‘Halloween’ Slashes Franchise Record With $77.5 Million Launch

[quote]“Halloween” is Curtis’ biggest opening to date, as well as the best horror opening with a female lead. It’s also the biggest launch ever with a female lead over 55 years old.

[quote]And those untalented bitches say there are no roles for women over 40. Well, there are if you can ACT.

It's Halloween, and she's having to do the same role that she did a million years ago. Carrie Fisher couldn't get work and had to go back and do the same role she did a million years ago, too. Yes, there are no roles, and no, these roles don't require acting. This isn't Oscar caliber shit.

There are more roles for older actresses in television than there are in film.

She's amazing in the film. I'm so glad it's such a huge commercial and critical success.

There are great roles for women over 70.

garbage entertainment for garbage people

im very happy for her but tbh, any actress could play her character or perhaps they could introduce a new one - and it would still make a killing in the b.o.

[quote] It’s also the biggest launch ever with a female lead over 55 years old.

I can’t bear the gratuitous violence of the horror genre

R7, don't minimize her being back in this franchise.

Yes, it's a part she has played before. Yes, it is Halloween and a Halloween movie. However, her presence did have something to do with the box office take. It certainly wasn't the only factor but it is an important one.

They put her front and center and she hustled like she hasn't had to in a long time doing promotion. Putting someone like Megan Fox or Jennifer Lawrence in the film wouldn't have had the same effect. When you think of the film you think of her. It would be like doing another Scream and not having Neve Campbell in it.

[quote]This isn't Oscar caliber shit.

So what, R2? Not every film is Oscar calibur shit. How many "scary movies" are? They're still there to provide entertainment. There is a place for them.

Gawd, she was plugging this on The Late Late Show with that chubby Brit.

I think she was drunk or stoned.

Jamie Lee was a bore. It would've been better with Sherri Moon Zombie.

Jamie Lee: Locked & Loaded

“Watch out Michael Myers, she’s got a loaded gun tucked in her panty-holster!”

Both her and the Michael Myers' characters must be 60+; VERY agile in the film.

Nobody better talk shit about JLC while r9 is around! I love this place.

After seeing the original film on vacation a couple of months ago (and having my niece quit watching because it was "too slow"), it's good to see Laurie Strode again. Maybe it's too much to expect more actresses to stop doing fillers, but we can hope. She has a lot to be proud of.

Spoilers: The movie was entertaining, but the ending when all these bitches are trapped in the basement with a wall full of guns and everyone seems to forget about them rending JLC to find/use a knife, that killed it for me. Oh, also her crazy ass on The View last week where she made this movie about #metoo in a long awkward speech, I lost most respect for her and this movie, she cray and this movie took a dump at the end. But, hey, it was a matinee and not full price.

[quote] Oh, also her crazy ass on The View last week where she made this movie about #metoo in a long awkward speech

That's disappointing. Laurie Strode in this film is a total badass and refuses to be a victim. Her daughter was the cringey one. Nevertheless, still a fan of Curtis even I can't stomach all her political views and happy for her success.

The budget for this film was $10-$15 million dollars. $77.5 million dollars at the box office opening weekend is great. The studio and production company should be very pleased. They got there investment back plus a huge profit. And it's going to make more $$$$$$.

Congratulations, JLM

I meant JLC.

I loved it.

Waiting for the next reboot after 2-3 shit sequels.

I hope her penis gets more screen time in the next one.

I don't understand.

i love her and this cements her as the queen of horror. but it would be more impressive if it was a new role and if she wasn’t a legacy actor.

Horrifying to see such crap film make so much money. Ah, Americans.

OP, because the 12 threads we already have on this subject aren't enough.

Well, we've got a PR person inundating the board with ho brilliant this schlock is...

The last three replies could belong on any “ star is born 2018” thread and fit right in.

[quote]Oh, also her crazy ass on The View last week where she made this movie about #metoo in a long awkward speech

There was a review of the film that made that connection, so she's probably picked it up from that. To be fair, the climax of the film is very well conceived along those lines and, given the history of slasher films and the slew of helpless women it paints, that final scene was extremely moving.

My husbear and my bestie both said this was fantastic. I loved the original Halloween, so I'm looking forward to checking it out soon.

Them heaux ain’t got nothing on me.

Never have, never will.

reply 30 Hon, it's a slasher flick...a horror movie that celebrates gory violence as fun entertainment. It's not "metoo" anything.

r33 How very interesting x

How wonderful sisters of a certain age are doing it for themselves at the box office, bookending movies in release with dear Jamie Lee’s film at #1 and Glenn’s at #100.

