The film started out with a terribly ridiculous scene. It was well filmed and crafted specifically to be a catalyst for the kind of terror the film wants to evoke. But it was completely ridiculous. As I was watching it I thought there is no way this would ever happen. Two podcasters are let into an asylum, with a piece of evidence from a crime scene no less, and are allowed to interact with the inmates, but not just interact, scream at them without anyone interfering. I was flabbergasted at how far from realism the film was straying and it was only the first 5 minutes.
The film then shifted to a rather cool, retro opening title sequence which calmed me and made me put that initial crap behind me. But as the film’s story progressed I realized that the film wasn’t interested in telling anything real or honest. It was interested in falling back on the tropes of a sub-genre which its progenitor is credited to have started or at least popularized.
Halloween is full of all the cliches of the slasher genre from people running up the stairs, to making poor decisions, to punishing the sexually promiscuous, and exploiting gratuitous violence against women. None of this was done in an ironic or even self-aware manner. Insteaad it was all done in full embrace of the genre, a genre I struggle to appreciate on anything more than a surface level.
Let me make it clear it isn’t horror that I have a problem with, it is the way the slasher sub genre interprets horror which I find so deeply problematic. Even if we dont get into the socialiogical aspects of the sub genre I still have difficulty with it as the stories are usually told so poorly and structured so that its hard to believe them. Perhaps that is on purpose. The ideal of watching people get slashed to bits is disturbing to anyone other than a sociopath so perhaps making it unbelievable is a way we cope with it. But it the looses its interest for me, If a movie is going to be that silly then I don’t need to laugh at death that much.
I had high hopes for this sequel. I had thought it was going to take this story to a new place, one where things got turned on its head and offered us something different. Instead we got exactly what we would expect in every predictable moment. There is a “twist” part way though that is telegraphed from the very beginning and felt overly obvious. My hopes that this film as going to reinvent the series didn’t come to fruition. But it almost did...
As the film began to wrap up there was a bit of a turn as the women of the story who had been being hunted (or had they? It wasn’t really clear) turn the tables and become the hunters. The hunter becomes the prey. And I thought to myself, why didn’t they play this up? Why didn’t they make this movie? There is only a hint of it, the movie this could have been. And I think a part of me was even sadder about it not being that movie after seeing a little taste of it.
So what I will give the film is this. The 2018 Halloween is a very true to the series instalment which, if that is what you want, will deliver. But if you wanted something that took the series and the genre to a new level, you need to look elsewhere.
Halloween
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Nick Castle
Director: David Gordon Green
Writers: Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green
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