BY MARCO CEJA

Taking place forty years after the 1978 film of the same name, “Halloween (2018)” serves as a direct sequel to the original and follows a 56-year-old Laurie Strode trying to defend her family from the silent evil that is Michael Myers on Halloween night. The film is part of the slasher sub-genre, so as expected, it’s filled with more suspense than actual gore and violence.

In spite of this, there remains plenty of unsettling imagery, yet not enough suspense. Despite director David Gordon Green’s best efforts to recreate the feeling of impending danger and horror in an attempt to emulate the original film, his efforts had the opposite intended effect, conjuring an environment where every point of suspense and uncertainty felt lame and obvious. This makes the entirety of the movie extremely boring and lackluster, since the audience expects and knows that something is going to happen, resulting in the film shy from being even remotely scary. The gore and kills throughout the film feel very quick, meaningless, and oftentimes unnecessary.

Disregarding the lack of suspense or horror, the soundtrack and cinematography were very well done; however this is mostly because the filmmakers are drawing heavily from the original movie, with the iconic Michael Myers theme and soundtrack being played constantly throughout the film–to the point where it’s overused. As for cinematography, the shots of Myers appearing and disappearing as well as him stalking his victims are lifted directly from the original.

While there is nothing wrong with drawing inspiration from the source material, “Halloween (2018)” tries way too hard to recreate its source material. Despite the film’s mediocrity, it has managed to gross $76,221,545 in its opening week alone, and as of now, $229,424,570 worldwide. Though I do not recommend Halloween because of how boring and underwhelming the entire film is, if you’re a fan of the Halloween series and the slasher genre in general, it’s worth a quick watch and ridicule with friends.