Movie Review: New ‘Halloween’ Is Best In 40 Years

by Nathan Ligon | Oct 19, 2018 | Featured, Movie Reviews, Movies | 0 comments

In 1974, ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ turned a partially true story into the first real slasher picture. The style was poorly emulated a few times after and largely remained in B movie purgatory for cinematic history. That is until 4 years later when the first real attempt to turn that type of story into a genre came to pass. That 1978 classic was John Carpenter’s ‘Halloween’ and it has spawned 40 years of slasher pictures. It also lead to a plethora of bad sequels that have stained the ‘Halloween’ brand for a generation.

Well, that all ends with David Gordon Green’s superior direct sequel to the original. In this film, Green ignores all the garbage that came before it and concentrates solely on what happened to Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers. After a cleverly convenient set up gets Myers out of a psychiatric ward and the film establishes what has happened to Laurie over the last 40 years (she’s a gun toting grandma with an estranged relationship to her family), we are right off to the races on Halloween night.

The first time we see Myers in all his glory on Halloween night is truly a clever sequence. The whole thing takes place over a nearly five minute walk through town and closes with an in your face kill that had my audience gasping. It is one of the best sequences in any slasher picture and the best one I can think of since ‘Scream 2’. Green really has a perfect grip on what made this genre once work very well and he milks that for every single laugh or scream he can get. It doesn’t hurt that Danny McBride helped him with the screenplay.

So, if you are a fan of the original ‘Halloween’, slasher pictures, or any of the crappy sequels we’ve had to endure over the last 40 years then you are going to love this movie. It’s not going to change the way you view horror, touch your heart, or even be in my Top 50 films of the year, but it is a blast for what it is. Which is exactly what the original was all those years ago.

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Nathan Ligon

Film / Theater / Music Critic at Red Carpet Crash

The son of Executive Producer Jon Ligon, Nathan has spent his life in the company of filmmakers and some of the best musicians in Dallas, TX. He has since become a highly viewed critic and short filmmaker for Red Carpet Crash and Shot & Cut Films.