Halloween H40: The One, True Sequel

A film that finally lives up to the legacy of John Carpenter's masterpiece.

The Bottom Line: Yeah, this motherfucker was worth the 40-year wait.

John Carpenter’s Halloween (‘78) has achieved such a remarkable reputation as a classic film that the reality of David Gordon Green’s Halloween (‘18) surpassing or even meeting the proper expectations was almost entirely impossible. With that said, this is about as close to a perfect Halloween sequel as perfection can get.

  Although Gordon Green’s film as a whole doesn’t exceed Carpenter’s original there are moments that easily match it. Gordon Green and Danny McBride didn’t just write a script that pays great respect to the original, they’ve produced a near Carpenter clone and it’s one motherfucker of a movie.

  Nearly every goddamn thing about the film from the opening credits that pay direct homage to those of ‘78 (nice touch with the smashed pumpkin slowly inflating back to life), down to the final (if abrupt) ending, Green directed by handling with absolute care and the final result shows. Even if recreating Carpenter down to the frame is simply impossible, there are just so many key elements as to how Davey Gordon simply fucking nailed it.

  For starters, Green keeps everything straightforward and the simplistic nature of the film makes it feel VERY much like the original Halloween. Green often mimics Carpenter’s exact style and this is both the film’s best accomplishment and biggest flaw. 

  For one, the amount of references and callbacks to the original film are absolutely SUPERB, be it the reference to Allyson in class (down to the teacher literally giving a lecture on fate),  looking out the window; that shot through the blinds, but to show Laurie instead of Michael watching her, all the way to the climax of the film mirroring the POV shot from the balcony of the body disappearing; these are exact moments that literally capture and call back to Halloween in unimaginably satisfactory ways.

  For better or worse, the new film feels more like a love letter to Carpenter than an actual sequel. It sometimes doesn’t feel like watching ‘a David Gordon Green film’ or even ‘a John Carpenter film,’ rather than a film from someone doing their very best Carpenter impersonation, and in being respectful to one of the most iconic horror movies of all time, in hindsight this is absolutely for the better.

  The film’s first half, much like the original is deliberately paced in order to flesh out the characters and prove why we should care about them. Where the original’s core focus was on teen babysitters Laurie, Annie and Lynda, the new film dishes on Laurie, her daughter Karen, and granddaughter Allyson, which was not only smart of Green to keep the story’s focus again on three leading ladies, but to follow them as a family.

  So much of the beating heart of this film is in its family dynamics. The events of the original film have affected Laurie Strode in such a crippling way that even the idea of Michael Myers existing prevents her from having a functioning family life or even a personal life, and the crushing weight of Laurie’s PTSD not only surpasses those similar themes expressed in H20, but it strikes the emotional chords like a fucking arrow through the chest.

  After the events of the horrific Halloween night of 1978, rather than moving far away, changing her identity, and living in fear for the rest of her life, Laurie stays in Haddonfield, living in the woods, turning her remote home into a bunker riddled with boobie traps, awaiting Michael to find her so she can kill him. 

  Laurie still grows up to be an alcoholic, but this time she’s drinking not to escape her reality but to keep on edge, waiting for the Doomsday clock that is Michael Myers. Laurie’s entire transformation from helpless victim to weaponized survivor is not only fully earned after forty years, but at this point it’s entirely merited.

  In devoting her entire lifestyle to this notion, Laurie has literally robbed herself of happiness and a sense of purpose, and this is arguably the crux of the entire film. Not only are these themes, especially for a slasher film, heartbreaking and far more fascinating, but they’re sold entirely by Jamie Lee Curtis.

  Curtis (the ultimate Final Girl) has always been a fairly strong actress but this just might be her best performance to date. She’s present in the film just enough to want more of her, and she kicks major ass by the film’s end, holding it down for the horror grudge match forty years in the making. 

  And what a fucking showdown it is. Green knows that audiences came to see a Halloween movie but he’s really selling a fight between Laurie vs. The Shape and goddamnit he delivers. Green knows the satisfaction moviegoers are looking for and he does an impeccable job earning that climax.

  The entire film building up to the finale is remarkably paced, with new characters being explored; Laurie’s daughter Karen, as played by Judy Greer, who’s not only actually given something to do in a role, but steals one of the film’s best moments during the climax; most notably we have young Andi Matichak as the granddaughter Allyson, who doesn’t quite capture the charm Curtis had in ‘78 but she brings a genuinely likable presence that this film needs. 

