Halloween: H40

There's been at least ten iterations of the Halloween franchise. There's been crappy sequels. There's been remakes. There's been reboots. Hell, there's probably been a spinoff or crossover or two in there somewhere. Halloween, much like the Nightmare on Elm Street series and Friday the 13th series, has been invading our theaters for about forty years. No matter how bad or forgettable each sequel/reboot/remakequel is - no one can deny that John Carpenter's Halloween still holds up as one of the scariest movies of all time. The movie is basically Jaws if the shark was a person. Carpenter terrifies his audience with what's not seen, rather than what is. He lulls you into a sense of security and then thrusts the terrifying theme song at you right before The Shape is about to strike. It's a damn near perfect horror movie and a classic for a reason. So what the hell is the guy who directed Pineapple Express and Danny McBride doing making a reboot(?) sequel (?) spinoff (?) alternate timeline (?). Whatever they're doing and whyever they're doing it... it seems like we now have a Halloween movie that's close (I didn't say as good... I said CLOSE) to the quality of the original.

I love the fact that director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Your Highness) and co-writer Danny McBride (Eastbound & Down) decided to take over the franchise. Yes, this isn't exactly the genre of their expertise, but clearly they're avid Halloween fans who knew they could breathe some fresh new life into a new film. It does appear like they had some creative control over the movie as they were allowed to basically disregard any of the story lines or canon from the previous eleven-ish films before it. This film is the alternate timeline direct sequel forty years later of the first film only. Remember... the second film is when it is revealed that Michael Myers and Jamie Lee Curtis's character Laurie Strode are brother and sister. That's dispelled immediately as an unsubstantiated rumor in this one. Laurie never has a kid who turns into a murderer (Halloween 4 & 5). Laurie never meets up with Michael 20 years later (H20). And Laure certainly never filmed a movie with Busta Rhymes (Halloween: Resurrection). No, according to this new film, Laurie has been scarred for life after the fateful night where Michael Myers stalked her and killed her friends. She grew up paranoid, created a house full of traps, gadgets, hiding places, and a friggin arsenal of weapons. She never kept a husband and even her daughter was taken away from her by the state. Now, as her granddaughter seeks to reconcile... Laure is still estranged from the family. She can't let go that Michael Myers is still out there somewhere and needs to die (preferably by her hand).

So, what happens? Well, a couple of dipshit podcasters who happen to have stumbled upon Michael's old mask, visit Michael in the mental institution (where he's been since that fateful night). They try to provoke him with the mask into saying something, but fail. However, that night, Michael is transferred to another facility on a bus along with a group of other patients. The bus never shows up. Michael escapes. He tracks down the podcasters. Disposes of them in a savage way. And takes his goddamn mask back. Oh, and it just so happens to be Halloween night. Michael makes his way back to his old stabbing grounds, Haddonfield. He goes from house to house killing people - with no real motivation. The sheriffs, the townspeople, the mayor, Michael's doctor - all try to offer up reasons for Michael's return and killing spree, but by his random acts of murder, it's pretty easy to discern that it's the late great Dr. Loomis who nailed down exactly who Myers is - pure evil incarnate.

It's very easy to tell that Green and McBride are fanboys of the film series. There's callbacks and homages and easter eggs peppered all throughout Halloween, and they're not done in a cheesy or overt way either. They're done with tact so that the audience can recognize a callback, but it doesn't detract from the story or the terror. Hell, even the opening credits are just like the first movie (that terrifying soundtrack, a list of names in 70s writing next to a glowing Halloween decorated pumpkin). They also know how to film a Halloween movie and tell a Halloween story. The original movie is very tame by today's standards with nearly every kill happening off screen. It's the unseen that frightens the audience most so that when Michael does bare his ugly, masked face that's when the real terror occurs. And the number one rule for all (most) of the Halloween films - never show Myers' real face. When we see the humanity under the mask, it takes all the fear away and humanizes something that's supposed to be straight evil. They follow these rules, but add their own 2018 spin. Half of the kills in this movie are done offscreen as a straight up homage to the original movie. But, realizing audiences today want carnage, the other half are in-your-face gory and brutal. Michael lurks behind corners and in the shadows, and the unseen is what spooks the audience. However, when Michael gets his mask, Green and McBride know it's the Michael Myers movie. Green tracks Michael through Haddonfield randomly picking houses to butcher people inside. We'll follow him up a street, into a garage and right next to a house... then he'll disappear and we'll see the person inside unaware that Michael is inside the house. It's a new horror dynamic that really ups the ante on suspense in a clever way. Finally, Green and McBride DO humanize Myers. We do see all of him and even glimpses of his face, but we never get the full view of what he looks like - which is smart. Because by humanizing him early and then showing this unrelenting, unfeeling, unspeaking killing machine - we realize that while it may look like a man underneath, Myers is far from human.

I'm just very impressed with what Green and McBride have done with revitalizing the franchise. This is the first time in nearly 40 years that moviegoers can watch a Halloween movie in theaters, and make it feel like audiences might've felt when watching the original. It stands out from the rest of the sequels because there's an actual storyline with actual three dimensional characters involved. Sure, there's the stock high schoolers who HAVE to get butchered because that's what the genre entails, but there's real people to care about here. Laurie Strode is no longer the innocent babysitter of yesterday. She's a woman in real pain caused by the one night Myers took everything from her forty years prior. Her traumatic experience has overtaken nearly every aspect of her life, convincing nearly everyone (including her own estranged daughter) that's she's crazy. It was a nice change of pace from the bland, lifeless characters in the rest of the franchise. Jamie Lee Curtis NAILS the role. There's a reason she was once labeled the Scream Queen. Even forty years after her first appearance, she's still a joy to watch onscreen. She's pushing 60 years old and she's in better shape than most people reading this review. She's got a ferocity in this film that she started to terrify me almost as much as Michael Myers. And that's what makes this version of Halloween work. Yes, Michael stalks and kills random teenagers. Yes, there's a few sub-plots involving Laurie's granddaughter, or another with an obsessed local sheriff... but the movie is the Michael and Laure show. They get to have their final showdown and it's glorious. Green and McBride even found a clever way of flipping the script this time where the hunter becomes the hunted. I'm not going to reveal any more because it's something that needs to be seen. But in between gasps of terror, I was grinning with how impressed I was at the writing and creativity of this film.

There's a lot of good in Halloween. The ambiance, the threat of lurking terror in the shadows, the story, the acting, the perfect atmosphere - it's just a great movie to see during this Halloween season. There's even quite a bit of Danny McBride-esque humor in the film. It's great to see a movie that can both terrify you and make you laugh just as much. It's a nice blend that worked well most of the time.  For those of you wondering just how scary the movie really is - I don't really know how to judge that. Are there jump scares? No, not really. Is there anything in the movie that'll make you accidentally toss your popcorn on the people a row in front of you? No, probably not. But the movie is riddled with so much suspense (ESPECIALLY in the last 15 minutes) that you'll feel your heart beating in your throat and may actually have a difficult time controlling your bladder. Just go see it. Even if it doesn't necessarily "scare" you, there's plenty in the film to enjoy. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Michael Myers (we never do). But if Green and McBride are behind any further sequels, I'll be happy to pay for a ticket to each one.

B+