THE LONG WALK : Wednesday 17th September 2025

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE LONG WALK' at my local independent movie theatre this week, and this American dystopian survival thriller film is Co-Produced and Directed by Francis Lawrence who after years of Directing music videos turned his hand to feature films with his debut in 2005 with 'Constantine', which he would follow up with 'I Am Legend' in 2007, 'Water for Elephants' in 2011, 'The Hunger Games : Catching Fire' in 2013, 'The Hunger Games : Mockingjay - Parts 1 & 2' in 2014 and 2015, 'Red Sparrow' in 2018, 'Slumberland' in 2022 and 'The Hunger Games : The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes' in 2023. This film is based on the 1979 novel by Stephen King (writing under his pseudonym Richard Bachman), and has been in development Hell since 1988 when George A. Romero was first linked to Direct the film adaptation, and since then it has been on again off again as numerous film makers have come and gone, until Lawrence took the helm. On a production budget of US$20M the film has so far grossed US$18M since its release Stateside and here in Australia last week and has garnered generally positive critical reviews.

Here then, set in a dystopian United States ruled by a dictatorial regime, as a result of a war that broke out some time in the past, every year, thousands of teenage boys apply to participate in the Long Walk. This event in which fifty randomly chosen young men are given water and rations, must walk without stopping along a pre-determined route while soldiers escort them. Any walker who falls below three miles per hour is given a verbal warning, but can invalidate it by maintaining speed for an hour. If a walker receives three warnings and falls below speed again, he is shot on the spot and killed by the soldiers. The Walk ends when there is but one survivor left, who receives a substantial cash prize and can have one wish, any wish, fulfilled. 

Raymond 'Ray' Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) arrives at the starting point, and bids an emotional farewell to his mother Ginnie Garraty (Judy Greer) and meets the other participants, including Peter McVries (David Jonsson), Billy Stebbins (Garrett Wareing), Arthur Baker (Tut Nyuot), Collie Parker (Joshua Odjick), Gary Barkovitch (Charlie Plummer), Hank Olson (Ben Wang), and Richard Harkness (Jordan Gonzalez), along with the Major (Mark Hamill), who oversees the whole event. After each walker is given a dog tag bearing a number from one to fifty, and a quick set of rules and obligations is read out by the Major, the walk begins.

During the first day, Ray gets to know the other walkers and forms a close bond with Peter. A boy named Thomas Curley (Roman Griffin Davis) is the first to be killed, after he develops a painful cramp in his leg and is unable to keep up the minimum speed. Barkovitch is given a wide berth by the group for provoking another walker named Rank (Daymon Wrightly) into attacking him, resulting in Rank's execution. 

As the walk progresses, Ray reveals why he signed up to Peter, but makes him promise not to divulge this to anyone else. If successful in being the last man standing, his wish is for a guard's Carbine rifle and to use it to kill the Major, as revenge for executing his father for his staunch opposition to the political regime, a fact that he was prepared to die for. Peter tries to talk Ray out of it and confesses that when he is too tired to keep walking, he intends to stop and wait to die.

Harkness and many of the other walkers perish over the next few days, particularly when walking up a long steep incline late at night. Hank becomes delirious and attempts to attack the soldiers, who shoot him down and let him slowly bleed to death as punishment, and a deterrent to the other walkers. The next morning, the boys learn that Hank was married to Clementine, and the only man amongst the other forty-nine who was married. They all agree that the winner should give some of the prize money to his widow. Riddled with guilt over Rank's death, Barkovitch begs Ray to accept him into the group. Ray agrees, but Barkovitch suffers a mental breakdown soon afterward and fatally stabs himself several times in the throat with a spoon.

Eventually, only Ray, Peter, Stebbins, Arthur, and Collie remain. Stebbins, who has fallen ill, tries to persuade the others not to help each other anymore, so as not to prolong their suffering. Meanwhile the sole of Ray's shoe has come off, and he quickly discards both shoes and continues the walk in his bloodied socks. While walking through a town, Ray spots his mother watching and is given his third warning while trying to get to her, until Peter pulls him away just in time. 

