Halloween (2018)
Trick or Treat
And lo, the planets did align and beckon for fate to be met. The time of watching and writing this is October 31st, the night of Halloween. The luck of the delivery shuffle held true, and on this day but one movie has the most logical bearing to be watched - Halloween. We’ve already visited in the past, but it’s time to visit the new - and in all honesty, although a review doesn’t exist for each and every one, at this point I have seen mostly all of them (I’m missing Number 3 and the second Rob Zombie movie) so it’s almost a return to form. Heck, you’d probably be surprised to know but I am moderately sure that I in fact started way late into this series - back with H20 - before I got into horror movies in the first place. Still, even as we drive past the perfect alignment of day and night, it also services another factor - that of tying into an idea of a sort of mid-run reboot, much like it seems as though the newer Terminator movie is doing. That’s right, it’s not a new thing at all, this franchise has been playing it fast and loose during it’s existence as well. Find your Shatner mask and hide the big cutters, tonight we watch (the 2018) Halloween.
Look, there’s something to be desirable off a slasher movie franchise that takes the time to do more than simply rack up a body count. The first of it’s run was almost just as much about that atmosphere of stalking and high-tension creeping as it was about throwing syrup around a room with a hammer. Where Freddy came in with is jokes and flash, and Jason brought more ridiculous body counts on his trek to space, Myers started his slow romp around the common neighborhood with a knife in one hand and a mask that had more expressions than he did. This new entry remembers that, more so than some of the other entries in fact. Frequently you will find characters shot in a manner where they aren’t dead center of the screen - and almost every time you expect to see something lurking behind. The movie is smart though - the people making it knew expectations going in, and they will play with it. Maybe only half of those lingering backgrounds actually have anything there, with a dabbling so feint you’d miss it if you blinked and the rest yelling at your eyeballs that Michael has come to play. Cinematically, this bad boy knows what it’s doing and does it well. It’ll throw in some angles on you to upset the balance of ease, cracks in plenty of shots both far and near, and brings emphasis to things you don’t even really pay attention to until payoff presents you with a reason it was all there you hadn’t even thought about.
It’s not all left to the camera though. Yes, it does a good amount of legwork with it’s compositions to frame things in the background for you to notice that the characters themselves aren’t aware of, but audio helps a lot in this as well. Something mundane like the clattering of tools queues you in to the boogeyman doing something unfortunate to someone off screen, enforcing the fact that we saw a blurry bad man in the background wander off in a certain direction. Audio lines come across well and understandable, and plenty of emotion can carry across even if the music is ramping up or the action is riding high. The music itself even helps itself to stand out - probably in no small part thanks to the familiarity through nostalgia and franchise saturation and familiarity much like I had with the newer Godzilla. The songs sound like Carpenter worked on them, fitting in effortlessly with the movie and series as a whole. Of course, that synthetic buzz and tones of tension are only helped along with some more modern feeling backings being mixed in, really helping it be enjoyable even if it’s not some lyrical masterpiece that will have you singing about Legos every time you wake up in the morning.
Of course, the other side of the audio is the actors themselves. As mentioned, they do a great job of having emotional inflection in their deliveries. It’s not just about the way things sound though, but how they put their body and expressions into it, making it easier to not just hear the worry or sadness, but to feel the horror-laced worry behind something even as common as “I love you.” All of this is to say that, at the very least the main cast does a great job. Our lead has had ages to get her acting chops refined, and she doesn’t hold back returning to her role this time around, and it helps that it’s played much more serious. Our main villain is quiet and unyielding as in most his appearances, and despite the supposed advanced age doesn’t let it bother him in the slightest. We do see much more of the man behind the mask this time, as a good portion of the movie has him without the iconic mask - but even the, it’s never something so simple as a clear front on shot. It knows to hide or obscure the face to not ruin the mystery and inherit spookiness that comes with that lack of definition. Yeah, it still shows some shots of it regardless, and that can be a bit of a downer for anyone who would rather not like that - but it’s a great deal less than what we got in the Zombie reboots. Admittedly, outside of the main cast some of the actors are perhaps a bit meh, but if anything I don’t think it’s the actors to blame for that.
Evil in plain sight.
Honestly, it’s probably the characters. The core unit has some thought and real effort put in, but most of the disposable side characters are exactly that - disposable. Heck, some of them don’t even get killed or anything, despite horror movie logic dictating that everyone would love to see their comeuppance. It might be due to this that they feel overly generic or insufficient in depth to feel like any real great jobs of acting are being done - but I’m sure part of it is just acting next to more exprienced actors didn’t do them any favors. Some of the characters also feel a bit doofy for the sake of some form of comedic levity - such as the dad’s “Oh no” peanut butter line. This isn’t to say it doesn’t feel like a believable level of goof or that generic teen boy number 3 is acted terribly - it just means that they don’t stand out, and that only is exacerbated by the characters who do stand out. Some of this also ties towards character actions, where some have some really stupid moments that leave you wondering what they were thinking - but it is still nice to see that some have some genuine grade A clarity moments complete with good choices.
Now, settings and costumes are sort of a washy thing here - on the one hand you do get some variety because you have a ton of kids running around in Halloween costumes, but on the other hand the modern style time means a lot of familiar things that don’t stand out. Wardrobe still did a good job making everyone look believable from an immersion standpoint, and even managed to get Myers looking quite like the Iconic look with a nice and sensible progression. As mentioned, there is some of his face in there, but most the time it’s slivers or obscured. Setting is also very easy going, with the exception of the Strode household, which gets to have some fun with it’s mix of Sarah Connor and Old spooky house at the end of the road in the woods. It’s all enough to carry the movie forward without feeling like you are lost as to where things are happening of getting sick of seeing the same location frequently.
Of course, the other main thing would be the violence work. Look, as much about stalking and creep shots as this franchise is, it’s still part of the slasher genre and does it’s work to show that it’s trying to keep up with it’s place as one of the first. The variety of kills is wide, and a nice mix of on and offscreen is used for them. Most of the time, a slasher fan would be disappointed that a kill is happening off screen, and at times that will happen here, but the genius thing about how most of them play out is that the movie will be relaying information to you while it’s going on off screen, giving you this beautiful mix of exposition and body count. Nothing gets quite as graphic as something like a zombie movie, but we do have quite a few brutally damaged body parts - normally the head or neck - to be witness to in addition to the normal decent quality stab victims covered in blood. At times, you might wonder just what causes Myers to claim his next victim - and sometimes, you might even wonder if he’s actually killed the whole town before the end of the movie - but part of that is the charm of having this “embodiement of evil” that you just can’t understand the mind of - there’s no reasoning evil, it’s just evil.
Don’t mess with Momma Bear’s cubs.
Overall, if this was the last of the Halloween movies it would be a mighty fine send off. I don’t believe for a minute that it will be - either through the inkling of sequel bait they squeezed in at the end or just through another reboot. If you like the franchise, you owe it to yourself to see it - even if you don’t end up liking it for the same reasons you enjoyed the franchise, I think you’ll appreciate what it has on offer. Good acting, good effects, a good grasp of cinematography, and a nice attempt at catching the same feel of the original.