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A perfect sequel 40 years in the making.
There might be many more films in between, but this is a sequel that believes it is Halloween 2. It sets up a gloriously creepy premise, leaves after a lot of death with doubts firmly planted in your mind…. How did that bus crash?
I will admit that maybe this experience was improved by being the only people in the middle of a large cinema late at night… the 3D-soundscape really came into its own because no crunch could be dismissed as popcorn, and no squelch as a choc-top. I had to turn and check the door five times … and it was all in the film.
What’s probably notable is how much the film-making sensibilities have changed. Whilst the first Halloween borders on a babysitter porno, in this the only nudity is a flashback to the first. What is excellent is how well they share the load of the story between so many characters – it’s a storyline with multiple perspectives. Obviously Jamie Lee-Curtis does an excellent job at carrying on the role that “introduced” her…this tough prepper-Grandma is wonderful. Her grand-daughter takes on the original role as the preppy-teen student threatened by the madman. The original Mike comes back to play his greying hair – with the younger masked Mike being even more violent and creepy than the first.
You also have the investigative reporters and the psychologist, plus a few solid cop characters. And somehow, near seamlessly, the story hops between them all repeatedly during the film.
I do have a soft spot for the film that just goes hard on the unspeakable unknowable evil… it’s a fascinating baddy.
J* gives it 4 stars.
<review written in 2018>