From the creators of George Washington, All the Real Girls, Pineapple Express, Eastbound & Down...
David Gordon Green has had the weirdest career.
This actually looks good! I'm a great fan of the original, and was really into the series in my early teens, so I'm rather excited. Carpenter is back producing and doing the score, Nick Castle is playing Michael again, Danny McBride (!) co-wrote it... Color me enthusiastic!
I've only seen the first 3, Rob Zombie's remake, and bits of H20 on television, but mannn do I enjoy those first three. The Shape is iconic and pure nightmare dread. Wonder what Joe Dante woulda done with III. This team coupled with such a strong trailer has me excited they did away with II, Laurie's flip-side fate.
Gonna watch Zombie's H2 soon, and then eventually the franchise. I think Busta Rhymes is in one of 'em.
I consider the first one an all-time classic, but the others are pretty broadly terrible. 4 and H20 are passable enough, I suppose (H20 brings me cozily back to that late 90s WB-infected Kevin Williamson Dimension Films Scream rip-off era that I remember so fondly, being my early adolescent years and all, so I'm more forgiving of it), but the low budget simplicity and elegance of Carpenter's original - with that beautiful 35mm widescreen cinematography courtesy Dean Cundey - still creates a stirring atmosphere of creepiness and dread.
The Rob Zombie entries are just pathetic and not worth seeking out. I didn't see the Busta Rhymes one but I'm sure it sucks. I'm glad they're ignoring all but Carpenter's original, and his involvement here pushes all of the right geek buttons for me.
My hope is that this one puts the proverbial nail in the coffin with a degree of grace, but then again if it makes enough money, who knows?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_-x4Dwz-rU
Yep, gonna be a fun one!
Early Review
https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/10/17838130/halloween-movie-review-jamie-lee-curtis-michael-myers-david-gordon-green-tiff-2018 (https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/10/17838130/halloween-movie-review-jamie-lee-curtis-michael-myers-david-gordon-green-tiff-2018)
Mixed-ish but ultimately on the more positive side. Spoilers!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epqHXzFCZiA
This has me feeling wonderfully geekily anticipatory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb2waXaCayg
i have a friend who's the most likely person to like this movie, and he's seen it, and he liked it
This was fun, if a bit rushed-seeming. Can't hold a candle to the original, though it blows every sequel out of the water.
The more I sit with this, the more I realize it's not much better than any of the sequels. It pays considerable homage to the original, and feels sometimes fresh in the sense that it's clearly of our time, but I have to admit I wasn't remotely scared or even particularly suspense-filled at any point. It just rushes on by, familiar and winkingly nostalgic, with almost zero emotional impact.
Which is to say, it's *so* of our time.
Past two days have maybe been the saddest I've had working at the theater -- heard more than half a dozen guests say this was better than the "awful first one." The night before we had played the 1978 film, and, of course, there were ironic laughs throughout almost the entire second act.
edit: This video has me remembering -- Hootz n Ruckus are all in the monster movie fun of thingz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Try-NCO5Vg)
I can't remember the last time I hated a movie so much. There's so many obscenely stupid moments and contrivances in this film that it had to have been some sorta troll by David Gordon Green
first i thought you were all probably being too hard on it. i just thought that because i was like, that's what i was thinking.
andbut actually you know what, someone told me the spine of First Man is death. someone told me that in an appreciative way and i actually ended up thinking i might see that (which i've been hard on before even seeing), but both the starting time and the runtime didn't align with my day so i ended up seeing Halloween yeah. it's the fourth 2018 movie i've seen.
and like i said i thought you were all being hard on it, and plus i went into it expecting and wanting escapism. yeah i thought, okay, i'll escape from my life by seeing a movie today. so i didn't expect or want to even think about it, and when it began i was like totally into it. i really was. i thought "yup, they were being hard on it," because you know i thought that was a fine enough intro. and i appreciated how DGG used normal looking people, i didn't think the movie was full of people who felt like hollywood actors, i thought they felt like normal people, and i liked that. i both liked Jamie Lee Curtis being old and how horror movies always express teen culture. and i liked that one young kid walking through the car headlights after the bus crash. i liked that kid dying. and after then when Michael was on the sidewalk around the halloweeners there was, i believe, a nice really long take that took him through a building and back outside and toward another house and a glass reflection and he went inside there too, but the camera staid outside. that's good cinematic grammar, you know. things like that felt like a big deal to me when i was younger, but that type of grammar isn't such a big deal anymore is it. then i liked the other kid cutting his nails and i liked the teenager getting rejected and notice how i keep talking about how i liked things and expected i'd think you were all being too hard on it.
except, omg. welp. so when he gets hit by the car the movie started losing me. i won't spoil it so it sounds weird if you haven't seen it, but if you've seen it you know what i mean. from that point on any sense of realworld logic just faded from my thoughts. and i didn't even go into the movie to examine its logic, but it went so far off track i couldn't help but notice. by the time they were at Jamie Lee Curtis's house i was like not having it. i even fell asleep for a little bit! i didn't mean to! i didn't want to! i didn't know that would happen! i believe what initiated my sleep was when Jamie Lee Curtis, who had waited for this moment since she was younger, she stood against the door and Michael reached his hands through the glass and grabbed her. i understand that people are dumb in horror movies, and plenty of people are plenty dumb in this movie, but isn't that literally the one person in this entire movie who isn't supposed to be being dumb. i think i nodded off a bit after that and woke right before the ending.
i did see the ending but i'm not sure how long i was asleep, nor, sadly, clearly, can i say i liked this movie much. damn.
I saw it a second time and enjoyed it more, but yeah that ridiculous scene you mention is where the movie starts becoming not much better than any of the other sequels, in my opinion. I might have enjoyed seeing the whole community band together and angry-mob the fuck out of him, or enact some sort of M-like scenario, but alas, they played it safe.
filling in the blank spots from when i fell asleep by accident, in terms of JLC being dumb at the door i am guessing she was actually being intentional, drawing him into the house, following the prey/predator concept. but both that mentioned concept and its implementation remain too much to me, although i'm glad to hear and believe that it plays better a second time
Largely at the behest of my inner-adolescent, I'm compelled to forgive it because it's so well-intentioned, and the things it does get right are a pleasure to witness. The new score was pretty cool, too. And despite my better self, I'm rather enjoying the event it's become.
It's a shame Tim Orr didn't DP. That would have been something.
i bet like you i'll like it better a second time for reasons discussed, but i think you feel me on the fact it's still, you know, that first time, there just wasn't that immediate connection, which is a big deal, and i just missed out on it with this movie
I fucking loved it