John Carpenter has a way about filmmaking, a certain odd streak that powers his better efforts. He likes his villains, he understands them, and allows them to steer the story. In the original Halloween , Carpenter built the entire atmosphere around the mystery of Michael Myers. We saw things from his eyes, we stalked the prey through the slits of his mask, we heard his breathing in the shadows as young girls stripped and brushed their hair for no other reason other than to save the undertaker a step or two. Dr. Loomis, Michael's keeper, told us story after story about his early evil, and then let us see the evil mature into sheer cold-blooded malevolence.
Carpenter is a genius at building suspense and ripping the scare off the laugh.
Here, minus Carpenter, it all seems a touch bland. If you were a fan of Halloween when it meant more than expensive costumes and safety-wrapped candy, go see this movie. It's likeable enough, but it just proves that time is kinder to some things than it is to others. It was like a homecoming reunion, seeing Laurie and Uncle Mike, and meeting the newest members of the family, but, like most family reunions, it turns tedious when all is said and done. Image copyright Dimension Films.