As the year grows closer to Halloween, horror movies fill up the theaters as fans of the genre bask in the scares associated with the holiday. This year, a sequel to the cult classic film Halloween hit the theaters on the 19th. 

In the original movie, back in 1978, Michael Myers, 15 years after murdering his sister in cold blood, escapes a mental institution to kill more in his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois. After its release, the film became an instant classic. The soulless appearance of Myers terrified audiences and had them looking away to avoid the horror. The movie grossed over 70 million dollars at the box office (227 million when adjusted for inflation), which spurred the release of nine more sequels before the new installment in 2018.

Halloween (2018) takes place 40 years after the events of the first film. The lone teenager Myers tried and failed to kill, Laurie Strode, has been preparing for another attack from the psychopath ever since then. When Myers manages to escape from another mental institution, he once again returns to Haddonfield to kill Strode. 

Since its release, Halloween (2018) has currently grossed over 183 million dollars. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the movie was very good. While it did provide some scares, the movie fell on its face quickly. The plot did not introduce any new concepts to the horror genre, as it lazily put together and recycled several parts from other horror movies and even some of the other movies in the franchise. The dialogue was poorly written as well and story line was very predictable: bad guy looks like he’s going to win, then at the last second, the hero(es) win. 

The movie started off with little to no explanation of what was happening. It then jump started a plot that needed several inexpiable events that appeared out of nowhere. When the movie needed some help, it just randomly made something happen that just made the audience go, “sure, that could happen, but why did it?” 

The also did not reveal much about Myer’s depth in the film. Other horror characters like Freddy Krueger have a good amount of depth revealed for them, but the same is not true for Myers. If a movie revolves around a villain, then I’d like to know who the man is, and the simplest pleasure of knowing what the man even looks like.

On the bright side, Myers was somewhat frightening and the kills were exciting. On the other hand, the killings were enjoyable because the characters that were killed off were almost unbearable and I was quite happy when these annoying characters were gone.

Overall, the movie did not have many redeeming qualities, but if you want a cheap horror movie that could give you a decent scare, watch Halloween. Don’t expect much.

Rating: B-