Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Jim Cummings, Robert Longstreet, Anthony Michael Hall
Distributor: Universal Pictures International
Runtime: 107 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2021
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Yet another sequel in the Halloween franchise which began in 1978. It is Halloween 2018. Michael Myers appears yet again and goes on a killing spree. The townspeople want to destroy him, but can this Bogeyman ever be destroyed?
Heavens! (Or should that be Hell!?) It was October 1978 when we reviewed the first Halloween film. Forty-three years later, we have lost count of all the sequels and variations capitalising on sinister character, Michael Myers. So, here he is again, the same menacing threat, the same embodiment of evil, frequently referred to as the Bogeyman, not a suggestion of a redeeming feature, programmed to kill in grisly, gory, cruel variations and close-ups.
David Gordon Green directed Halloween in 2018, focusing on the original central character, Laurie, (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter, played by Judy Greer, her granddaughter, played by Andi Matichak. They thought they had destroyed Michael Myers by fire – and this episode takes up the theme from there, 2018, 40th anniversary of the first attacks by Michael Myers.
In fact, we don’t see all that much of Laurie, brought to hospital, rather cantankerous. The climax will be a confrontation between her daughter and granddaughter in the Myers’ house. But, on the way, there is a succession of characters, seemingly lining up to be brutally disposed of.
In the meantime, for those who don’t remember, there are some flashbacks to 1978, explaining how Michael Myers had killed his sister in 1963, had wrought mayhem in 1978 and had been institutionalised. (But, over the past 40 years, he has managed to escape more times than we ever imagined.)
Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of this Halloween story is the mob mentality. We are introduced to a number of people who remember the past confrontations and are consumed with vindictiveness (led by Anthony Michael Hall, far from his John Hughes comedy days – indeed, almost unrecognisable).
The key scene occurs when people take refuge in the local hospital. Crammed together, fearful, and roused by the leaders, they set their eyes on a patient, assume he is Michael Myers, pursue him, and then force him to an upper storey ledge where he falls to his death. The mob violence of ordinary people.
At the end, there is a voice-over commentary by Laurie explaining the nature of evil, how it cannot be extinguished, how it transfers from person to person. And, although David Gordon Green has notified that the next episode will be called Halloween Ends, the final image of Michael Myers seems to indicate – Halloween Forever.
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