There are several things that can affect your viewing of a film and in turn affect your opinion and feeling towards a film. An annoying audience, poor quality sound or image or seeing that Adam Sandler is in the cast can have be really detrimental towards my liking of a film. I have been rather fortunate in the fact that I have not had many cinema experiences ruined for me, and the worst I have had to deal with is is people talking and forcing me to ask them to be quiet (yes, I said forced mainly because I don't have the social skills to deal with confrontation). That was until this week that is. This viewing of Halloween (2018) had me turning around and asking two girls behind me to be quiet as they were being exceedingly loud. Little did I know that later in the film the same girl I had asked to be quiet would stand on her chair and launch herself at two lads who had also asked the girls to be quiet, but 'maybe' didn't use the same language that I did. What I am getting at here is that there was a full-on brawl during the film. Like a genuine brawl with police getting involved and having the girl involved launched over chairs and onto the floor with a huge thud. I would be remiss if I didn't quote my friend who made the brilliant comment of "I came to watch Halloween and got McGregor v Khabib". I had to mention this, so you got an idea of the environment that I was in when I saw this film and that it may have affected my viewing somewhat. The big question though is whether it fully ruined the film for me and made me dislike it? The answer to that question is a resounding no, I still very much enjoyed this film. The story takes place 40 years after John Carpenter’s 1978 classic film of the same name, where killer Michael Myers has been captured and held in a high security psychiatric ward for that duration. At the same time Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), who survived the original murder spree, has been preparing for Michael's return and in doing so has alienated her family, including her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and Granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak, and become crazed from paranoia. Her actions soon turn out to be not as crazy as maybe they first appeared when Michael escapes after two psychiatrists come and trigger something within him by showing him the mask he wore during his crimes and continues his murderous rampage, leading to a brutal and meticulous battle between the two.
The original Halloween film is a genuine classic and is a film I really, really enjoy and so it was always going to be hard for it to be a welcome sequel, but I feel that it does a very fine job of being a clear sequel to the original but whilst also having enough of a voice to stand out on its own. Having Jamie Lee Curtis back is a big helping hand in this and she is very good in the role of a drained and mentally disturbed Laurie who also has the capacity to be a bad ass. The new characters who are introduced are all very likeable and put in good performances also, with the teen characters being very well cast in their roles even though they all basically are there to be cannon fodder for Michael. But they all feel like teenagers and speak, act and behave like teenagers which is not often the case in films like this due to the fact that they are cannon fodder and so any kind of believable character flies out the window, and that is a compliment to the writing. The script is smart and puts in plot points that seem innocuous at the time but become more important to the plot as it progresses and is also funny and writes all the characters well, so they all have distinct characteristics and personalities. The directing is also very good with some really nice visuals and well composed shots, but the most impressive thing in the directing is where you can just see Michael or what may be Michael in the back of the frame almost hidden away so that you may miss him. It is a technique they used in the original to create a tension and fear that this guy could be anywhere in any scene and you might just not see him, and it is recreated brilliantly here. But of course, the reason many people come to these films is for Michael. So, was this a good representation of the character? Well... yes and no.
First thing to I should point out is that I really like Michael in this film. He was brutal and unstoppable and that’s what I want from the character. He must have been chugging those protein shakes in the psychiatric ward though because he is a tank. He was made out to be physically imposing in the original but in this one they take that physicality to the next level and I really enjoyed it, mainly because it meant that it could lead to some really cool and impressive death scenes which also up the ante in the gore department. This is the problem with Michael in this film though, he is just a bit to entertaining to be scary, and in a scary film that isn't the best thing. In the original Michael was scary and menacing. In this one his physicality and need to murder has been turned to 11 and so it is just very entertaining, especially with his need to murder because it leads to him killing almost everyone he sees with no motivation. It’s pretty cool to be honest. Another problem with the film is that the final scene turns into more of an action set piece then a tense and nerve-wracking horror set piece. This, again, is not necessarily a negative as it is done well and is entertaining, despite a couple of one liner moments that do not fit the tone at all and really pull you out for a moment, but I would have preferred it to be more along the lines of a horror. There were a couple jump scares that got me and a few tense moments, but overall it was not that scary which was disappointing, but of course this may be due to the circumstances that I saw the film under.
The 2018 version of Halloween is a well-made, well performed and entertaining follow up to the classic 1978 original and although it doesn't come close to matching that film for quality it does a good job as a sequel made 40 years afterwards. The new characters are memorable, the set pieces are fun, and Michael is endlessly entertaining and all that leads to a very watchable and fun film. Unfortunately, the film is most defiantly a horror film and it is a horror film that lacks a certain amount of horror which can only be seen as a negative. This may be due to my personal circumstances viewing it, but I am not sure that even in a perfect environment to see the film I don't think it would have scared me all that much. I would definitely recommend the film and would probably suggest seeing it at the cinema rather than waiting for it to come to streaming or DVD, mainly due to the fact that Michael needs the big screen for his full might and glory to be bestowed upon an audience. Seriously, he is great.