You probably wouldnât expect David Gordon Green and Danny McBride to be the first choice to make a sequel to the mother of all horror film classics, John Carpenterâs Halloween, but thanks are due to producer Jason Blum for sending it their way. Forty years after the original filmâs release, Green, McBride, co-writer Jeff Fradley, and most importantly, star and big beating heart of the franchise Jamie Lee Curtis, made a film thatâs a profoundly feminist re-examination of its psychology of trauma through its iconography. Itâs also a rip-roaring slasher flick thatâs hands down the best Halloween sequel ever.
The film starts out in a self-reflective place. A pair of British crime podcasters (Jefferson Hall and Rhian Rees) are in town for the 40th anniversary of the Haddonfield Babysitter Murders, and are hoping to not only speak to Michael Myers, locked up in a prison mental hospital, but to possibly facilitate some catharsis between Laurie Strode (Curtis) and her would-be killer.
The troubled Laurie lives alone in a fortified compound, maintaining a constant hypervigilance for the past several decades thatâs had a profound effect on her life. Sheâs a doomsday prepper, alrightâlocked, loaded and armed to the teeth for the day she meets Michael Myers again. Sheâs been reckoning with her trauma and PTSD since that fateful night, and has had no relief. Itâs not 20 minutes into the film before you realize, âholy crap, is this a horror movie about trauma?â
Itâs not just Laurieâs trauma, though. Thereâs the intergenerational trauma that weaves its way through her familyâher daughter Karen (Judy Greer), who was raised in constant preparation for Michaelâs return, and now wants nothing to do with it; and her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak) who bears the weight of the strained relationship between her grandmother and mother.
Naturally, itâs Halloween night when a prison bus transferring Michael to another facility crashes and he escapes. Itâs the reunion Laurie has been expecting, dreading, and praying for, and there will be catharsis, all right, likely from the business end of one of the rifles sheâs been stockpiling in a basement panic room. Shockingly, the people of Haddonfield have forgotten to fear Michael Myers. Those â70s-era serial killer boogeymen murdering at random arenât the most dangerous and common predators anymore, and in terms of horror movie monsters, heâs all too realâthereâs nothing supernatural about him. But Michael Myers wants to make sure they remember; that you remember.
In many ways, Halloween is a horror film in name only. While it features some brutally gory images and violence, itâs not all that scary, with Michaelâs plodding yet propulsive walk and perfunctory killing style. The tension doesnât build until Michael faces a foe who can actually take him onâLaurie. And in that regard, this is a horror film that inspires cheers, not screams.
Michaelâs new doctor, the new Loomis, Dr. Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), posits the theory that the never-ending pursuit of Laurie is what keeps Michael alive, while Laurieâs fear of Michael is what keeps her going. The Halloween films have always been about these two very simple forces meeting again and againâher survival instinct and his desire to kill. Thatâs why sheâs the only person who can face him.
But this show-down is symbolically important as well. Because this Halloween is about the specific question of female trauma and male predators, and how a victim can reclaim some power through her own actions. To this end, Green brilliantly reinterprets the iconography of the original film. We see the same, familiar itemsâthe knife, the closet doors, the stairsâbut reversed. The places and things that put women in peril are violently ripped back by them in this movie. Watching Laurie, we see that sheâs learned from her story in the same way that we have. Thereâs absolutely no yelling âdonât go in there!â to this Laurie Strode, because sheâs already thought of it, and secured her house around it.
For all of the deep and fascinating semiotic analysis of this film, itâs also just a great Halloween movie. Matichak proves to be a perfect final girl as Allyson, cut exactly from her grandmotherâs cloth: tough, smart, and principled. The film is stunningly shot, in highly stylized, beautiful images that never overwhelm the storytelling. And the score, by John Carpenter himself, as well as his son Cody Carpenter and Daniel A. Davies, is a masterpiece that will send chills of pleasure up your spine. Itâs everything in a Halloween film that inspires us to return, again and again, but the reversal, reimagining and reinterpretation of these elements is what truly thrills in this new iteration.Â
4 stars out of 5
Images: Universal