Collie manages to steal a guard's rifle, shoots the guard, and then turns the gun on himself after the other soldiers wound him with several bullets to the gut. Arthur develops internal hemorrhaging and decides to stop walking, and is executed. As Stebbins' sickness worsens and he realises he no longer has a chance to win, he reveals to Ray and Peter why he chose to join the walk - he is one of the Major's many illegitimate children, and he intended to use his wish to force the man to accept him over tea at his house. He then tells the pair it was an honour to walk with them before stopping and allowing himself to be killed, leaving Ray and Peter as the final two walkers. 

Ray and Peter arrive at another town in the pouring rain late at night, where a crowd all sheltering under umbrellas has gathered to see who wins. Peter intentionally sits down, only for Ray to pick him up and encourage him to keep going. He does so, failing to notice that Ray himself has now stopped walking. The Major executes Ray and congratulates Peter for winning, while Peter cries out for his friend. When asked to state his wish, Peter carries out Ray's plan by asking for a Carbine rifle. The major responds saying that his wish will be granted and that he'll receive it in due course. Peter turns to a nearby guard and says that he wants his, to which the Major asks the guard to hand over his weapon. At which, Peter points the loaded rifle at the Major and says 'this is for Ray', pulls the trigger and kills him. He then continues walking down the road.

With 'The Long Walk' Director Francis Lawrence has delivered us one of the better Stephen King big screen adaptations in some years. However, this film is repetitive with forty-nine of the 'contestants' all buying the farm in some shape or form for stepping out of line, and not keeping up the pace, but, having said that it what these young men signed up for! Also you can figure out easily enough from the get go, who the last two men left standing are going to be, and in that respect the outcome is fairly predictable. On the positive front, the performances by Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson are top notch, and the bond the pair forge during their 330 or so mile long walk feels real and unforced. There are also some relevant present day messages at play in this film like the Major espousing pre-MAGA movement rhetoric, political unrest, economic and social downturn, the price of sacrifice and the true value of friendship, loyalty and the priorities we place on our lives and those of others. 'The Long Walk' is a solid enough film without being great, but it will leave you thinking long after the end credits have rolled, and hoping that this is a world we never get to see.

'The Long Walk' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

HALLOWEEN : Tuesday 30th October 2018.

'HALLOWEEN' which I caught on the eve of that fateful night earlier this week is the eagerly anticipated, much hyped and long awaited 'recalibration' of the famed and iconic slasher horror franchise that introduced an unsuspecting world to maniacal killer Michael Myers and teenage babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) way back in 1978. That film, 'Halloween' was Written, Directed and Scored by the legendary John Carpenter, cost a paltry US$325K to make and grossed worldwide US$70M, and defined the genre that has been imitated ever since. That 1978 film was followed by 'Halloween II' an equally standup sequel in 1981, but after that instalment the franchise was on the skids. There have been a succession of films ever since - eight others in fact, with the latter two being remakes in 2007 and 2009 titled somewhat appropriately 'Halloween' and 'Halloween II' with both of the instalments being Directed by Rob Zombie that collectively grossed US$120M off the back of a combined budget of US$30M whilst remaining reasonably true to the original source films. In between time Jamie Lee Curtis reprised her role as a more mature Laurie Strode in 1998's 'Halloween H2O : 20 Years Later' and again in 2002 in 'Halloween : Resurrection'. This 2018 film was also scored once again by John Carpenter, cost US$10M to make through Blumhouse Productions, has received generally positive press, was released Stateside last week and has so far taken US$184M at the Box Office, breaking a number of records, as well a being the highest grossing movie of the franchise so far. Apparently a sequel is in the early stages of development.

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.

The next day, Aaron and Dana are filling up at a petrol station about to leave town. Dana asks the attendant to use the ladies toilet. Whilst sat in a cubicle, a heavy footed man enters and starts rattling the cubicle doors, before dropping a set of bloodied recently extracted teeth over her door. She screams when she realises what they are, alerting Aaron, who has already discovered the corpses of the garage mechanic and the attendant. Aaron bursts into the ladies toilet, and is violently and quickly dispensed with before the man diverts attention to Dana, and equally as quickly and violently ends her life too. Michael then retrieves his mask from the boot of Aaron's car, and puts it on over his head.

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-