Last week I picked up one of my friends and we went to go see the Halloween movie that was released in theaters the previous day. I really enjoyed the movie. Some of the scenes other people found shocking, I found funny. As of October 21 the film has grossed about $76.2 million in the United States and Canada, other territories grossed about $14.3 million, in total grossing over $90 million, which makes this movie the highest grossing film in the franchise, and probably the second best after the first movie.
I believe it got the response it deserved. Critics rated the movie 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. I liked everything that happened, although there was a few moments that made the script confusing such as the scene where Laurie Strode says “I pray for him to escape every night”.
The movie had a fair share of scares and suspense and didn’t go over the top; which is something most modern horror movies fail to do. In my opinion, that flaw doesn’t make a horror movie scary. This new Halloween movie balanced most things out and wiped the slate clean for the franchise. I enjoyed it and I’m pretty sure a lot of other people did too.
Most critics agree that the movie cleared off the dust and dirt created by previous disappointing sequels by retconning them and brings the Halloween franchise back to its roots. It delivers a quantity of crisp suspense, shocking deaths, and psychological suspense.
The setting of the movie takes place 40 years after the Haddonfield murders. It reintroduces many familiar characters from the original film, some of which are played by the same actors from the aforementioned film such as Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle. It begins with two true-crime podcasters who go to where Michael is being held to try to talk to him, but don’t succeed. One of them brings out Michael’s mask, yet they still fail to get a response.
Ultimately they give up and go visit Laurie Strode, who has been suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. She’s lost her two marriages and custody of her granddaughter. All because the incident that occured on Halloween in the first film, which still haunts her.
When the podcasters reach her house, it’s heavily fortified. They get to visit with her, but only because they bribed her. She says it’s fortified because if Michael escapes, she can take her family there and be safe. Her daughter, Karen Strode thinks her mother is crazy and doesn’t want anything to do with her, so she doubts anything she says, and refuses to speak with her.
Before Halloween night, while Michael was being transported to a different prison, the bus crashes and he escapes. Afterwords, Michael goes out to repeat what he did on Halloween night 40 years ago.
