SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.Allyson has a nice scene early on with her friends where they discuss the context of Michael’s attack. Obviously, his murder spree is bad, but like the character’s mention, such an event pales in comparison to the larger structural issues plaguing the world. This is a nice bit of context I wish other characters mentioned more often as a counter-point to Laurie’s (and Loomis’s) insistence on treating Michael as a force of evil meant to be eradicated. It seems like a pertinent point that someone mention that Michael is also an senior at this point, so characters questioning his strength and durability is more than par for the course.

2.Outside of the fantastic one-shot at the 45 minute mark, there’s very little work done making Michael feel like a presence in the film akin to how he operated in the original movie. That film is filled with over-the-shoulder shots of Michael gazing upon his eventual victims while breathing in deeply, letting us know he’s present. That’s missing by and large in this film. Outside of the reverse over-the-shoulder at the start of the film and Michael’s appearance at Judith’s grave, this agential shot of Michael is missing.

This would be fine if not for the fact that the confrontation between Michael and Aaron is shot in such a fashion that the former’s visage is repeatedly flashed onto the screen. Even if it’s minute, getting to see glimpses of Michael’s face constantly is poor form and makes the eventual moment where Michael put’s on his mask less satisfying. The moment should have been the first time Michael’s face looks at the screen and it feels like a missed opportunity to not have filmed Michael’s scenes before he put on his mask more stringently to ensure that no facial features were visible especially when the over-the-shoulder shot exists and is consistent with the character’s presence.

The reveal is another problem in its own right because the shot it ends on doesn’t feel particularly special. There’s no effort to stylize the reveal sans shooting it in slow-motion with Carpenter’s score. Why not at least frame Michael to suggest he’s now been reborn or become united with the shadows again? Framing him off-center with the back of a car window just feels like a sad send-off after all that build-up.

3.But the oner at the 45 minute mark is great – wish there was more of this energy in the rest of the film. One sequence within it that I particularly enjoy is when Michael peeks into a woman’s window. His reflection comes off the glass and we get a respective sound cue. Then he walks along the side of the house and his shadows cast along the walls in the vein of Nosferatu. Finally, he makes his way into the room and stabs his victim as she moves from the background to the foreground of the shot. All of this happens with a stationary camera.

4.If there is a moment to praise in the film, it is the choice to have Michael not kill a newborn child. The film establishes early on that killing children isn’t something above him, so the distinct choice to have him look at but not murder a newborn establishes that he’s looking for “something” in his victims. A newborn is a blank slate who has no experiences, good or bad, so Michael has no regards for them. He’s an agent of “evil”, so persons not related to the domains of good or evil mean nothing to him. An adolescent on the other hand has gained experiences in the world and can make decisions. Their choices operate in Michael’s domain, so he’s free to murder them. Wish this was something the film spent more time on.

5.It is funny in a meta-sense that Sartane, one of the persons most invested in giving Michael’s carnage a coherent narrative backdrop to frame it against, is the one who literally drives Michael and Allyson towards Laurie. If he doesn’t forcefully take them, the ultimate battle the film is leading up to probably doesn’t happen. Michael seems more than satisfied just butchering people in the city and makes no movements towards Laurie.

This is also why the story feels like a disappointment in terms of where it could have gone. Imagine an unhinged Laurie hunting a Michael who gives her no regard or concern. Something in that vein would give credence to the idea that a monster created a monster but because the film opts to just get the characters to their battle stations, there’s never any room for nuance to deliberate on the above.

6. At 71 minute “The Shape Hunts Allyson” starts to play, and it is one of the best pieces of music from the Halloween franchise. The fact that Carpenter is still crafting pieces like this is fantastic.