Another sequel to Halloween exactly 40 years later that has evolved into more than just a bloody gory slasher. 

• Scare factor: ★★★★☆
• Gruesome violent factor: ★★★★★
• Gory Bloody factor: ★★★★★
• Slasher factor: ★★★★★

Halloween 2018 isn’t just a sequel. It has a lot to offer, besides just a conventional slasher. Aside from the bloody gore, the brutal violence and gruesome kills, it also has a serious take that discusses many horror tropes. On top of that It is a joy of recognition for fans, with fun references and connecting with the Halloween universe, while also building a new universe. It’s an homage and a brutal slasher in one that is only the beginning of a new chapter of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers. 

Duration: 1h 47m

If you want to see more films set at Halloween and with a great Halloween vibe take a look at my List of Halloween Horror Films. Or if you want to read some Halloween centered horror books you can find it in my List of Halloween Horror Books.

Plot

It’s been 40 years since Michael Myers killed five people at Halloween in Haddonfield in 1978. Laurie Strode was the only survivor of her group of friends. Michael has been caught and has spent all his days at Smith’s Grove Psychiatric Hospital, not speaking a word. His new psychiatrist Dr. Sartain had Dr. Sam Loomis as his mentor and he has learned everything about Michael. Now Michael is transported to another facility Glass Hill. But before he leaves, podcasters Aaron Korey and Dana Haines want to talk to him and show him his mask to provoke him to speak. 

After that fruitless visit they go see Laurie Strode who has since struggled with trauma and has been preparing for another encounter with Michael. She even has trained her daughter Karen to survive until she was taken from her when she was twelve years old by social services. Now Laurie leads a life as a hermit, in a very enclosed and secured house. She has a bad relationship with Karen but a better relationship with her granddaughter Allyson who tries to understand her and bond with her. Aaron and Dana don’t get much out of Laurie and they leave.

That night the bus in which Michael and other psychiatric patients were transported crashes due to Michael attacking the guards. Now he has escaped again. First he retrieves his mask and then it’s time to come after Laurie, meanwhile killing people along the way.

Continue reading below this announcement.

Short Review

This film presents itself as the direct sequel to Halloween 1978, only 40 years later. It pretends all the other films don’t exist. There’s even a reference to the fact that in Halloween II (1981) Laurie was revealed to be Michael’s baby sister and that it was the reason why he came after her. But Allyson explains to her friends that was just a rumor to make the story more interesting.  

Trauma and the aftermath

This film focuses on the aftermath of surviving a massacre as Laurie did. She is a mess. She doesn’t get out a lot, she has a bad relationship with her daughter. She treats the world as a hostile place and to be prepared for anything that comes for you. This way Karen was also traumatized by her upbringing. But it’s also a generational trauma. This is shown in a very realistic and understandable way. You understand Laurie and why she became this way, but you also understand Karen who suffered indirectly and directly from her mother’s trauma. 

In the middle stands Allyson. She wants Laurie to be involved in her life as a grandmother and reaches out to her. Laurie reaches back, while Karen wants the contact with her mother at a minimum. It’s a very interesting dynamics between three generations. While Allyson didn’t grew up with Laurie as her mother did, she only can rely on the stories her mother told her. To her Lauries doesn’t seem like a mother who traumatized her child. It’s a very important and pivotal part of the film. And it dives deep into the psychology of trauma and how it works through generations.

Questioning true crime and the mind of a killer

What is also a very interesting and important point is when Aaron and Dana visit Laurie they want to understand what’g going on the mind of a killer. They hint that Laurie is not only traumatized but a bit crazy. Which Laurie deflects by saying that Michael killed five people, but that she is put away as a basket case because she is divorced twice. I thought it was a very nice jibe to the true crime podcasts and documentaries. Why is it that we want to know what’s inside the mind of a (serial) killer. What is so intriguing while it leaves people broken, traumatized their lives forever altered. Those true crime stories aren’t fiction it always has real victims, like Laurie Strode. 

This focus also is brought up by Dr. Sartain. He is very concerned with Michael. He wants to keep researching him and understanding him. He even goes so far that he kills a man and even dons on Michael’s mask. And says: So this is what it feels like. He even wants Michael and Laurie confronting each other, see what happens, like it’s an experiment. It’s completely insane. In the film Michael, like Loomis already said in 1978, is pure evil. He doesn’t have or need a motive. He is The Boogeyman, Evil incarnated. By putting on a mask he isn’t human anymore. He doesn’t have a face. In the film before he acquires his mask again his face which is clearly old is never seen directly, only glimpses. But we can’t point him out in a crowd. 

