's random. In fact if you watch the original, he spends half the night camped out at Annie's house, not Laurie's. He didn't go to the Doyle house and watch her. He bee lined for Annie's. Annie didn't drop off any key.
Loomis: "Death has come to your little town, Sheriff. You can either ignore it or you can help me to stop it"
Brackett: "Doctor, do you know what Haddonfield is. Families, children, all lined up in rows up and down these streets. You're telling me they're lined up for a slaughterhouse."
H40 finally showed us that, as Michael was stopped before he could expand on his killing spree in H1.
Michael's M.O. didn't change. You're arguing semantics of how long he observed his victims before he killed them. You're avoiding the point. Michael chose random victims. You can't even call him a Jason clone because Jason specifically targets teens who come to Camp Crystal Lake. Stay away from his camp zone and you're fine. Even Freddy specifically went after teens who's parents burned him alive. Michael is random. That's part of what makes him so scary.
Laurie didn't shoot Michael in any fatal areas in H40. He lost two fingers, and took a slug in the shoulder. She is already well aware he doesn't go down like a normal person would, as he kept on coming after she stabbed him in the neck and chest in the original. That's why she incinerated him. Stab wounds and bullets are not as definitive as trapping someone and burning them alive.
Definitely agree about the awkward placement of the opening credits. That's the most jarring thing to me. Still enjoyed pretty much everything else though. Wish there was more with the kill spree though, simply because I expected there to be more.
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