A surprisingly uninspired reboot/sequel/addition to the “Halloween” franchise that never quite justifies its existence. The basics premise is that none of the sequels to the original “Halloween” ever happened. Nothing of interest has gone down since the original murders besides Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode going full Sarah Conners-mode and prepping for the day Michael Myers eventually comes back. But at the end of the day, the basic plot is fairly similar to the original movie, some of the sequels, and the Rob Zombie-directed remake. One of the big problems here is that the silent mass-murderer gives us no clues to his plan. Is he out to finally kill Laurie? Did he just want his mask back? Is he just kind of wandering around and occasionally stabbing random people? It mostly feels like the last option, which doesn’t really add much to the character’s mythos. There are not a lot of scares, besides some really cheap jump scares. Myers doesn’t spend much time in the shadows, and often this lessens the impact of how intimidating he’s supposed to be. And, he tends to take out his victims quickly, which doesn’t give enough time to build tension. The acting from the leads is good, but the attempts to work family drama into a slasher-flick never hit the mark like they intended. And, many of the secondary characters don’t add much to the movie other than being the stereotypical stoners and over-sexed teens waiting to be offed. And, then there’s a bizarre plot–twist with one character that never pays off.
**1/2 out of *****