Release Date: October 19
Budget/ Box-Office: $10M/ $253M
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Will Patton, Haluk Bilginer, et al.
***
Very few movie franchise have been around as long as the Halloween series. Currently at its eleventh entry with Halloween, it wouldn’t be a stretch to call it old. But does old automatically translate into beauty and quality in movies? The answer’s no. Halloween, like so many its age grade, would have to continue proving themselves until the day they decide to call it quits, if ever that day comes.
Halloween is a direct sequel to the first movie first released in 1978. In its own way it retcons all the other movies between them, which would be almost impossible to ignore since Jamie Lee Curtis has been in most of them.
In the world of today where the feminism topic is high on everyone’s lips, Halloween portrays itself as being extremely relevant to the topic being that not one, or two, but three female protagonists spread across three generations band together to defeat one male villain who just doesn’t seem to want to die… I still wonder what makes Myers so strong. 🤔
To me, Michael Myers’ iconic mask is the scariest thing about him. Without any serious motivation to his incessant acts of brutal violence, I found it very hard to connect to him even though I know slasher films and concrete plots don’t go hand-in-hand. Like his former doctor’s podcast rightly stated, and I paraphrase, “why keep such an evil alive in the first place?” Honestly, it makes no sense. I understand certain movie franchises need to survive, especially those whose mere mention of their names mint money, but I also believe slashers existence need to be justified with well-meaning, believable story. No one should tell me it’s fiction, please. ✋
Michael’s continued existence needs to be justified! Which brings me to what I disliked most about this movie – it’s ambiguous ending.
We’re not sure if Michael’s dead or alive, which I’m sure was on purpose to lessen the creative burden of explaining why Michael returns for a sequel should the movie excel at the box office. The movie’s done well for itself, news of a possible sequel’s already making the rounds, the producers got their wish. I think it’s all lazy writing, and I refuse to be continuously baited into returning to the same universe without justification.
Halloween is a slasher film; and successfully does what every movie in its genre is expected to do – thrill the mindless audience.
Directed by: David Gordon Green
Rinzy’s Rating: 3/5