The Halloween franchise has returned to the big screen, bringing Michael Myers, Laurie Strode, and the town of Haddonfield back just in time for the holiday. While the movie's plot has some issues, it's an overall fun slasher film, and a good addition to the franchise.
The unimaginatively named Halloween is the third movie with this title in the 11 movie series, and is set 40 years after the original Halloween (1978) on an alternate timeline than all the films that have occurred since. This means that for better or worse the newest installment ignores the storylines of Halloween II (1981), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), Halloween: Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Halloween (2007), and Halloween II (2009).
So what does this mean for Laurie Strode? For starters, it means that the only people who Michael has killed who she knows are her three friends during the course of the original film 40 years ago, and that he has only killed 5 people total: her three friends, a mechanic whose clothes he needed, and his sister 15 years before that. It also means he isn't her brother, since that revelation wasn't made until Halloween II. Naturally, it means she didn't die in a car accident and Michael didn't stalk her daughter instead (Halloween 4, 5 & 6). Since, H20 was already on an alternate timeline, it means this timeline didn't occur either: she didn't fake her death in a car accident, have a son, become a principal, and eventually die at the hands of Michael at a mental health facility (H20 and Resurrection). It also undoes the recent reboot of the franchise (Halloween 2007 and Halloween II 2009).
What we're left with then is a woman who was so traumatized by a triple homicide that she becomes an essentially non-functional member of society for 40 years. She secludes herself in a house in the woods, has a daughter (we never see a husband, ex-husband, or boyfriend, so who's child she is we do not know), trains that child to use weapons and fist-fight, loses custody of that child, and then sits and waits for Michael to escape. For forty years she waits in terror, while everyone around her tells her she's crazy.
Honestly, who can blame them. Michael has not only never escaped since he killed her three friends 40 years ago, but he has made no such attempt, and hasn't even spoken since he was originally incarcerated when he was six-years-old. Granted, he escaped once before (which is how he ended up crossing paths with her in the first place), but that was an act of opportunity rather than deliberate planning on Michael's part.
This Laurie Strode doesn't seem to have actually survived her encounter with Michael Myers. She has no family, no friends, no career that we are aware of (although she must get money for her vast collections of shotgun shells, floodlights, metal shutters, and manikins from somewhere), and no hobbies other than waiting for Michael Myers to do something he hasn't done in 40 years--escape from the mental hospital.
Of course, all people who are exposed to extreme violence react differently. And she isn't completely non-functional--she is managing to pay her gas and electric bills, does amass a decent sized cache of weapons and canned goods in a panic room, and teaches her daughter how to defend herself. But despite all of her preparedness, Laurie Strode is still being portrayed as a victim in this film, rather than a survivor. She doesn't try to move on with her life while ensuring that her job provides housing inside its security-guarded walls a la H20. She isn't counseling others via phone from the safety of her solitude bunker like Sidney Prescott in Scream 3 (2000). She isn't becoming a bad-ass Michael Myers hunter reminiscent of Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991). She is just waiting, in terror, for Michael to come for her.
But why would he? Without Halloween II (the original one), there is no connection between Michael and Laurie, other than that he tried to kill her once. They aren't sibling, so he's not going to be hunting her down to finish off the family. And even if he is harboring a grudge because she's the one who got away, he would have no reason to think he knew where she would be 40 years later, since anyone would assume she would have moved away for college, or a job, or marriage, or just to get away from Michael Myers. He wouldn't even know who she was, since she was just some random stranger he chased around a house in Haddonfield 40 years before--not to mention that even if he found out her name somehow, he'd know she could have changed her name or taken a husband's name in the meantime.
Of course, some of this is assuming the Michael Myers is a rational human being who would think these things through. But if he isn't, then he would have been easy enough for Laurie to escape from--simply change her name and move away, and he would never even know where to begin looking for her even if he ever did escape. But this Laurie Strode keeps her name and stays local. She doesn't even change her hairstyle.
Yet when the reporters give Laurie Strode $3000 to talk with them, she turns around and gives it to her granddaughter, Allyson, telling her to travel. She isn't afraid that Michael Myers will come for the granddaughter if she leaves their safety bubble, and advises the girl to go see the world she has herself been secluded from for 40 years.
Laurie Strode: Then and Now
Yet when the reporters give Laurie Strode $3000 to talk with them, she turns around and gives it to her granddaughter, Allyson, telling her to travel. She isn't afraid that Michael Myers will come for the granddaughter if she leaves their safety bubble, and advises the girl to go see the world she has herself been secluded from for 40 years.
Despite these flaws, the movie is very good, and certainly in the top 4 of the Halloween franchise. In fact, it has the honor of having the largest opening weekend of any film in the franchise, as well as being the second biggest October opening weekend, the biggest opening weekend for a slasher film, the biggest opening weekend for a horror movie with a female lead, and the best opening weekend for a lead actress who is more than 55-years-old.
The movie has some nice nods to the other films, including trick-or-treaters wearing the Silver Shamrock masks from Halloween 3, an English-class discussion about fate like those in Halloween and H20, and plenty of shuttered closets similar to those in Halloween (1978). The teenagers in the movie are all realistic and likeable individuals, rather than the typical cookie-cutter teenagers of modern horror movies, making their deaths somewhat unexpected, as we hope each one will avoid their inevitable fates. And of course Jamie Lee Curtis completely owns the role, making us feel bad for Laurie Strode who we know isn't crazy, since we've watched Michael Myers escape and stalk her over and over through multiple parallel universes now.
The movie has some nice nods to the other films, including trick-or-treaters wearing the Silver Shamrock masks from Halloween 3, an English-class discussion about fate like those in Halloween and H20, and plenty of shuttered closets similar to those in Halloween (1978). The teenagers in the movie are all realistic and likeable individuals, rather than the typical cookie-cutter teenagers of modern horror movies, making their deaths somewhat unexpected, as we hope each one will avoid their inevitable fates. And of course Jamie Lee Curtis completely owns the role, making us feel bad for Laurie Strode who we know isn't crazy, since we've watched Michael Myers escape and stalk her over and over through multiple parallel universes now.
The whole movie actually hangs together well because of the other movies we're told to ignore: we know for a fact what Michael is capable of, that he's an unstoppable force, and that he is 100% coming for her specifically. And, if they had kept Halloween, Halloween II, and H20, there could actually be a really great progression and story arc for Laurie--she is stalked by a stranger as a teenager then discovers he's her brother and still after her (Halloween 1 & 2), she fakes her death, has a son, becomes a functioning alcoholic principal of a gated school where Michael comes for her and she fights him accidentally beheading a paramedic in the process (H20), then she ends up secluded in the woods, waiting for Michael's inevitable return (Halloween 2018).
Watching the film with this mindset is an entirely different experience, and makes Laurie's defeat of Michael Myers feel like a fitting end to her journey. Of course, we all know Michael will be back--not only does he always come back, but his fiery demise is unseen on screen (like Halloween II), the screen freezes on the knife in Allyson's hand (suggesting she could "catch" Michael's bad juju, like Jayme Strode in Halloween 4), and at the end of the credits we hear Michael's breathing (like the end of Halloween 1978). Even so, Laurie Strode's story-line has (once again) come to a fitting end, with her besting her demon. And at the end of the day, that's all everyone wants for Halloween.
No comments:
Post a Comment