By JASON GUYER
iRate
October 31st, Halloween, a day like no other on the calendar. Halloween, an amalgamated holiday, a combination of the Celtic festival of Samhain, All Saints Day, All Hallows Eve, and a few other traditions added in for good measure. Nowadays Halloween is mostly thought of as a holiday for costumes and candy.
There is one name that instantly comes to mind at the mention of the holiday of Halloween: Michael Myers. Introduced in John Carpenter’s original “Halloween” in 1978, Michael Myers has become synonymous with Halloween. Forty years later “Halloween” is back and back with David Gordon Green at the helm.
This new iteration of “Halloween brings back Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Strode survived a vicious attack from crazed killer Michael Myers on Halloween night 40 years earlier. Now locked up in an institution, Myers manages to escape.
Finding an opportunity during a bus transfer, Myers seeks to continue his murderous ways. Laurie knows a showdown is imminent when the masked Myers returns to Haddonfield, Illinois. Laurie is ready for that showdown this time, having lived the last 40 years in fear of this moment.
Forty years ago “Halloween” was Michael Myers’ moment. In 2018 “Halloween” is Laurie Strode’s moment.
There have been many bad sequels to John Carpenter’s original “Halloween.” Right away the audience knows this is not going to be the run of the mill, often terrible, sequel the audience has been familiar with over the last four decades. In this “Halloween” the audience is set at ease immediately by David Gordon Green with the opening credits.
Bringing back the original opening sequence, with the names updated to those that made this film of course, is one of Green’s best choices in this new “Halloween.” Green also makes another great choice, an odd choice but one that works perfectly. One that needed to be done.
Green chose to ignore every film after the original.This is something that should be done more often and one the audience should realize before seeing “Halloween.”
Green directed but was also a part of the writing “Halloween” with Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley. One thing is obvious, the writing group learned a few things from all the bad sequels over the years. Green, McBride, and Fradley wrote a wonderfully poignant and contemporary sequel to the original.
“Halloween” is poignant and contemporary in how the film portrays the character of Laurie Strode. Coming back to bring life to and carry the weight of “Halloween” of the character of Laurie Strode is Jamie Lee Curtis. Curtis brings strength and wisdom to an aging but beloved cinematic character, a character who has been underutilized and underwhelming written over the past 40 years. The writing trio and ultimately Curtis’ portrayal of Strode seemingly needed 2017 and 2018 to learn how to correctly write and portray Laurie Strode.
‘Halloween’ is a sequel and a film that could have only been done right in 2017 and 2018. In the #MeToo era, Laurie Strode is no longer only defined by Michael Myers and she is no longer just the trick to Michaels Myers’ cinematic treat.
Everyone loves Michael Myers. Myers has been the defining character in all the “Halloween” films including the original. The original was about the rise of Michael Myers, “Halloween” is about the rise Laurie Strode. “Halloween” is the fortress of Laurie Strode against the onslaught of Michael Myers, instead of just being about the onslaught of Michael Myers, as some of the other sequels have been. Strode is no longer being defined as the victim of Michael Myers but defining herself as survivor and fighter of Michael Myers.
Just the dialogue alone is empowering.
“I always knew he’d come back. In this town, Michael Myers is a myth. He’s the boogeyman. A ghost story to scare kids. But this boogeyman is real. An evil like his never stops, it just grows older. Darker. More determined. Forty years ago, he came to my home to kill. He killed my friends, and now he’s back to finish what he started, with me. The one person who’s ready to stop him.”
“He’s waited for this night… he’s waited for me… I’ve waited for him…”
“He is a killer. But he will be killed tonight.”
All three points of dialogue are spoken by Laurie Strode and it is character-defining dialogue.
This “Halloween” is being called the “true” sequel to the original and rightfully so as this “Halloween” beautifully bookends the two characters story. Michael Myers is still Michael Myers, and he is still the large and looming menace of Haddonfield, Illinois. This version of “Halloween” though, represents 40 years of character growth especially in the case of Laurie Strode.
In 1978 Myers and Strodes story began, In 2018 Strode finishes it. There is a finality to “Halloween,” a finality to the story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode.
Then again it made $80 million on its opening weekend, so we will definitely be seeing Michael Myers again and most likely very soon.
IRATE SCORE: 3.5/5
Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the graphics department at the Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed at [email protected]
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