The Boogeyman in the William Shatner Mask

Having come of age in the 1980’s, I fondly remember the “Golden Age” of slasher B-movies headlined by that triumvirate of unstoppable superhuman/supernatural serial killing machines: Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers (not to be confused with Mike Myers aka Wayne Campbell aka Austin Powers).  It was the latter who ushered in the slasher genre with 1978’s ‘Halloween’ featuring the original “scream queen” Jamie Lee Curtis.  While some may contend that 1974’s ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ was the first true slasher movie, I don't consider TCSM as a pure slasher flick because, with his crazy inbred family, Leatherface isn't a lone stalker and doesn't typically venture far from his home and hearth.

 

40 years after that 1978 original, ‘Halloween 2018’ marks the eleventh entry in this long-running franchise.  That’s an average of one every 3.5 years and places our hulking Captain Kirk-masked homicidal automaton comfortably between the razor-clawed burn victim "Handsome Freddy" (nine films) and the shy, hockey mask-wearing "Machete Jason" (12 installments).  Unlike those second-rate jokers, Myers steadfastly refuses to take part in tomfoolery such as taking on each other in some kind of cross-over “Main Event” (gimme a break) or go into space (rolleyes) just so some rich studio execs can further line their fat pockets.  He takes his "art" seriously.

 

So how is this latest installment that actually earned a surprisingly solid 80 percent on the aggregate movie review website Rotten Tomatoes?  Not bad actually, but I wouldn’t exactly say it’s 80 percent good either. What ‘Halloween 2018’ offers isn’t particularly scary or new, but it does manage to capture some of the flavor and feel of the John Carpenter original in its simple, minimalist approach.  I guess I’m just too jaded for slasher movies.

Grade: B