  The new characters are excellent even if some are just tropes of the old ones. There’s the asshole teenagers begging to be slaughtered; there’s an entire babysitting scare sequence (featuring one of the genuinely funniest children ever in a horror movie); Hell, Laurie even refers to Michael’s doctor as “the new Loomis” (and the actor is perfectly kooky). It’s as if Green is paying good tribute just as much as he’s being self aware to know that as much as this FEELS like classic Halloween, it’s still its own, new thing.

  Best of all, this marks the first time Myers is a legitimately frightening presence in perhaps any entry since Halloween II. Green not only knows how to have his new Michael physically move, but he stages real terror through Myers in a looming manner that’s actually TERRIFYING. 

  The set pieces of these scenes alone; the bus crash lit only by the kid’s flashlight, that bathroom scene (the fucking teeth), the backyard sequence (those fucking LIGHTS) and Michael’s house-to-house kill (THAT FUCKING ONE TAKE) are so goddamn good they dare to drop jaws and send shivers down one’s spine.

  AND CARPENTER’S SCORE? My God that man is the stuff of legend. Not only does Carpenter do a spin on all his old classic themes, he delivers new ones that between the hums and ticks, builds an incredible amount of suspense. Most notably the first time Allyson sees The Shape; when those lights flash, she screams, and that deep score breathes in, I literally had goosebumps running up my legs. 

  Granted, there is an outrageous plot twist that needs to exist in order to roll the second act into the third, but it results in Allyson being trapped in the back of a police car with The Shape and it is utterly horrifying. Also there is a grape stomp to the head at the end of this sequence that, be it a callback to Zombie’s Halloween II or not, is graphic as fuck, and it’s EXCELLENT.

  Green definitely delivers on the gore but unlike Zombie he stages his kill scenes in just enough of a gruesome fashion that once the moment the horror is felt, rather than linger on the brutality of it, he moves on and continues building suspense. Green captures the pure mood in dread of The Shape, and that is a key element Carpenter understood about what makes Michael so horrifying; a key element that’s been missing from nearly every other if not all of the former Halloween sequels.

  Finally, once that third act lands the film goes gung-ho into a full sprint of action, and it’s well earned. Laurie’s house is an incredible set piece rigged with boobie traps out of some gonzo version of Home Alone, and watching Laurie finally bond with her family in the final moments of devastation by means of banding together to fight the bogeyman, it’s just as intense of a suspense film as it is a heartwarming family picture.

  Even deeper is the whole complexity of Laurie and Michael’s relationship. Interestingly enough, with the whole brother-sister element stripped from the story we go back to the roots of Michael being purely evil and killing out of randomness for no other reason, rather than him out to murder his family over some silly curse. Michael and Laurie share this unspeakable bond, be it The Shape’s existence to get Laurie specifically, or Laurie’s existence to be the very thing that defeats evil once and for all. 

  Even when Green presents multiple opportunities to show Michael’s full face or to have him utter even one word, Green never gives in to glamorizing the idea of Michael being anything more than just a sadistic killing machine, and that is the fundamental piece as to why the film is not just a respectful tribute to Carpenter’s masterpiece, but an excellent film in its own right.

  Folks. This whole movie is just a fucking experience. It’s not flawless but it’s a well deserved payoff for hardcore fans. The deeper the Halloween nerd the more takeaway there is for those who are loyal to Carpenter’s craft and the spirit of what makes Halloween such an iconic piece of cinema. 

  The film is also a big thank you to not just Carpenter but to fans who’ve stuck around long enough to see just how someone can provide any justification for more Halloweenmovies because until now, not a single Halloween sequel decent or terrible has given any good reason as to why we need to see Michael coming back, other than it being fun to watch him kill people, but if that’s all a Halloween movie accomplishes it’s no better than the Friday the 13th films.

  Gordon Green has finally given us the justification fans deserve. He understands the very essence of Michael as nothing but a terrifying Shape, he knows how to tap into Laurie Strode’s PTSD, and he blends these very elements to justify why these two characters should reunite at all. The difference between Halloween (‘18) and every single other Halloween sequel is that Green gave the audience legitimate reason to want another Halloween movie.

 It may not be the Halloween movie you wanted, but God dammit it’s the Halloween movie we needed.

 *MIC DROP*
*HEAVY BREATHING*
*CUE CARPENTER’S SCORE*

*25 points to McBride

*50 points to Curtis

*50 points to Carpenter

*100 points to David Gordon Green