There was a serious amount of hype surrounding Blumhouse’s new Halloween. With Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter back on board 40 years after the release of the first movie, could it manage to bypass the endless acceptable-to-awful entries in the franchise and give us something on a level with the masterful original? Having smashed box office records and earned a mostly strong critical response, it’s safe to say that it’s certainly succeeded in that.
So, just how did director David Gordon Green and screenwriters Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley achieve what we thought was impossible and deliver a second strong Halloween movie? Well, the solid script and direction is a big part of it, but let’s not forget the terrific performances and chilling score. Overall, there just seems to be a great deal more care and affection for the franchise on show here than we’ve seen in the past.
Of course, there are flaws – it takes a while to get going and many of the new characters fall flat – but let’s focus on the positives for a while and look at why 2018’s Halloween is easily the best one since the first film.