Halloween

What a fucking brilliant movie. Watching the entire Halloween franchise in order in such a short space of time (most of them a first-time watch for me) really tempered my expectations vis-a-vis Quality as the series went on. Going from H2O and Resurrection to the Rob Zombie movies to this. I got whiplash.  I was a little sceptical at the idea of every sequel being wiped out just to accommodate the timeline of this one. I mean, the audacity of this movie to claim that nothing but the first one matters. As soon as it finished though, I completely agreed: no other sequel but this one does matter. Don't get me wrong, I've had fun with the franchise, but this is such a perfect follow up to the original that the others might as well not exist. I loved it that much. Good Bits:   - I mean gestures at everything  - The acting is fantastic across the board, from the Strode women to the kids, even the light hearted moments from the cops were great.  - There are so many call-backs to the original that I won't list them here, but on paper this many nods and homages would usually feel like too much, but here they just work.  - I love that they've stripped away the familial link between Michael and Laurie, and in turn that strips Michael Myers back to just being a psychopath that happened to stalk a stranger at random 40 years ago, and it fucked up her life forever. I also love that Michael's not even stalking Laurie in this one, the script just naturally brings them back together. Michael is an indiscriminate serial killer, and that's so much scarier. Bad Bits:  - The twist with the Doctor caught me by surprise and as a twist I loved it, but it was the only moment that felt a tad contrived, almost like the plot needed it rather than it being a realistic character beat.  - I like my slasher movies a little shorter, but honestly I'm nitpicking now because the time flew by.  Best kill: there are plenty of good ones. I liked Oscar being skewered on the fence, and the head stomp of Dr Sartain, but I think the one-two strike of the podcasters getting slaughtered in the restroom takes it. I was expecting them to be more prominent throughout the movie.