Happy October and welcome! All 31 days this month, I will be reviewing all the films I watch in the month of October. They’re mostly a selection of horror or suspense films in my own library or films and shows that have been recommended to me.
Please enjoy and leave a comment!
And if you missed any of our past reflections, take a look:
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Psycho (1960)
The Haunting (1963)
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
The Other (1972)
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Halloween (1978)
Alien (1979)
The Shining (1980)
Halloween II (1981)
The Evil Dead (1981)
Halloween III – Season of the Witch (1982)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Teen Wolf (1985)
Aliens (1986)
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
Predator (1987)
The Monster Squad (1987)
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
The Lost Boys (1987)
Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn (1987)
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
They Live (1988)
Beetlejuice (1988)
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Ghostbusters II (1989)
Predator 2 (1990)
The Addams Family (1991)
Alien 3 (1992)
Army of Darkness (1992)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The Crow (1994)
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Scream (1996)
Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Scream 2 (1997)
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
What Lies Beneath (2000)
Scream 3 (2000)
28 Days Later (2002)
Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
The Ring (2002)
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Identity (2003)
AVP: Alien vs Predator (2004)
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Snakes on a Plane (2006)
Alien vs Predator: Requiem (2007)
Halloween (2007)
Grindhouse (2007)
Halloween II (2009)
Predators (2010)
Absentia (2011)
Prometheus (2012)
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
Escape From Tomorrow (2013)
Oculus (2013)
Before I Wake (2016)
Hush (2016)
Ouija: Origin of Evil (2016)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Happy Death Day (2017)
Get Out (2017)
Gerald’s Game (2017)
The Predator (2018)
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
Our next film is…
WATCHING: Halloween (2018)
DIRECTOR: David Gordon Green, who had some success with the cult comedies, The Pineapple Express and Your HIghness. He also cut his teeth on the show Eastdown and Bound.
WHAT IS IT?: Yep…we’re doin’ it again. Halloween (2018) is the third re-boot and fourth “timeline” in the “Halloween” franchise. Here, every single sequel was ignored and this film is simply a direct sequel to the 1978 original, which means that there’s no Jamie Lloyd, there’s no familial relationship between Strode and Myers, and Strode never had a son nor worked in a school — or was killed.
THE PLOT: 40 years after she was first attacked by Michael Myers, an alcoholic, traumatized Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) lives in seclusion, armed and ready in case Michael ever comes back to get her — much to amusement of her daughters who all think she’s overly paranoid and crazy.
Lo and behold, Michael manages to escape Smith Grove again, goes looking for Laurie, and returns to Haddonfield to wreak havoc — but, this time, Laurie’s more than willing to get in his way when nobody will listen to her about the danger Myers poses to the town.
WHAT DID CRITICS THINK?: The film received mostly positive reviews for dumping the sequels and going back to the original film’s roots. Critics also liked that Curtis accurately depicted somebody still suffering from post-traumatic stress. However, some critics pointed out the lack of atmosphere and scares which were fully present in the 1978 film with one critic calling it a pale copy of the original movie.
WHAT DID I THINK?: Jamie Lee Curtis is the best thing about Halloween (2018). There is not other reason to watch it. If she wasn’t in it, this would be on par with Halloween 4, which isn’t such a bad thing…but the film isn’t all that remarkable. There’s a feeling that we’ve been here and done this and covered that.
We’ve seen the innocent Laurie, we’ve seen the worried, protective mother Laurie, the Laurie who swills whole glasses of wine and a time and asks for another while expecting Vodka later from her boyfriend, so even this incarnation feels like a version of Laurie we’ve met.
Still, Curtis is incapable of screwing it up, so that’s a plus.
Everything else is…blah. Myers is back to being the unkillable zombie slasher while we have “Dr. Ranbir Sartain” who is here to fill the very large shoes of Donald Pleasence’s Sam Loomis. He’s not nearly as good or memorable as Pleasence — but you knew that.
I want to like this movie. I watch it each Halloween but this is starting to get to “Alien franchise” levels of fatigue — and we still have two more sequels in the works.
I liked Halloween H20 far more than I liked Halloween (2018). Yeah, that film seemed incomplete, but at least it was fun.
As a friend of mine once said: “I feel like something’s missing.”
GRADE: C+