After never quite recovering from 2002’s “Halloween: Resurrection”–the one where Busta Rhymes breaks down a door to fight Michael Myers and yells, “Trick or Treat, Motherf…”-this “Halloween” provides a much needed ride back down nostalgia road. And God, the ride is glorious.

The film’s premise is simple enough, as it follows the Strode family about their daily life in Haddonfield. The audience is quickly introduced to Jamie Lee Curtis, reprising her role as Laurie Strode, while also introducing Laurie’s daughter and granddaughter into the film. From there, the film wastes no time in letting Michael Myers, once again acted by Nick Castle, free to enact his wrath upon Haddonfield.  

Myers escapes while being transferred between psychiatric hospitals the night before Halloween, and his escape is glorious and blood splattered. During this commotion, the audience is made to understand that Laurie Strode has gone crazy in the 40 years since she last faced Myers, as her home looks like something out of “Home Alone” and “Rambo.” She is a woman who has spent the time since training for his eventual return so that she can kill him.

What makes this work in the film is that she isn’t some cliché badass who sports bandannas and can dual-wield assault rifles like an 80’s Schwarzenegger, but is simply a woman who is tormented by her trauma. We see her break down and began sobbing at a family dinner, and it really drives home how much the events of 40 years ago have shaped her life.

Now to the killing. Simply put, this film delivers. Myers is an evil force of nature, who is driven by nothing more than his own sadomasochistic blood lust. In the film he just strolls around the night streets wearing his mask, entering various homes, and killing their occupants with whatever he finds. 

A great example of this would be when he first enters Haddonfield, as he walks into the back garage of a random house and picks up a hammer, before wandering inside and dispatching a woman in the kitchen with the casualness of throwing something away. The beauty of the simplicity here is that, for the first time since the original, Meyers is once again terrifying and unpredictable.  Once again the audience is left wondering what he will do next.

Further driving home the violence of Meyers in this film is the use of squibs and practical effects. For too long audiences have been, and still are, subject to the overabundance of CGI blood and gore, which looks about as realistic as anything from “The Lawnmower Man.” This film restrains itself and treats its’ audience to head crushing curb stomps and wonderful dismemberment by a special effects team that decided to go practical.

Added to the great gore effects is the fantastic score by the master himself, John Carpenter. You just can’t go wrong with loud, in your face synth. The score is so loud and pulsating that it might be the most horrifying thing in the movie.

With all of this praise there is one part of this movie that is so terrible and so dumb that I truly thought I was hallucinating while watching.

The sequence in question involves the psychiatrist character and his saving of Myers in the middle of the film. And dear god is it dumb–so dumb that I probably would have rated this film two points higher were it not in the film. This is a Halloween film, it’s not supposed to be smart. But seriously, was that the only Deus Ex Machina on the writer’s room table?

If you’re tired of CGI jump scare horror movies, studio interfered DC movies and you like Synth or gore, definitely watch this film. At least when watching this you can know there is craft at work which is more than I can say for most these days.

Rating: 8.03/10