Sam Stroud
Staff Writer
The newest film in the popular “Halloween” franchise is erasing the sequels of the original film and inserting itself as the follow-up to John Carpenter’s Classic “Halloween.”
“Halloween” has been out for around a month now, resting happily in history books as the highest-grossing opening day during the month of October with $33.3 million. Not only that, but it also had the biggest opener for a horror movie with a female lead.
First, the positives about the film.
The acting in the movie is strong across the board. Whether it’s Nick Castle, who portrays the infamous Michael Myers, standing menacingly above his victim, or Jamie Lee Curtis’s strong emotional performance as Laurie Strode, the cast delivers.
The first act of the movie serves to set up the rest of the film, doing a good job of setting up the characters and building the conflicts between them. In particular, the bad blood between Strode, the film’s protagonist, and her daughter Karen, played by Judy Greer.
As soon as the second act begins, the film picks up quickly and doesn’t slow down. Myers becomes a ruthless and unrelenting machine of violence.
The scenes in which he is lurking around the characters are intense and play with the audience, using well-timed and not at all cliche jump scares.
The final climax between Laurie and Myers is as exciting and suspenseful as the trailers would lead you to believe. The ending of the film is just ambiguous enough to leave the door open to a sequel, but not so blatant as to demand another film.
Despite these positives, there are unfortunately a few setbacks about the film that need to be addressed.
A subplot involving teenagers in the film is a bit predictable and does nothing to add to the story — it’s a trope horror movies love, but one we’ve all seen before.
Not to mention, there are about five characters who do not seem to have a real purpose. The scenes they are in could be cut and the movie wouldn’t turn out any differently.
There is a twist toward the beginning of the third act that some may find too ridiculous even for a movie of this genre, in particular a decision made by a character at one point. I’m not one to provide spoilers, so you’ll just have to go see it yourself and decide what you think.
Despite these issues, there is a reason “Halloween” is doing so well — the movie is a perfect sequel and is a fun film to watch, with a modest runtime of only one hour and forty-six minutes.
Personally, I was pretty pleased with the outcome of the movie. I feel like it was an excellent movie-going experience, a solid 7/10 film.
