Halloween (2018): He returns

40 years after the legendary first film, it is time for a new entry in the Halloween series. This time we wipe out everything except the original, and pick up all this time later, where Laurie Strode is waiting for the day Michael Myers escapes to haunt Haddonfield one more time. This one is a truly worthy sequel that manages to encapsulate the feel of the original better than any other entry.

Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie, as we see the effect that one night had on here, and has an incredible performance. Seeing how her obsession with Myers has affected not only her life, but also the life on her daughter and granddaughter is one of the better stories in recent horror. The story feels real, and every characters reactions and feelings are understandable. Character building is great in this movie, and we are given time to care about these characters before anything bad happens.

When the bad stuff does happen, it gets brutal. Michael Myers in this one returns to how we was in the original. A cold-blooded psychopath looking to take out just about anyone he can get his hands on. This film is incredibly brutal, and I don't mean in a gory sense. Make no mistake about it, there is some grisly moments of gore in this movie, but I mean more of how Michael attacks his victims. There is an undercurrent of hatred and viciousness to the character that makes him feel like a wild animal. For the first time in a long time, Myers feels like a force of nature, designed for pure evil.

This is also a beautiful film. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the music is a nostalgic trip. A tracking sequence of Michael weaving his way through Haddonfield is the best looking sequence of the entire series, and one of the better sequences in modern horror, period. The decision to have John Carpenter return to handle the music was a brilliant one. Not only do we get a return of the original score, but new variations, as well as new tracks make the soundtrack stick out.

I love the Halloween series, have for many years, but it has certainly been a long time since there has been a legitimately good film in the series. This sets the series back on track, and is the best film in the series besides the original. This is a great movie, with great nods to the others in the series, and is a scary, suspenseful film, and is one of the best horror films of 2018.

5 / 5