2018’s alternative timeline comes with a huge retcon to one of the franchise’s long-standing plot points: Michael Myers/The Shape and Laurie Strode are no longer siblings. This is a major change to what has become common knowledge in the franchise and alters The Shape from a deranged obsessive brother back to his original roots as a chaotic evil force of nature. 2018 is well-aware of such major change and acknowledges it as nothing more than made-up rumors in its new timeline. No, here the relationship between Michael (Nick Castle) and Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is no more than hunter and the prey that got away.
2018 takes place forty years after the original film (the same amount of time that has passed in real life) with Laurie now a paranoid recluse with two failed marriages and a daughter (Judy Greer) that was taken away by children services. The world believes Laurie has lost it, and they may be right, but she doesn’t care—focusing most of her time on preparing for the return of The Shape, who was caught and has been in the sanitarium for the past forty years. Laurie’s daughter, now grown up and with a teenage daughter (Andi Matichak) of her own, believes such preparedness is for naught—but when Michael ends up escaping custody (what, a, shocker) her mom’s harsh training may just end up saving her and her daughter’s life.
Director David Gordon Green clearly has a nostalgic admiration and love for the original film as 2018 pays homage to it…too much homage. If 2018 has a noteworthy flaw, it’s that the film is too much like the original. The film’s first two-thirds retread a lot of the original plot’s territory—containing a ton of references, nods, same situations, and similar character types. Similarities include the opening credits, Michael escaping from a sanitarium, a new psychologist obsessed with Michael (Haluk Bilginer), Laurie taking the position of Dr. Loomis as the person hunting Michael, the granddaughter taking Laurie’s original position, all the horror teenager tropes (though this is a given), the soundtrack, and even getting the original actor Nick Castle to reprise his role as The Shape after forty years to name a few. 2018 plays it safe, taking no real risks as it tries to capture the original’s effectiveness through imitation.
Minor Spoilers Begin: There’s a running theme about Michael never saying a word despite being capable of speaking. The film brings it up so much I became quite intrigued to see if it would actually have The Shape speak. Yes, it’s a big risk to take that could easily alienate fans of the series, but with big risks come big rewards and if given time to plan and properly craft, such execution could end up being a refreshing change of narrative for this soft reboot to distinguish itself from the films before. He doesn’t though.
There’s also one character who may as well have had a big red target on her shirt because she checks off all the teenage victim traits: female, blonde, attractive, promiscuous, does drugs, babysits, has a dumb boyfriend, etc. She checks off so many of the teenage victim traits that I actually thought the film would pull a subversion and have her survive. She doesn’t, but the boy she’s babysitting does, and he is quite possibly the best thing in the film as he just straight up bails on her without hesitation (and this is after they have a touching scene together where she calls him her favorite kid to babysit). He even runs by her confused boyfriend and tells him to not go help her, or he will die. Love it.
While the first two-thirds lack in originality, there is still enjoyment to be found (which includes the above-mentioned scene). I love the extra touch of Michael’s mask being worn out from all the years past, the tracking shot where the audience follow Michael as he casually goes from door-to-door—under the camouflage of trick-or-treating—murdering women without anyone noticing, and a creepy scene where he stalks a drunk teenager under a sensory light. The latter scene even throws in some dark comedy where the recently rejected teen asks The Shape if he ever really wanted a girl but just couldn’t have her.
It’s in the last third where 2018 starts shaking things up with a surprise twist, a change in environment, and some fun role reversal. MAJOR SPOILERS BEGIN Here’s where the references and nods to the original film work the most effectively. The switcheroo where it’s Laurie hunting Michael in a house, Laurie who looks for him inside a closet, and Laurie who gets the Halloween jingle after falling off a roof, only to disappear when Michael briefly looks away. I love how it’s heavily implied that the psychiatrist was the one to release Michael—rather than Michael just escaping because he can—and how he organizes Laurie and Michael’s “final” confrontation over pure curiosity.
Laurie’s preparedness for Michael is basically Home Alone on steroids—guns galore, hidden bunkers, gates and cages to trap, rigged combustible areas, etc. I am disappointed that for forty years of preparing Laurie still makes some major rookie mistakes when facing The Shape—though it’s mostly made up for by the aforementioned role reversal and her daughter’s skillful ploy of acting as a damsel-in-distress to trick evil incarnate like a total badass. MAJOR SPOILERS END/Minor Spoilers End
2018’s Halloween retains much of what makes the original so effective, albeit through a bit too much imitation. Those who find the original to be dated and no longer scary may enjoy 2018 as a modernized version that captures the original’s feel—while those who can look past any datedness may be put off by 2018’s lack of originality and predictability. I’m stuck in the middle of these two groups. I find the 1978 version to be scary and still the best Halloween film out there—with 2018’s repetitiveness disappointing—yet, nonetheless, enjoy seeing old faces in a familiar yet modernized setting that shakes things up in a memorably entertaining finale. One thing I am certain of, however, is that 2018's Halloween is the best film in its franchise to release since Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later. Let's just hope it doesn't take another twenty years and a soft reboot for the franchise to produce another good one.
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