Howdy there, Scream Freaks! Yee-ow! Our ears are burnin’, and we think it’s ’cause y’all wanna know if we saw the new Halloween do-over yet and what we thought of it. Well, we sure as shootin’ saw that sucker the second it hit the silver screams in our parts, and let us tell ya . . . it ain’t bad! 
We had our hang-ups goin’ into this shake-up of such a beloved horror series, but we survived Halloween: H20 and Rob Zombie’s attempts at resettin’ the Halloween timeline, so how much worse could this be? Honestly, we think the trailers come off kind of silly lookin’ like Laurie’s been sittin’ on her porch with a shotgun for 40 years, waitin’ for Michael to come after her like he’s set to go off on significant anniversaries of that infamous night from ’78. Makes sense if Michael and Laurie still had that siblin’ rivalry revealed in the original part two from ’81, but we knew goin’ into this flick the filmmakers nixed all that, leavin’ Michael without any motivation for bein’ obsessed with a random girl he tried to kill one night.
Havin’ seen the movie now, the characters and their motivations make sense and the story’s not quite as ludicrous as the trailers hint. For starters, all the waitin’ and paranoia bullshit completely stems from Laurie who suffers from some serious post traumatic stress the last 40 years. She’s a damaged character who is just mentally ruined by that night in ’78 and copes by bein’ a survivalist nut while buildin’ up Michael’s bogeyman lore the same way Dr. Loomis did in past movies. In reality, or at least the way we see it, Michael’s just been chillin’ at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium these last 40 years, probably never even thinkin’ ’bout that one girl that got away. In fact, nothin’ he does is motivated or even aimed at Laurie or her family. Without seein’ or hearin’ from Laurie since ’78, Michael simply escapes a bus transportin’ him to a maximum security prison and then kills folks left and right without rhyme or reason like a shark attackin’ anythin’ that moves. He coincidentally runs into a lot of folks associated with Laurie’s family which makes sense for a small town, but the only reason he reunites with Laurie is due to outside forces literally puttin’ her in his homicidal path. Michael was never huntin’ her ’til he was practically dumped at her doorstep.
The film’s good overall. Mandy loved it, givin’ it her own 5/5, but we agree there’s some questionable castin’ and were a little frustrated at first when it seems Laurie’s 40 year master plan is to shoot Michael in the face which goes south pretty quick. We don’t like how much of old man Michael we see without his mask, but was impressed with the filmmakers keepin’ with the continuity of his eye bein’ fucked up from Laurie stabbin’ him with the coat hanger in the original film. And while they do away with all the supernatural thorn cult stuff that supposedly explained why Michael was such an invincible super slasher, he’s still a killer with juggernaut strength like in Halloween 4, crushin’ skulls and bustin’ through barriers.
What’s a little disappointin’ is the level of involvement from the original talents and filmmakers from Halloween ’78 that initially got fans like us excited for this reinvention of the franchise. Namely director John Carpenter, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprisin’ their iconic roles as Laurie and the shape. Carpenter’s only back in the game as an executive producer, leavin’ the directin’ and writin’ to newer blood, but makes his presence felt as one of the three composers providin’ a synth score that reinvigorates the original theme he created decades ago. It’s always fun to watch Jamie fight Michael again, but we already blew our comeback load with H20, so this repeat performance is already tainted by that, even with her new approach to playin’ Laurie as an agoraphobic survivalist. Her co-star Nick Castle jumps back in the coveralls to resume his gig as one of the many folks to play Michael in ’78, but just like then, he shares the role with another actor in the 2018 version, makin’ it almost impossible to know when it’s him for nostalgic enjoyment.
The pros greatly outweigh the cons, however, and we promise ya the movie is worth the ticket of admission and a great way to celebrate this Halloween season. It’ll definitely be some time before we can process how it compares to the past movies and where it fits on our list of best to worst Myers films though. But in the meantime, Mandy’s already wantin’ to see it a second time, and we’re not far behind her!
Other than that, be sure to catch up on all past Screaming Soup! Seasons, check out this week’s Howl’n Hottie, read recent reviews for the newer horror films and comics we’re checkin’ out in our blogs, R-Rated Reviews and Sequential Slime, and help us get the word out about the web’s #1 animated horror host show! Please use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our video channels, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail comin’. You can also warm up some Screaming Soup! leftovers with reruns currently playin’ on Beta Max TV and Sluggo’s The Vortexx!
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See ya later, Scream Freaks!
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