Ok so forget Halloween’s 2-5, The Curse Of Michael Myers, H2O, Resurrection and the two Rob Zombie versions. This one is the real, actual, genuine sequel. Of course timed to coincide with the original’s 40th anniversary and therefore the 50th anniversary of original slaughter of his sister. Who’s sister? Why the infamous Michael Myers (of Wayne’s World fame – joke) He with the darkest eyes, the devils eyes – as Donald Pleasance put it so chillingly.
The film doesn’t just give a nod to the original but tries desperately to recreate the original’s recipe. The title’s are the same font and colour. Myers at the start of the film is in a mental hospital and escapes, with the eerie moment of a crashed bus and lots of mental patients walking around in the dark like zombies reminiscent of the first film. There’s even a moment later when the tables are turned and it’s Laurie who fall backwards out of a window to the ground only for Myers to look down and she’s gone! Other parts of the film seem to resemble other films. When we meet Laurie for the first time in 40 years she lives in a self made fortress and has seemed to turn into Sarah Connor in Terminator 2, awaiting the inevitable return of her nemesis. And when they show up, despite all preparations, she seems unready for the encounter and falls to pieces quite quickly. Myers fleets inconsistently from stomping slow Frankenstein to Ninja who can flit from a to b in an effortless flash without, it seems, even triggering security lights.
Cliches aside there are some great moments, my favourite was a long continuous shot containing some imaginatively shot deaths including a knife through the back of the neck. And of course there are plenty of tableau shots of Myers topped with the chilling chords and sounds of Carpenters original score, though I can appreciate that these are quite sentimental moments for the die hard fans.
It would have been a crime for the 40th anniversary to have passed without some acknowledgment and certainly this film won’t disappoint the fans. The original didn’t have a Hollywood budget and was subsequently shot with imagination and passion. The same passion is evident here though the imagination gets diluted by the numerous wanna-be films, spin-offs and television shows that have followed in massive numbers since the success of the original film. The result is a lack of originality, a victim of it’s own success.
[rating=3]