David Gordon Green manages to creatively and beautifully thread together the best elements of the original and of the franchise as a whole (including Zombie's what I consider "fanfiction remakes"), weaving together both a frightening and poignant homage-sequel-reboot that manages to use subtlety and ambiguity expertly in exploring the mythic Michael Myers and the evil that surrounds him with refreshingly new eyes (a pun intended and revealed later in my short review). Midway through our first encounter with Myers, it's as if something descends upon or is awakened within "the Shape", causing the atmosphere and those around him to buzz with a static and hair-raising foreboding. It's an unsettlingly electric and effective sequence that, rather than explain any why's, simply allows the audience to experience and imagine the evil that permeates this man or person (or thing?) through creator John Carpenter's chillingly atmospheric score and Green's assured, poetic direction.

Cont'd

R36 fuck off pr cretin.

Fuck you, R37.

Cont'd

Green has a firm grasp on the elements that made the original work - simplicity, realism and a little grounded pathos (and never seeing the Shape's eyes!) - playing with and amplifying them. The simplicity is artful and unsettling, the realism somber and frightening, and the pathos painful and familiar.

Finally, the use of light and editing left me feeling unsure about whether or not I ever saw Myers' eyes save for one fleetingly chilling pre-mask reveal which tips the hat to the mythos of the original and to Laurie Strode's first encounter with him. It's as if his eyes are under dirty water throughout: you catch yourself thinking you've seen them and as soon as you do, they're gone, quickly cut from or subtly submerged in darkness again. It's a wonderful technique I haven't seen used in any of the sequels or even the original, for that matter.

As noted up thread, Jamie Lee Curtis gives her best film performance (she was also excellent in Scream Queens) since Freaky Friday here, shading her character with pain, fury and a will of steel. She's subtle, fierce and expertly gives us a realistic portrait of Laurie Strode forty years later, now a PTSD suffering grandmother crippled by her past but fueled with the turbulent courage of someone with nothing left to lose. Her scenes opposite the Shape are startlingly brutal and all the more satisfying for it.

Cont'd

Cont'd

It's easy to find out the myriad ways in which this film could have gone wrong - watch Halloween ::gurgle:: H20, which also starred Jamie Lee Curtis on the franchise's 20th anniversary (and one of my least favorite of the sequels) - and though it isn't a groundbreaking film, it's an excellent slasher pic that doesn't try to reinvent the wheel but puts the rubber to the road and lets it rip.

This is both a love letter to arguably the best horror film of all time and to die hard fans, with mini homages cleverly executed and enthusiastically peppered throughout. The violence and gore are intensified for both current day horror fan sensibilities but also in service of the story, which is meant to highlight the savage and elemental quality of the evil on display. The kills are frightening, intense and surprisingly somber, which elevates and magnifies them and the starkness of the this dark tale. None of the victims are treated as punchlines.

Green displays moments of poetic brilliance as a director here, echoing the original and the aspects of Zombie's remakes that worked. This is the remake or homage Zombie SHOULD'VE made.

Nearly halfway through the film, there's a beautifully rendered extended tracking shot during which the Shape swiftly enters a woman's home, bludgeons her to death with a hammer and after, with the oblivious nonchalance of a curious child swapping toys, picks up a butcher knife. It's a chilling moment that I know I'm not articulating well (I'm still pumped from my watch). Weapons are truly an afterthought for this kind of primal evil

The supporting cast is excellent, with Judy Greer and Andi Matichack providing the best, most striking supporting work of the series since both the original and my favorite sequel, part 4 with the brilliant Ellie Cornell and Danielle Harris. Matichack in particular stands out as a nuanced young actress with a promising career ahead of her.

Expanding on his original score for "Halloween", with echoes of his other brilliant compositional work in film and shades of the score to "Suspiria" , Carpenter's music here is a fantastic variations on a theme homage to the most iconic score in horror film history; his own.

The absence of the inimitable Donald Pleasance is felt but never negatively impacts the film (a stunning achievement) due in part to the brilliant Hall Bilginer as Dr. Loomis' protégé.

There's a plot point involving him that many have found disappointing but I found successfully subversive and perhaps revealing of where the franchise is heading. Is spiritual transference/possession a potential theme for the sequels? An emphasized shot of a knife at the end seems to suggest so.

Ironically enough, the franchise through it's myriad incarnations eventually explored this (particularly in installments 4, 5 and 6). Perhaps Green is planning to do the same in a much more subtle, grounded way in later installments (of which there most certainly will be at least one after this weekend's receipts).

Whether or not you believe in evil, fear is universal and triggered by as many unknown elements as it is the known. This sequel, much like John Carpenter's masterwork, doesn't attempt to explain the 'unknown elements' but simply observes their mysterious, macabre chill.

Not everyone is killed somberly or seriously. The pudgy kid’s death has a comical tinge

According to this iteration, which previous films, aside from the first one, are considered “canon”?

