And so to this 2018 offering as Directed and Co-Written by David Gordon Green which is the eleventh film in the franchise and a direct sequel to the the original 1978 film, disregarding completely the sequels and the continuity that have come in between time. Set forty years after the events of the first film, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis playing the character now for the fifth time), has been preparing all this time over the ensuing years for the return of Michael Myers (Nick Castle from the original film and James Jude Courtney). We are first introduced to a couple of true crime podcasters Aaron Korey (Jefferson Hall) and Dana Haines (Rhian Rees) who travel to Smith's Grove Rehabilitation Hospital with the intention of interviewing Michael Myers forty years after his killing spree on Halloween night 1978. At the facility they are met by Michael's Doctor and Psychiatrist handler, Ranbir Sartain (Haluk Bilginer) who explains that Michael has not uttered a single word in forty years and that he can speak, but chooses not to. Upon meeting with Michael in an open courtyard under very tight security, with other inmates looking on, Aaron pulls from his satchel Michael's mask that he wore on that fateful night. He gets no reaction from Michael who stands with his back to the reporter the whole time, but the other inmates are clearly ill at ease.
They learn that several of the inmates, including Michael, are to be transported the very next day to a new facility. Having been unsuccessful in gaining any insight into Michael's psyche or motivation for killing, they try their luck at Laurie Strode's house. They arrive unannounced and entice Laurie to open her heavily fortified home with $3,000 in exchange for her time, which she agrees to. Gaining short shrift from Laurie, the two reporters are sent packing largely none the wiser, except that Laurie has suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and has been waiting all this time for the return of the Bogey Man, a term that is quickly dismissed by Aaron. 
The next night, during the transportation of Michael and other Hospital residents, the bus crashes, so allowing them all to flee the scene. Sartain, escorting Michael for one last time, is injured by a gun shot fired by a young lad out searching for his father amid the wreckage and who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Deputy Sheriff Frank Hawkins (Will Patton) is the first Police Officer on the scene and witnesses the brutal murder of a Prison Security Guard, and the lads father. 
Michael drives back to Haddonfield. Meanwhile, a crime scene is established at the petrol station with the public and Laurie looking on beyond the Police cordon. Frank Hawkins recognises Laurie, and it is clear they share a connection, as the four dead bodies are brought out in body bags. Laurie goes to the house of her estranged daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and tries to warn her of Michael's escape from the transit bus and the trail of bloodshed already left in his wake, but she dismisses her concerns as the ramblings of an unhinged woman.
Halloween night duly arrives and out on the streets are party revellers, Mums and Dads and kids of all ages dressed up in ghostly and ghoulish attire - the perfect night for hiding in plain sight and doing a little bit of killing! Karen's daughter Allyson Nelson (Andi Matichak) and Laurie's Granddaughter, is one of those out partying with her boyfriend Cameron (Dylan Arnold). The couple get into a fight and part company. Meanwhile, Michael has commenced his killing spree on Halloween night in Haddonfield dispensing with a couple of stay at home wives, and then Allyson's best friend Vicky, who was baby sitting a young lad, and her boyfriend Dave (Miles Robbins).
Laurie and Deputy Hawkins convince Karen and her husband Ray (Toby Huss) to seek refuge in Laurie's house where they will be safe, in the fortress like surroundings that Laurie has spent her life preparing for. Meanwhile, Allyson is unaccounted for and can't be reached by mobile phone, because the last thing that Cameron did was throw her precious phone into a bowl of custard. Walking home with Oscar (Drew Scheid), Cameron's good friend, the pair cross paths with Michael, and Oscar meets a sticky end being impaled through the neck on an iron gate post. Allyson witnesses this and runs screaming to alert her neighbours.
Deputy Hawkins and Dr. Sartain arrive in a patrol car to collect Allyson from the scene of the crime, being comforted by her neighbours. They collect Allyson to take her to Laurie's house to be with the family unit. En route they spy Michael on foot, and Deputy Hawkins puts the peddle to the metal and deliberately hits Michael front on at speed, sending him flying backwards believed to be dead. Sartain is obsessed with trying to understand Michael's motivations after all these years of treatment, that he wonders what must be going through his mind when he is killing. Sartain turns a scalpel on Hawkins killing him before he can shoot dead Michael for sure, dons Michael's face mask, and lifts the lifeless but still breathing body of the killer into the back of the patrol car with Allyson, and drives off towards Laurie's house. Michael regains consciousness en route to Laurie's house and overpowers Sartain from the back of the vehicle. Michael drags Sartain out of the patrol car, puts on his mask again, and stamps on Sartain's head, crushing it like a Halloween pumpkin. Allyson, escapes the car and runs into the woods. Two other Police Officers arrive at the scene who had been guarding the entry to the Strode estate, and these two are gruesomely dispensed with by Michael too.
Michael arrives at Laurie's fortress, and promptly kills an inquisitive Ray. Laurie is heavily armed and poised at the ready. As Michael tries to gain entry through the front door grasping Laurie through the glass panel in a stranglehold, she is able to position her shotgun and fire at him through the glass shooting off two of his fingers in the process. She hides in a secret basement under the kitchen with Karen, hearing the sounds of heavy footsteps on the floorboards above. She fires her shotgun upwards, clearly injuring Michael with a thump to the floor. She ventures out of the basement leaving Karen. Armed with a rifle and a torch she searches through the house following Michael's trail of blood as she goes. She seals every room once it has been cleared with an automatic heavy drop down steel door. But the pair come face to face in a spare room upstairs with Michael pushing Laurie out onto the roof where she falls down into the garden below, seemingly unconscious.
By now Allyson has arrived at the house and is reunited with Karen in the basement. Michael is distracted by Allyson's panicked arrival, and when he looks down to the garden again, Laurie is gone (a nod to the original film here where the reverse occurred). Michael has surmised that Karen and Allyson are lurking in the secret basement hideaway, and is able to gain entry. Looking down at them Karen shoots Michael and he falls forward into the basement towards them. Laurie is looking on from behind. Michael rises and grabs at Karen's foot as she is making her exit up the steps. The three women stab, and punch and kick at their assailant sending him reeling backwards again, just in time for Laurie to activate some heavy reinforced bars across the stairs so trapping Michael inside the basement. Using a rigged up gas supply which is also automatically activated by a heat lamp, Laurie throws a flaming torch into the basement which quickly engulfs the basement, the house and Michael in a ball of fire. The three women leave the burning house as sun rises on a new day, and hitch a ride in a passing pick up truck, nursing their wounds.
After all the positive publicity and marketing surrounding this film, I went into see 'Halloween' and was not disappointed. Disregarding all the previous ho-hum instalments that came after 1981's 'Halloween II', this film pays a respectful homage to John Carpenter's original and ground breaking horror slasher flick, and updates it whilst maintaining many of the touchstones that made that first offering so memorable. The body count reaches sixteen by my reckoning by the time the end credits roll which is sure to please the younger generation of fans who like their kills delivered in new and inventive ways and with plenty of gore. The film is also relevant for the present day #MeToo movement by virtue of having three put upon female protagonists overcome the dominant male antagonist for making their lives a misery for so long. There are a few jump scares in this film, but only a few, and unlike the original, this film doesn't really scare. It's dramatic, it's thrilling at times, and the brutality of the random merciless killings is horrific, but I'm not sure this is a horror film in the true sense, unlike say 'Hereditary' was. Its entertaining, packs a punch, and revitalises a franchise that lost its way a long time ago, and for that reason sure is worth the price of your cinema ticket.'Halloween' rates four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
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