Wooderon Movies of the Year 2018: Best revival of a near dead franchise

My movie lists have always been a little more loosey goosey in comparison to my video game entries. I always felt a strong desire to get those written and posted day and date. When it came to the end of the month and time to write about movies, I would just say “hell with it” and do whatever. Which is why this is going to crawl well into January.

I might go back and do a proper best of 2018 movie list later in the year, but that’s if I manage to go back and catch up on what I’ve missed. And given my track record, that’s less than likely. anyway, let’s get back on topic.

Halloween

I was originally going to title this entry as “best horror movie”, but then I became acutely aware that I have missed out on some of the very good horror movies to come out in the past 12 months. So rather than draw attention to that fact, I just invented a topic that gave me an excuse to talk about Halloween for a bit.

I spoke earlier in the year about slasher movies, and how, for the most part, they’re a dead genre. Unable to exist without being a homage to a classic of the genre, or a spoof of them. Outside of the mainstream at least anyway.

Halloween is a movie that both takes an introspective look at the horror sub genre it spawned from, while also being a classic example of it. Taking place 40 years after the original movie and once again bringing back Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie strode. A character who has become a paranoid obsessive who has been doomsday prepping for the day Michael Myers inevitably escapes.

This side of the movie pushes against the classic tropes of the genre, painting the female protagonist as a victim who only ever runs away from the Slasher. In this case Laurie is looking for an opportunity to run towards Micheal and turn the tables on him once and for all.

Then we get Andi Matichak as Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson. A character who embodies the more classic character trope that Laurie herself filled in the original movie.

Halloween shifts between being a fantastic homage to the original movie, following the beats and recreating them incredibly well, but also pushes against them. It flips the script on several occasions, using thematic tricks and changes in perspective to suddenly make Laurie the one to be feared and Michael the “victim”.

It results in a ton of great moments that had me smiling, and I don’t even have that much reverence for the franchise to be honest.

It’s great look back to the original movie and is a fun ride. While incredibly violent, it is also a nice movie about family. I don’t know how I feel about the sequel baiting at the end though, if it was just one more trope or if they plan on making more. Because that doesn’t tend to end well for this franchise, or slashers in general.