With Halloween right around the corner, nothing says getting into the “scare” of things more than scary Halloween movies. The much anticipated horror slasher film of the year is finally here, and with no surprise, “Halloween” delivers. Serving as a direct sequel to the 1978 classic, “Halloween” takes everything that made the original so intense and edgy and improves on these feats, while adding a thriller soundtrack and some much needed kills; “Halloween” is a spooky treat for moviegoers.
“Halloween” takes place 40 years after the events of the original film, as Michael Myers, who has spent most of his life in a mental institution after a string of murders he committed in 1978, is finally getting a change of scenery with a full on prison transfer. Though when Michael Myers and a bunch of different mental patients escape during this process, a murderous rampage soon ensues. With Halloween right around the corner, it is up to Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis (“True Lies”), as one of the only sole survivors of Myers’s murderous rampage in 1978, to put an end to the crazed killer before he recreates the events of 1978, but on a much bigger and deadlier scale.
“Halloween” doesn’t go easy on the excess amount of gruesome and squeamish kills. Michael Myers may be old, but he is stronger than ever, and every time he appears in the film, he towers over everyone; with broodingly relentless tactics and unnerving movements, he gives chills by just his mere presence. One scene has him walking around on Halloween with his iconic mask and jumpsuit as he bumps into trick-or-treaters, and viewers feel all but helpless as they watch him painfully lay waste to victim after victim. Without even delivering one line of dialogue, Nick Castle (“The Last Starfighter”), who also reprises his role from the original film, delivers a bone chilling performance that breathes a ton of life into the film.
Sound is everything in horror films, and when placed at the right moment can cause for a sense of paranoia and chills. In “Halloween,” John Carpenter, who is most famously known for creating the intense sounds for the original “Halloween” film, takes these eerie and heart pounding beats and adds to them, which has a sense of nostalgia in it but feels new almost altogether, as well. The ever subtle use of new instruments and a longer and more suspenseful use of the soundtrack at the right moments lends itself to not only be terrifying but captivatingly impressive.
“Halloween” struggles in a slow first act though. It starts with a stellar introduction and then slows down into a sort of family drama. With it focusing on Allyson Nelson’s character, played by Andi Matichak (“Miles”), the granddaughter of Laurie Strode. The relationship between Nelson and Strode is interesting when it gets to a more climatic middle part of the film, but otherwise it takes way too long to develop and displays Nelson with little to no motivations as a somewhat hollow character. The film also isn’t helped with some really weird jokes that don’t quite feel like they have a place in a slasher film.
Overall, “Halloween” is a really well done horror movie, and the idea to focus on it being a direct sequel to the 1978 classic really helps it. The soundtrack for the film is perhaps one of the most ambitious takes on the classic Halloween theme that many have come to love, and it delivers to the creepy feel that the film has going for it. The gruesome kills in the film work well; they feel realistic and well thought out and are just squeamish enough to make any movie goer run out of the theater in fright. What holds “Halloween” back from being a true masterpiece is some pacing issues and one or two lackluster characters. At the end, “Halloween” is a scary delight that will conjure a little bit of the fear in all of us just in time for the Halloween season.
