Halloween review

[Westside Steve]

Halloween
Universal
R              106 min

Okay everybody I hear ya. Usually I avoid slasher flicks, teenage angst and blaxploitation flicks once they get past the second or third remake so you might be surprised that I roll the dice on the latest reincarnation of Michael Myers. First of all it’s actually the Halloween season and I usually try to grab at least one horror movie. Now there are some classic spook flicks and maybe HALLOWEEN doesn’t stack up historically to FRANKENSTEIN or The WOLFMAN and no matter how cheesy the franchise became over the years the original it is one of the hallmarks of modern American horror.
So why this one? Well from everything I’ve read the producers have taken the time and spent the money to make this an actual event going so far as to convincing Jamie Lee Curtis to reprise her breakout role. Frankly it’s much more than another in an endless series of copies, and even though it lacks the surprise factor that the first of the series, it could quite possibly be the highest quality installment of all. Keep in mind friends, that I try to grade spook flicks on the curve so it’s pitted against the rest of its genre, which, shall we say, has a higher percentage of rubbish than many. The movie actually opens with one of the creepiest scenes we’ve seen in a while. Apparently psycho killer Myers has been institutionalized for decades being studied  and cared for by an almost equally creepy doctor. As the stoic  Meyers is forced to look upon the mask he wore, at the request of a pair of journalists, the rest of the inmates in the yard freak out. It really has little to do with the rest of the story but it’s a truly disturbing scene. The action begins as a busload of lunatics on their way to a new facility crashes in the woods and they all escape. Guess where Myers heads to? Well as we know from watching the previews, his old nemesis, Laurie, (Jamie Lee Curtis)  from 40 years past is still living, estranged from her daughter and granddaughter and obsessed with the horrible ordeal.  Her remote farm house has been refitted into something of a fortress with all sorts of security devices etc. as she’s been waiting her entire life to draw the killer back there to do him in once and for all. The plot is pretty basic  with one very important difference, at least from the sequels. Meyers goes on the obligatory killing spree as we wait for the inevitable final confrontation. And, you may ask, what is that difference? Well a horror movie has one job and one job only and that’s to scare people and there were actually a few frightening and suspenseful scenes here;  nearly all without quite as much blood and guts as one might expect. So don’t be shocked by the relatively high grade, keep in mind that that’s in comparison with films like HALLOWEEN 3 or 4 and not THE GODFATHER.
B-
WSS
 

[DieHardBrownsFan]

I loved the original, and even halloween II.