Halloween

Forty years after she first “dropped the knife,” Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) tangles, yet again, with the unstoppable killer Michael Myers, and this time she’s got an arsenal and a panic room. The original Halloween was an art film. John Carpenter put together a perfect little horror movie with an auteur’s eye, full of beautifully mapped shots, expert use of lighting, that unforgettable score, and that extremely photogenic, painted-up William Shatner mask. It set the high watermark for slasher films, a mark that has never been surpassed. The new Halloween comes to us courtesy of writer-director David Gordon Green, and writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley. Green is no slouch, responsible for a few highly regarded indies (George Washington, All the Real Girls) and classic comedies (Pineapple Express and banner episodes of TV’s Eastbound & Down). When it was first announced that he and McBride were working on a new Halloween, the initial “What? Huh?” was quickly followed by “Say … this could work!” Thankfully, it works quite well. Myers’ mask looks good, appropriately aged and scary as heck in certain lighting. The movie has nice touches of real humor to go with its scares and gore, of which it has plenty. I would be happy if this was the last Halloween movie, but something tells me there will be more.