Michael Myers may not have been able to claim her life two decades ago on Halloween night but he certainly left his mark on Laurie Strode. She’s still dealing with some demons even after she faked her death and started life under an assumed name in Northern California. Laurie is now the headmistress at a prestigious academy where her son is a student. Laurie’s neurosis is making it complicated for her son John (Josh Hartnett, who would go on to star in the surprisingly fun The Faculty and then play Lawrence Talbot in the excellent Penny Dreadful) to be the teen boy he wants to be and he’s beginning to push back. Family drama is gonna have to take a back seat for a completely more dangerous set of family drama after Micheal breaks into Dr. Loomis’ house (he’s passed on but left it to his loyal nurse), steals Laurie’s files and murders the nurse along with some neighbor kids (among them, a fresh-faced Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Michael now heads on out to the west coast for a family reunion that will only end in death. John is attempting to get his mom’s permission to go on a class camping trip to Yosemite but her paranoia and over-protectiveness is getting in the way, luckily his girlfriend (multiple Oscar nominee Michelle Williams) has also been denied permission by her father making the news a little easier on the young man. His best bud and his girlfriend decide it’s best to stay behind and party in the virtually abandoned school. When Laurie gives him permission to go, he has to lie so he can stay behind, putting him right in the path of the unstoppable maniac. Laurie’s still there along with her guidance counselor boyfriend (Adam Arkin, who’s been everywhere) and aspiring erotic-novelist security guard LL Cool J (who protected the oceans from hyper-intelligent mako sharks in Deep Blue Sea and is still protecting America in the long-running NCIS: Los Angeles). She figures out pretty quickly that this year is the year her dreaded doomsday scenario is playing out and discerns she’s gonna need to confront her personal boogeyman for the final time. The film benefits immensely from its heavy focus of Laurie’s trauma (thank the horror film gods the completely capable Jamie Lee Curtis was feeling the nostalgia and came back for the final chapter… at least until something awful followed four years later) and the capable (if not completely memorable) supporting cast she’s surrounded with. It also smartly ignores parts 4-6 (remember, Halloween and I assume its sequel are just films in the bizarre universe Season of the Witch resides in) erasing the silly Thorn garbage that didn’t go anywhere in the prior entries and returning Michael to the basically motiveless monster of the first film. Where the hell has he been for the last twenty years and why is it this year that he finally decided to come looking for his sister? They try to explain that maybe it has to do with her son’s 17th birthday but how the hell did Michael know she had a son and how the hell did he know his age? Is there some sort of cicadian doom beyond our comprehension at play? That’s the kind of question that keeps me up at night. Granted, I may be giving too much credit to the writers but at least it’s there for me to dwell on and enhance my enjoyment. I’m also not saying this is some kind of perfect film. The deaths are as lame as most of the onscreen mayhem you’d find in any late-90s slasher films inspired by the box office returns of Wes Craven’s Scream and the whole thing feels a bit too polished. Most egregiously, this has to be one of the worst masks Michael had put on up to this point. It looks like it was inspired by a child’s drawing of the actual Myer’s mask and then brought to life with some bargain rubber that was gained in a trade for a surplus of Titanic tapes. Adding to the head-scratching stupidity of it all, the production used multiple masks and not one of them is anywhere near frightening. That’s kind of a big deal when it comes to your centerpiece failing miserably at being intimidating. So, it certainly has its flaws but thanks to Curtis actually giving a damn, a lovely Janet Leigh cameo, a somewhat return to form for The Shape (at least in essence but definitely not appearance) and what would have served as a fitting franchise ending (fuckin’ Resurrection… I swear) I’d say this one is way better than expected.
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