Halloween is a 2018 American slasher film directed by David Gordon Green and written by Green, Jeff Fradley, and Danny McBride. It is the eleventh installment in the Halloween film series, and a direct sequel to the 1978 film of the same name, thus retconning the continuity of the previous sequels. Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle reprise their respective roles as Strode and Myers, with stuntman James Jude Courtney also portraying Myers. The film also stars Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, and Virginia Gardner.

So if you forget all the sequels that we horror fans have watched and, even if the quality hasn’t been great, treasure (except for Resurrection). Let’s keep the Rob Zombie reboot films aside. Anyways, 40 years have passed after the events of the first film. true-crime podcasters Aaron Korey and Dana Haines travel to Warren County Smith’s Grove Sanitarium to visit Michael Myers. They briefly interview Michael’s psychiatrist Dr. Ranbir Sartain, a former student of Dr. Samuel Loomis, before meeting with Michael in hopes of gaining some insight into his past actions before his transfer to a new facility. Aaron brandishes Michael’s mask at him, to no effect.

They then meet Lauri Strode, who lives in a cabin in a secluded property, divorced twice and having an estranged relationship with her daughter Karen, and her son-in-law Ray, and has hit the bottle many times. She has spent her life preparing for Michael’s return, with traps, a hidden basement and lots of guns and knives. The track transporting Michael inevitably crashes and he escapes, killing some prisoners and a father & son in a car who stop to check the crash. He ends up killing a mechanic for his coveralls, as well as Aaron and Dana, who stop at the mechanic’s. He then recovers his mask and heads to Haddonfield. Laurie attempts to warn Karen, and her husband Ray, of Michael’s getaway, but they dismiss her concerns. Karen’s daughter Allyson, who is at a Halloween party leaves after finding her boyfriend cheating on her.

Their mutual friend Oscar leaves her and tries to hit on Allyson and after she leaves, he runs into Michael who kills him. Allyson hears his screams and sees Michael and runs away. Michael also goes into the house of the family that Allyson’s best friend is babysitting for and kills her and her boyfriend. Deputy Frank Hawkins, who arrested Michael in 1978, and Laurie hear the incident over the radio and head toward the house, and find the bodies. Near the house they see Michael, who then flees. Laurie begs Ray & Karen to hide in her house, as Hawkins and Sartain, who was only injured in the crash by a shotgun shot, chase after Michael and pickup Allyson on the way. Hawkins hits Michael with his car but Sartain murders Hawkins before he can kill Michael.

Apparently Sartain arranged for the crash and Michael’s escape as he wants the killer to finish his mission and kill Laurie (for some absurd reason). The obsessed Sartain is instead killed by Michael, while Allyson flees. Michael kills two police officers and takes their car, arriving at Laurie’s house and killing Ray. Laurie gets Karen to the hidden basement and goes after Michael with her shotgun Laurie severely injures Michael and severs two of his fingers, but he pushes her over a balcony; when Michael goes to check Laurie’s body, he finds it missing. Allyson comes to the house and calls out to Karen who opens the hidden basement door and Karen tricks Michael to reveal himself so she can shoot him. Laurie then appears from behind him and attacks him.

The three women push and kick Michael into the basement and then trap him in and set the house on fire. They then escape and hail a passing truck and leave the burning house, assuming that Michael has not escaped. We do hear his breathing at the end of the credits scene, meaning he is still alive. And yes there is a sequel in the making.

Generally the film is considered to be the best sequel yet and with some suspense and gory kills. Curtis’ acting is awesome and I thought Judy Greer was top notch in it too. But it felt a little too contrived and too convenient in the coincidences that leads Michael to his victims. Still, I did enjoy it for the most part. 7 outta 10!

Starring Alexia Fast, Alexis Knapp, Joel David Moore & Lin Shaye, Grace The Possession is a 2014 horror film from the first person’s point of view. Directed by Jeff Chan & distributed by Sony Pictures the film is kinda unique in that way as we see things the way the possessed character Grace, played by Canadian actress Alexia Fast, sees with the use of a head worn camera. We only see the actress when she looks into a mirror and we see her reflection or when she looks down on her hands and the rest of her body.

As the movie starts we see the her birth and the perspective the camera takes is of a floating entity, which becomes obvious when the mother looks straight into the camera and declares, “There is no God!”. Years later the 18 year old Grace is off to colleague much to the chagrin of her grandmother who does not want her to fall into sin. The demon enters Grace around this time I guess and Grace is trying to enjoy college life along with the drinking and partying that comes with it. She also has sexual interest for the first time in her life in the form of a boy she meets at the campus. Drinking makes her feel even sicker and she hallucinates that she kills her roommate by pushing her off the balcony and other scary visions.

Her grandmother brings her out of college and makes her go to see their priest, father John, and tries to control Grace’s life. Then there’s movement in Grace’s mother’s room, which her grandmother keeps her away from. Later Grace discovers, through a vision, that her mother was raped by the priest and she herself is the child born outta that. Towards the end the demon takes over and kills the grandmother and then goes to the church. The priest and a younger priest Luke, who Grace has had visions of sex before, invite an older priest & exorcist but the demon evades their attempts and kills the two older priests. Luke approaches the demon and fights it but in the end he asks the demon to possess him instead and let Grace go.

The demon agrees and possess Luke – and now we see things from his POV – and he asks Grace to leave. As the movie ends, we see Luke, now a full priest, presiding over mass in front of a full church. I dunno what that is supposed to mean and wish we had more. It’s a good enough approach to a movie and even though I liked the concept, the movie pales in comparison to many I have seen before. A lesser budget and a new director might be the reason but I do appreciate the effort. Still, 5.5 outta 10!