Awesome! I’m excited to see this.

R40 But he wasn't the punchline of his death. He was cracking jokes the whole film but his death was not funny.

Also, these review blurbs sum up why I think this film is a success:

Variety:

[quote]That makes this new “Halloween” an act of fan service disguised as a horror movie. The fact it works as both means that Green (who flirted with the idea of directing the “Suspiria” remake) has pulled off what he set out to do, tying up the mythology that Carpenter and company established, while delivering plenty of fresh suspense — and grisly-creative kills — for younger audiences who are buying into the “Halloween” brand without any real investment in Michael and Laurie’s unfinished business.

Peter Travers:

[quote]Just watching Curtis dig into the role of this former-babysitter-turned-hardcore-avenger will keep you on the edge of your seat. She’s a marvel of ferocity and feeling. Laurie knows that her Michael obsession has lost her custody of her now-adult daughter Karen (Judy Greer), trained in combat since childhood, and caused a rift with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak). But she’ll live with it if her family can be safe. Playing the naïve Laurie made Curtis a star at 19; now she brings a sense of loss, regret and separation to the role that deepens the character’s humanity without diminishing her resolve. It’s a savage roar of a performance that stays alert to nuance. And it fits in perfectly with Green’s concept of the film as a feminist parable in which three women come together to call #TimesUp on a male predator.

[quote]That Green’s sequel works as well as it does — it’s still a slasher movie — is due only in part to the director and his collaborators’ copycat admiration for Carpenter’s blueprint. Mostly it’s the troubled times we live in that allows this energizing, elemental horror film to touch a raw nerve for #MeToo. We watch a woman call a male monster to account for her own lasting trauma. That’s too real to laugh off as Hollywood make-believe. We’re living it.

Jamie is not the only one making #MeToo parallels.

It was fine, I suppose. But it wasn't scary at all. And the "kills" didn't land. All of those kids seemed disconnected and I got no sense of them being friends, really.

Overall, you just can't replicate what made the original - or any original in this genre - so successful. The original Halloween was about normal everyday life being disrupted in a completely terrifying, unexpected way. Here, "knowingness" and mythos informs everything. So it feels like fan fiction more than anything else. I mean, there was absolutely NO suspense whatsoever. Or dread. Or creepy atmosphere. Just the inevitable plot points being hit before the inevitable show down.

R41 None. Just part 1.

R44 I totally disagree. I think the director did a fantastic job of setting the mood and creating an ominous atmosphere that totally recalls the original (and a little of Rob Zombie's remakes, too).

And the three female leads were fantastic individually and collectively.

R19 And Jamie Lee undoubtedly got points on the backend (she wouldn't have been paid much upfront), so she'll probably make as much as the film's entire budget.

One bit that felt wrong, to me, was the scene where he kills some random woman in her kitchen and then we hear a baby crying in the house. Michael walks into the next room and there's the baby in its cot. He stops right beside it, waits a beat and then walks out of the house and back on to the busy street. It shows the odd moral stance in movies like this, that it's okay to show anyone being brutally murdered in graphic detail but not a baby. Which is completely understandable, obviously. But why show the baby at all? Is it supposed to show Michael "isn't all bad"? He'll butcher any innocent person, but he won't touch no kiddies.

R48 The director addressed that in one of his interviews. It was the woman's husband who was supposed to get killed but the actor never showed up for work that day so they quickly found a crib and put that scene in instead. He said he liked the ambiguity it added.

Also, fun tidbit: Green revealed the sound of the baby crying is JLC!

Nobody else is going to say it, so I will. Judy Greer did a good enough job in the movie, but Danielle Harris deserved that role. It was stolen from her.

R50 Harris would've been amazing.

R48, it's a nod to Halloween II when Michael is in the nursery.

It annoyed me when the journalist taunted Michael in the beginning. Journalist got what he deserved. He had it coming. And Laurie disd not change her hairstyle in 40 years. It's OK.

Neither did Jamie Lee. Art imitating life.

I want to see Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, Brian Andrews as Tommy Doyle (or Paul Rudd if he says no), and Danielle Harris in any role in the next movie. If you can't make that happen then forget the entire thing altogether.

Judy Greer looks like she could be Curtis daughter, Harris not so much also Harris is a fraction of the actress that Greer is.

R56 Are you nuts? Judy Greer is AMAZING, but Harris' performance in Halloween 4 is probably better than anything Greer has ever been given the opportunity to do.

Laurie and her daughter must have started very young when having children, and conveniently, only one each and girls to boot.

R58 20's probably.

Predicted to be #1 again.

That's great.

Mama's still got it

Quite big tits

Huge

I know.