John Carpenter (1) (1948–)

Years ago, little Michael Myers stabbed his sister to death on Halloween. In the movie's present, Michael escapes the mental hospital where he's spent the past 15 years imprisoned and has returned to his neighborhood to continue killing. While a psychiatrist who knows just what Michael is capable of desperately tries to find him before he can kill again, high schooler Laurie settles in for a Halloween night of babysitting, not realizing that a cold-blooded killer is stalking her and her friends.

I went into this expecting I'd get into it just like I did the Scream franchise and want to plow through the whole thing. Instead, this was painful enough that I was left feeling surprised it was ever continued.

Most of the acting and dialogue was stiff and wooden, with only Jamie Lee Curtis managing to occasionally make her lines sound like something a real person might say. The tense/spooky music was used so heavy-handedly that it came across like the horror movie version of a sitcom's laugh track.

Again, this seems to be one of those areas in which I have unpopular opinions, because I've checked several "Halloween movies ranked worst to best" lists, and somehow this one is always rated as being the best. Is it nostalgia on the part of the people making the lists? I don't know, but rather than giving the franchise another stab (pun intended), I think I'm just going to stop here.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (more)