While Michael represents evil itself the real people are questioned by this film. Are they contributing to evil become popular? Are they enhancing evil? It’s interesting matter. Why do people love true crime so much? What is intriguing about a human being killing and destroying other people’s lives? 

Brutal violence 

The film contains a lot of gore, brutal violence, gruesome kills, although it also retains the suspense of the original film. The violence is built up. First we only see victims who are brutally killed, broken neck, hugely dislodged jaw, a woman with her head bashed in by a hammer. But we don’t see him commit these acts yet. It’s only after her comes for his mask, with which Aaron had taunted him, the kills are more on screen and violent and gory. His killing spree is big. A lot of people get killed, some on screen, some off screen, but he leaves a bloody trail of gruesome kills throughout town, looking for Laurie. At least that is what we are supposed to believe. Because it was actually Dr. Sartain who brought them together and not Michael’s own initiative. He wasn’t interested at all in Laurie, but that will be discussed more in Halloween Kills (2021).

More than a Final Girl

At the same time Laurie is driving through town looking for him. And with a good reason. She says she has been praying for him to escape. It’s because she wants to kill him and end her own suffering by removing the threat in her life. It is therefore also a film about The Final Girl. This time she is not only prepared but an active agent in her life that has been silently threatened by Michael. Instead of being chased, she is the one doing the chasing.

While everybody thinks she is a victim and behaves as such, becoming a hermit, she is in fact not a victim anymore, she has seen to that. She has also prepared Karen to never become a victim. And if that meant Karen hates her, but will survive, Laurie is happy. It seems a bit extreme, but it’s all about three powerful strong women who refuse to be victims. Karen even refuses to be a victim of her mother. While Michael still acts the same, the women in the slasher genre have evolved and Laurie proves that. 

The house where Karen grew up in seemed to her like a cage, but in fact it’s a trap. When Laurie finally lures Michael into her house, we experience her genius. The whole house is built like a trap. It results in a suspenseful cat and mouse game. Even Karen has a trick up her sleeve to lure Michael into a trap. It’s a thrilling final act where Laurie and Michael come face to face. Now Laurie is thrown out of the window and onto the lawn. This time it’s her who disappears and comes back to end Michael. It feels like a final reckoning, both for Laurie and Karen. There’s even an understanding that has promise for their future relationship. 

Ode to Halloween 1978

While this film holds many themes about trauma, generational trauma, dysfunctional relationships due to trauma, the questionable appeal of a killer, it’s also a brutal slasher. On top of that it’s also an ode to slashers and the original Halloween films in particular.

The kills in the house where Vicky babysits Julian has some familiar kills. Vicky is dressed like  a ghost with a white sheet draped over her, just like Michael once did himself. Her boyfriend Dave is pinned to a wall just like Bob was. Police officer Frank Hawkins refers to Michael’s former kills as the Babysitter Murders. This was the original title for Halloween (1978). Hawkins was also the one who apprehended Michael after his failed attempt of killing Laurie and was shot by Loomis. There are more references or easter eggs like Michael watching through a window, and we see his reflection, the billowing sheets drying on the lawn, the strangling on the backseat of the car. These fun easter eggs link this film even more to the original film.

But there’s more. Three kids are seen on the street with the Halloween masks from Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). In Halloween II (1981) he steals a kitchen knife and now he does it again. He also gets his overall from a gas station. The opening credits show a rotten pumpkin resurrecting itself. It’s the footage of Halloween 1978 but in reverse, a symbol that Michael comes back again. And at the end when Allyson stops a truck, all three of them sit in the back of the truck driving away from the scene, just like Sally Hardesty did when she escaped Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). It’s an homage to a film considered to be the prototype slasher, that brought a New Wave of American Horror. 

Halloween 2018 has a lot to offer. It’s a real gory, violent slasher with brutal gruesome kills. It discusses many themes relating to killers and it’s an interesting and realistic take on the aftermath. It connects to the original film in a meaningful way but also in a very creative and entertaining way. It offers fun easter eggs and serves as an homage to the original and to slashers. 

Read more about the Halloween franchise:

• Halloween (1978) review
• Halloween II (1981) review
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) review