Available now on Digital HD the sequel a generation has been waiting for! Halloween continues the story of the night that he came home. The original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the nightmare that started it all.
In the horror film genre there is perhaps no more terrifying film than Halloween — the original released in 1978 directed by John Carpenter turned its leading lady Jamie Lee Curtis into a star and ignited a phenomenon. Carpenter’s original, produced on a shoe-string budget, did more with very little and terrified audiences while hardly showing any blood on film. In its wake there came a series of sequels and reboots and even some more far fetched stories that would turn Michael Myers, the film’s psychopath, into something supernatural.
For the most current interpretation of the series, director David Gordon Green revisited Carpenter’s original and focused completely on that film’s “Final Girl” answering the question: What kind of life did Laurie Strode (Curtis) have after the fateful babysitter massacre of 40 years ago. Co-written by Danny McBride the film explores the lengths to which Strode has gone to survive, choosing not to be victimized in the murderous wake of Michael Myers. Unfortunately, she has existed only in the memory of the terror she experienced that night.
When Myers escapes from the mental asylum, the monster returns to Haddonfield, Illinois to finish what he’s started, though Myers may not have anticipated the distance to which Strode has gone to protect those that she loves. Curtis is exceptional as the film’s iconic heroine and doesn’t miss a beat stepping back into the skin of one of cinema’s most legendary roles, and by Halloween’s conclusion you’ll be reminded of why this has proven one of the most endurable blockbuster franchises, but has the nightmare finally ended? After all Halloween comes once every year.
Sequel or Reboot?
Green and McBride approached their screenplay from a uniquely unexplored perspective. While many of the previous films in the franchise put the peril of the antagonist as the driving narrative for Halloween (2018) the pair decided that the story would be more interesting if it was perceived through the experience of the original’s lone survivor: Laurie Strode. Curtis admits, in one of the home releases bonus features, that she was committed to their vision after only reading the first few pages.
At the beginning of the feature, a pair of investigative journalists are chasing down the legend of Michael Myers...
...the pair set in motion a series of events that lead back to Strode her has dedicated her life extreme survival, and in the wake of that clear focus compromised the life of her daughter, who is now all grown and steadily convinced that Laurie is not far from a good influence on her granddaughter. When Strode’s worst premonition comes true and Michael returns reign terror on their town on Halloween, this time Laurie is ready! Green convinced John Carpenter to return, and the filmmaker who created the mythology bestowed his seal of approval on Halloween (2018).
Though it may disappoint some of the fandom that this installment erases many of the stories that followed after the original (including the landmark H20: Halloween 20 Years Later) as a proper sequel to John Carpenter’s narrative it stands up and is very well made to appeal to contemporary audiences. Choosing to dictate the story from Strode’s own psychosis has given Curtis a reinvigorated entry into the franchise with a very deliberate purpose and direction that is truthful and appealing.
Available for home viewing the feature includes bonus content including Extended and Deleted Scenes not seen in theaters, a Making Of featurette and several behind-the-scenes looks at the film including “The Legacy of Halloween”.
Halloween (2018) directed by David Gordon Green and starring Jamie Lee Curtis is available now in 4K Ultra HD | HDR digital download on iTunes and will be available in additional formats on January 15, 2019.
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