Review by David Baldwin for Mr. Will Wong
Director David Gordon Green unleashed Halloween and Michael Myers on TIFF audiences for the World Premiere earlier tonight, forty years after Director John Carpenter’s legendary Film. Despite that forty-year time gap, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) still is haunted by the murders committed by Myers (Nick Castle) to her family and friends. She has spent that time training and preparing for his return, praying he will be set free so she can take her revenge. And after Myers escapes from a bus crash and starts murdering local citizens, Laurie just might get her wish.
Halloween is a total blast from start to finish, full stop. Green and Co-Writer Danny McBride (yes, that Danny McBride) pay homage to the original Film and add plenty of references and endlessly entertaining in-jokes. But more importantly, they deliver a satisfying Sequel that feels very much in vein of the series, but still feels like a unique entry that builds and improves upon the existing foundations set in Carpenter’s legendary Film. They also deliver some of the gnarliest kills and most gruesome violence of the series – and this is a franchise that had Rob Zombie at the helm for a short period of time.
The scares are abundant, the score (co-written by Carpenter) is spectacular and the Supporting Cast is great in their roles. But the Film belongs to Curtis. She is a certified bad bitch who is not to be messed with, and she owns every moment she appears on-screen. And while there is nuance to some of her early scenes, the later scenes where she faces off against Michael Myers play out just as amazing as you hoped they would.
Halloween screens on Saturday, September 9 at 11:30 PM at Elgin Theatre and 11:59 PM at Winter Garden Theatre [World Premiere].
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