Halloween Diary - Halloween (2018) * (3/5)

 "Halloween Kills" (2021) is getting absolutely hammered by not only critics but Halloween diehards. I have checked multiple sources, including Letterboxd, IMDb, Reddit, Rotten Tomatoes, YouTube, etc. Just a mix of voices to determine where this film really stands with the community. I know that some have said "Halloween Kills" is divisive, but I think most of those who have seen it agree it is a mess. I had a good time with it, but I can't really defend "Halloween Kills" against criticism that is just and accurate. I can't dispute that the dialogue is cringe. I have no idea what that ending is about. The Friday the 13th fan in me enjoys the carnage, sure, but as Halloween fan, I'm the first to admit that "Halloween Kills", besides the 1978 flashback -- which I will comment about in my next additional take on the film after a second watch on Peacock before seeing the film in the theater on Friday evening -- just doesn't fit the bill. 

"Halloween 2018" was on FXHD Channel late Sunday night (it started at 11:00 and ended at 1:30 AM Monday morning), so I had it on in the background as I often do when I'm "internet surfing". I really found myself caught up in the film, feeling after the viewing that I liked it more this viewing than the other two times I watched it. I just feel that without "Halloween II" (1981), the real potency of Laurie Strode's emotional toll from 40 years of wrecked psyche doesn't quite work as well to me as what we get to see in "Halloween H20" (1998), with 20 years of trauma. Because a lot of people die when you accumulate the death toll from "Halloween" (1978) and "Halloween II" (1981), so Laurie's inability to function well without plying herself with alcohol and hiding herself away in a private school behind a protective fence and security guard in a shack makes sense. Still, I really like Curtis in "Halloween 2018", especially when she allows Rhian Rees and Jefferson Hall's true crime podcasters into her home and answers some questions from them for money they offer her. I really think that moment when they request her to sit down with Michael just to get him to speak and Laurie turns her face from them as she fights back tears is a good piece of acting from Curtis. There are those moments in this film where I personally appreciate Curtis' return, even as I notice a growing sentiment among franchise fans wanting her Laurie to just go away. I just don't feel that way. Granted, I love Curtis and her Laurie, even as "Halloween II" (1981) never was a good example of what she could bring to the role. I watched "Halloween II" (1981) just the other evening, and with each subsequent viewing, I do recognize that Laurie really isn't in the film a significant amount of time. She is a mission for Michael, and so her purpose is the sister he wants to annihilate. 

Michael is freed from the bus after an "accident" while inmates were being  transferred. I had hoped this would get covered in "Halloween Kills", because I've heard rumors that it is possible Laurie caused the bus accident. Just the same, a father's head is bent back with his neck broken and a bone sticking out his throat skin, while his son tries to drive the car, unable to escape Michael, in the backseat waiting for him. I liked how this was very similar to when Michael kills Annie in "Halloween" (1978), as the windows are foggy and once Michael gets his hands on the person in the driver's seat, there is just no escape. Killing a child really is a statement. Now later, Michael decides not to kill a crying baby after stabbing the mother through the neck while she was looking out her living room window. When Michael was moving through the neighborhood in "Halloween II" (1981), he couldn't wait to stick his butcher knife in a woman. A young woman the age of Laurie doesn't realize that the killer is right in her vicinity. Much like the young mother in "Halloween 2018", Michael isn't content with walking around without shedding some blood.

I was thinking about this last night while watching "Halloween 2018": Michael has been in an institution for 40 years. Much like when he was a kid growing up in an institution from 1963 until 1978, Michael waited patiently, staring at the wall, looking through the wall, so once he's out, he's much older and just wants to unleash. It was sort of like Bundy being denied his hunting and killing women in 1977 due to being held by law enforcement, where, once he escaped, he really got violent on the young women at the Florida State University boardinghouse. So Michael was roaming through Haddonfield, locating the two podcasters who put that mask in his face, hoping he might talk to them. All they did was imprint their presence in his mind, making sure they were among his first victims. And when Michael is able to kill, he doesn't take it easy on them. Yes, he wasn't nearly as violent in "Halloween" (1978) as he ends up being in "Halloween 2018". That certainly isn't the case in "Halloween Kills" where Michael is so unhinged, he can't stop at just choking you or sticking you to a closet door. In "Halloween 2018", Michael severs a cop's head and carves it out to form his own human jack-o'lantern, placing it in the lap of his partner. Michael can't stop at injuring Dr. Sartain, he must smash his face in under foot. Michael, in "Halloween Kills", carves a path of bloodshed and bodies towards home, not content with taking it easy on anyone. There is definitely this holdover of Rob Zombie's Michael Myers with this James Jude Courtney interpretation. When the police find the podcasters in the nasty bathroom, the service station attendant's lower jaw is separated  from the rest of his face. When you see Michael Myers smashing Aaron Korey's face into the restroom wall and stall doors, it makes sense that he would pound the attendant's face into the counter until his jaw is separated gruesomely.

5 - Love

4 - Really Like

3 - Like

2 - Meh

1 - Nah