MovieChat Forums > Halloween (2018) Discussion > A big part of what was missing from this...

A big part of what was missing from this....

posted 6 years ago by replicant4 (219)
3 replies | jump to latest

....is 1978 itself. The original Halloween was set in the perfect era. Before omnipresent cell phones, Internet, drones and TMZ. Life was much simpler. The world was less transparent. And we (as kids) still bought-in to....The Boogeyman.

Try as they have, sequel after sequel, to recapture some of the magic of the original, you just can't. For starters, MM is way, WAY overexposed. In the original, he was just a spooky "shape" in the shadows we knew very little about--except for the creepy stories we heard from Loomis.
These days, MM is an action figure, a meme, a trading card and a lunch box! LOL.

In 1978, you had high school babysitters giggling about boys. You had knee socks, kids playing in the yards, the Ice Cream Man, and Blue Oyster Cult on a transistor radio in the background. Nowadays, if there was an incident like what happened in the original, everyone would be on their cell phones, it would be all over CNN within an hour....and TMZ would be in town by dusk.

The original was a classic. It was a perfect storm of era, setting, mood, tone, sounds, direction, actors, concept and execution. Trying to recapture that magic is futile. The same could be said about Jaws. As much as they tried....they couldn't duplicate the best parts of the original: The era, location, tone....and the lack of exposure of....the shark itself.

I liked this latest offering, for what it was. A decent scary movie on a Friday night around Halloween-time. And it did have some cool, visually-appealing moments. But as a whole, nothing modern-day will ever compare to the original.

[–] Bosdog6777 (817) 6 years ago

Finally somebody who gets it. 1978 Suburbia is just as much a character as Michael, Laurie and Loomis and 2018 Suburbia just isn't as cool. You can have all the storyline,jumpscares, plot twists and gore or anything else you want but it won't be as cool as Tommy Doyle coming home from school on Halloween Day and reading comic books in 1978

[–] SuperVillain (93) 6 years ago

Loool excellent write-up and so very true. Like to me I expect to hear "Back-Door Open" or all the other modern security devices people have now...not even an ADT sign in the yard lol.

The filming style of far shots and music guided tension help carry that film as well. There are so many times in this film where things are happening with no music and I'm like...wow there's no feel of encroaching tension with bland silence.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

You nailed it. Same reason why the Psycho remake didnt work, these are movies of their time.

I actually thought h20 worked much better than this because they had the sense to relocate laurie and assume a new identity, the LOGICAL thing someone in her position would do rather than hang around the same town for 40 years just waiting for a showdown (or better still, emigrate - its unlikely michael will get a passport let alone qualify for international travel!).

Also, nobody has been able to replicate john carpenters incredible direction, see assault on precinct 13 and the thing for examples of his masterful ability to build tension, menace and suspense.