Movie Review: “Halloween” isn’t bad, but it’s definitely disappointing

Movie Review: “Halloween” (R)

Against all odds, it looked as if David Gordon Green’s sequel to John Carpenter’s iconic horror thriller “Halloween” had all the makings of a success, and while monetarily speaking it has been a success (a huge success, in fact), I’m afraid my expectations got the better of me where this one is concerned.

This “Halloween” — Or, “Halloween 2: Judgment Day” as I affectionately refer to it — has been garnering quite a bit of buzz leading up to its Oct. 19 release thanks to a handful of advance screenings at various film festivals across the country. But to a certain extent, this is a case of overhype. This certainly isn’t to suggest that “Halloween” is a bad movie. Far from it. In fact, there’s quite a bit to like here. That said, the stuff that doesn’t work really sticks out.

This bookend movie finds an aged Laurie Strode (scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis returning to the final girl role that made her famous) suffering from years of PTSD brought on by the events of that horrific night four decades earlier. She’s spent the majority of her life living as a Sarah Connor-type suffering from the nightmares that plague her and preparing for Michael Myers’ return. She’s dismissed as a crazy lady by most of the folks she comes into contact with, but make no mistake — she’s a survivor in every sense of the word.

Ultimately, though, her fanatical insistence that the boogeyman will one day return has not only put enormous stress on her but on her daughter (Judy Greer) and granddaughter (Andi Matichak) as well. Of course, Strode is vindicated, somewhat, when news surfaces that Myers has escaped during a transport from one psychiatric ward to another, prompting Strode to switch into warrior mode. Once Myers returns to Haddonfield, all hell breaks loose.

This “Halloween” retroactively continues all previous sequels, meaning two through eight, and both of Rob Zombie’s disassociated adaptations essentially never happened. This is both a good thing and an odd thing. It’s a good thing because it allows this movie to serve as a direct sequel to the film that started it all but an odd thing because Green and his screenwriter Danny McBride (yes, the same McBride from “Pineapple Express” and “This is the End”) have essentially erased 40 years of mythology building. Myers is no longer Strode’s brother, and he’s no longer part of some bizarre druid cult. He’s just a guy who murdered five people in a small town back in the ’70s. Okay, that last sentence sounded a little insensitive, but I think you follow me. None of those sequels existing any longer sort of strips Myers of his legacy. Of course, some of the subplots as presented in some of those sequels were ape-shit nuts, so I suppose some might argue that by wiping the slate clean it allows this movie to have a fresh start.

Beyond the retroactive continuity, though, this “Halloween” is full of characters who make really dumb decisions, and there’s gobs of fan service to boot. Some of said fan service is okay. There’s an amusing little wink that plays on that terrifying moment from the original when Myers disappears after being shot multiple times by Loomis (Donald Pleasance), there’s a reference to a now adult Lonnie, and there’s a wonderful homage to the misunderstood “Halloween III: Season of the Witch.”

Other callbacks, such as a bit in which a body is covered by a ghost-white sheet, feel sorely labored and not at all like an organic part of the plot. And the one bit of fan service that many of us probably wanted — a return to the original Myers house — we don’t even get. Instead, the key location in this picture is a booby-trapped home in the middle of nowhere.

Attempting to hold the whole movie together is a game Jamie Lee Curtis who plays Strode as a broken-down but extremely well prepared warrior for a #metoo generation. This fractured woman simply can’t get past the devastation caused by the events on that terrifying Halloween night all those years ago. Curtis beautifully conveys the pain of a woman in her situation, but she still feels oddly underutilized.

While Curtis gives it her all, I wish Green and crew would have given Laurie an Ellen Ripley-level or Sarah Connor-level characterization, particularly in the finale. When Laurie finally squared off with Myers, I felt like it should have been a bigger deal. It’s a cool touch that three generations of Strodes get in on the action, but the payoff really doesn’t hit like it should. And in fact, I would dare argue that “H20” has a more sufficient payoff. That film presented Laurie as a woman plagued by nightmares, too, but there was a more heroic, stand-up-and-cheer resolve. Still, Curtis is a wonderful actress, and she brings far more dramatic weight to this picture than one might expect.

As for Myers (a returning Nick Castle plays the Shape in several scenes), he’s the evil, unstoppable killing machine that you’ve come to know and love. But at one point in the movie, it should be noted that he makes a choice that suggests perhaps he does have a conscience. On the other hand, he has no problem walking into a couple of random homes and killing innocents for no particular reason, so there’s no telling what this guy’s decision-making process might be.

Part of me feels like the movie would have been more effective if Myers simply went straight for Laurie, particularly given a thematic through-line suggesting that Myers and Strode need one another in some weird cosmic way. But I also recognize that this is a Halloween movie, so killing simply comes with the territory.

To that end, “Halloween” is surprisingly dull despite a cool look, terrific cinematography (watch for an impressive extended single-take sequence early on in the movie), a solid Curtis, an amusing Toby Huss as Greer’s lively husband, a wonderfully warm and funny scene between a likable babysitter and the charming little boy she’s watching after (arguably the best scene in the movie), and the unmistakable presence of the great John Carpenter himself. Carpenter serves as a creative consultant and the film’s composer, and I’m happy to report that the score does not disappoint!

The dumb stuff, like a ridiculous twist involving one character as silly and irritating as any of the craziest plot twists in the sequels, simply gets in the way. Furthermore, the fusion of humor and horror doesn’t always work, and the teen characters aren’t particularly well written. Even wonderful character actors like Will Patton and Judy Greer are virtually wasted.

I respect that this isn’t a straight-up rehash, and as a throwback this film works more successfully than Shane Black’s “The Predator.” But as a bookend movie, it doesn’t measure up to the likes of something like “Rocky Balboa.” No, “Halloween” feels like a film that should have been more than it actually is. Hefty expectations are probably partly to blame, but they are not the sole culprit.

“Halloween” works hard to remind you of why the original is so beloved, and while the makers of this picture certainly had their hearts in the right places, this is a case of a film that doesn’t live up to the hype. Again, it’s not bad, just disappointing. And in fact, for all the talk of how this one harkens back to Carpenter’s original, I must confess that I prefer “2,” “4,” and even “H20.” Those pictures may lack the dramatic weight provided by Curtis in this picture, but they are considerably more intense.

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