this is available for streaming on peacock. so i watched it this morning. i couldn't wait.
yes, it is bloody. it is gory. but it's nothing i haven't seen before. in fact, the gory fun unfortunately gets mixed up in some heavy-handed social commentary that comes bludgeoning through the second act that literally grinds the film to a halt. it's fine if you want to make "halloween" into some allegory for hatred, anger and violence. but you can't have that mixed with trying to find amusing and ridiculous new ways for michael meyers to kill people. that's what muddles the film, which half-wants to be a joyful blood bath. but the other half wants to be taken seriously, and that just doesn't work.
there are some things i really liked: the real-time feel of the movie reminded me of (the original) "Halloween II" (seriously, this series is going to be so confusing to future generations). the expansion of including original characters (and in some cases, original actors) from the first movie. that had a "gangs all here" feeling that made me think this was going to be a lot of fun.
but once it starts in with the "who are the real monsters?" rhetoric, it took me out. jamie lee curtis is mostly confined to a bed throughout the film (again, another call back to "Halloween II"), so her performance is mostly wincing and repeating stuff about evil that we've heard for over 40 years.
and that's the other problem, which is going to carry on into this supposed "finale" in "halloween ends": haven't we seen enough of laurie vs. michael? how many times do we need a showdown? especially when you've now established that michael's power is divined from anger and hatred and humans and all that...it's quite a conundrum. and i don't trust this writing team nor director to pull that off.
so, i don't care how bloody or gory you want to make the next one...just make it fun. that's what you want out of a slasher film. nobody's wondering what higher learning you can get out of "friday the 13th". ditto "halloween".
out of