NOTE: This is not a criticism of those who like these films.
Every entry in the franchise after the original Halloween in 1978 has been an exercise in watching a red-headed stepchild get abused.
While there are plenty of good and even great elements and ideas presented throughout the franchise, those elements and ideas are overwhelmed by bad ideas, silly attempts to explain Michael Myers’ motives, bizarre tangents, and what comes off as a general disrespect for the franchise.
In spite of this abuse there are some entries that are actually good movies, Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers is the best example with is sequel, Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers running a close second. Even Halloween III: The Season of the Witch is a pretty good stand-alone story even though it feels more like a made-for-TV movie.
For every Jamie Lloyd, however, there is a Curse of Thorn. For every Rachel Carruthers there’s an internet reality show in the Myers house with a hidden underground tunnel network that connects exclusively to the Myers house because the movie needs to happen.
That’s why when they announced that Halloween 2018 would ignore everything but the original film I had some hope. After all, I had been watching the original for 40 years. Always looking for something new in dialogue, in what was not said, in body language, in what we see presented on film versus what we’re told and what we assume… I had become rather clinical in my examinations and my discussions with others on the subject of Michael Myers and which theories make sense and which do not… Oh, those poor bastards who have had to hear me ramble on and on.
In the end I had a theory about Michael Myers that made sense to me and accounted for his acts and interactions with the characters and victims in the original film. My ideas make sense and I can back them up with the evidence that is presented on film in the original Halloween.
So, yes, I had hope. Hope that someone could see what I see or, failing that, they could see something I didn’t see that would also make sense to me in the end.
This would not be the case.
Instead what we got was just another exercise in Michael Myers being misrepresented and misapplied in a story that overestimates the value of Laurie Strode, then doesn’t, then does again.
We got a narrative that didn’t know what it wanted to be from film to film.
We got an exercise nostalgia baiting that exceeds what is normally referred to as “Memberberries” and escalated into what seems a desperate attempt by the filmmakers to prove to the audience that they, the filmmakers, had seen the Halloween movies too!
We got and alleged Trilogy that is more accurately described as an anthology due the tenuous nature of the narrative threads that bind these films together. It comes across to me like the writers came to resent the story they started so they shifted gears and used the COVID-19 release as an excuse to do so.
I could go on but then I’d just be repeating the reviews I’ve already written.
In short, what we got was more of what we already had. A few good ideas overwhelmed by bad or inconsistent ideas and executions. In other words, an exercise in watching a red-headed stepchild get abused.
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