Welcome back to Sound Off!, a semi-regular column where members of Speculative Chic gather together to chat about the latest BIG THING in entertainment. This time, celebrate the ultimate final girl and discuss Halloween, which premiered in the United States on Friday, October 19, 2018.
Sound Off! is meant to be a reaction, but not necessarily a review. After all, while we are all individuals, even mutual love of something (or hate) can come from different places: you may find everything from critique to fangirling to maybe even hate-watching.
Now, join Ronya McCool as she talks about Halloween. [Note: Spoiler-free!]
Ronya: Halloween, Halloween II, Prom Night (another Jamie Lee Curtis movie!), and Poltergeist were among the first horror movies I watched as a kid. (Yep — I said kid.) Not gonna lie, although I grew up on horror films, I haven’t seen a lot of them lately. I’ve tried to be more discerning about the films I want to spend my money on. In the last year I’ve seen IT (2017), Get Out (2017), and A Quiet Place (2018). I waffled about seeing this movie. But I couldn’t resist the draw of Jamie Lee Curtis as an older Laurie Strode who finally faces down her nemesis, Michael Myers. Halloween was an iconic film in its own right, too easily dismissed as a slasher flick. It certainly spawned slasher flicks, which I generally avoid, because I can’t stomach violence for violence’s sake. This one continues on from Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1982) as both of those movies are about “That Night.” And it is a really competent horror film.
I knew going in that it would be violent. While some of the violence is implied, let’s just say some of it definitely is not, and in the first half-hour, I almost called it quits because I couldn’t believe this film Went There. (The aforementioned Prom Night also shows a similar scene, so it isn’t as though Hollywood hasn’t tackled this subject before.) Although the trailer looked completely salacious, the film isn’t — except for the violent scenes that show Michael as the embodiment of evil.
If you’re looking for answers about how Michael got to be evil, you won’t find them here. The film separates him from other mentally ill, criminally insane prisoners/patients. Michael is and always has been evil. The film is more focused on Laurie as a trauma survivor, emotionally separated from her family, hopefully writing the end of her story by facing down the villain. But by casting Michael as purely evil — not even psychopathic, just evil; the only thing that animates him is killing — the question then becomes why Laurie? I couldn’t help but think it isn’t just because she’s the “final girl.”
This movie doesn’t want you to think too deeply about Michael’s existence, however. It is almost a complete callback to the first film. (Hey, if the Star Wars franchise can do it…) There are many references to the original films, from Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson’s high school classroom to how Michael displays a particular victim. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see this film.
The difference is that Laurie has spent the last forty years preparing for a rematch. There are scares aplenty, but also, dare I say, a wee bit of closure. And, you, know, the ending isn’t exactly a surprise, but I’m going to say Laurie Strode is a woman who deserves some peace.
Film still via IMDB.com
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