Its been forty years since Laurie Strode survived the Halloween attacks by Michael Myers, everything in her life has been building up to this reunion a final confrontation with the man who completely wrecked her life!
I eventually caught up with the original Halloween film from 1978 and this is a direct sequel to that film, disregarding the ones that have come in between. Which I guess was perfect considering I have not seen any of the other ones. I was therefore looking forward to seeing this at the cinema.
Even though it was 40 years later the film tries to stay in a very similar style to the original. It still doesn't show too much on-screen in terms of the killing moments but it does have a few very gory parts.
The story starts off with two people who research into unsolved murders and wanted to do one about Michael Myers. They visit him in the institution he had been kept in, even though he has not spoken a word at all. Dr Sartain seems to be very strange in his manner towards Michael, considering he was a brutal serial killer without any reason. I thought that character was going to be interesting.
Then we get to see Laurie and the house she had built for herself, pretty much a safe house, teaching herself to be able to shoot a gun and fight for herself. The only issue was that everything she witnessed on that fateful night destroyed her life, she had her daughter Karen taken away from her because her paranoia was passed on and it was not deemed safe for a child to be in her care. Now though she has a granddaughter Allyson to think about as well, all she ever wanted was to keep them safe.
I found this to be a rather interesting way to develop Laurie as a character who had been struggling to deal with everything for now forty years. It certainly added to the final scenes that everything was building towards. A very good idea in terms of the films, but if you just decide to see this one now and haven't seen the original it won't really mean as much.
I did feel though that we had too many unanswered questions in terms of if other characters actually survived. I mean obviously we got to see the ones who were killed by Michael, but some who might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, like Julian? Then no one really seemed to care about Ray? The small twist with the doctor was very good though and something I was not really expecting despite a strange feel from him.
The suspense was built up well and it does have you on the edge of your seat at times as you wait for something to happen, for Michael to suddenly appear. There really is something so uneasy about that mask! Interesting to think about the victim is left which is what we get with Laurie, she has gone completely mad from it all which was more than understandable and gives Jamie Lee Curtis a chance to put in a very good performance!
