5 Spoiler Free Reasons You Should Watch 2018’s ‘Halloween’

Ryan Green/Universal

Halloween 2018 is here to cleanse your palate of the nine sequels and remakes of the original John Carpenter Halloween from 1978. And oh, what a fantastic cleansing it is!

Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, is back in her “final” showdown against the masked Boogeyman known as Michael Myers. Per usual, he’s escaped the institution he was in during a transfer and made his way back to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois. What he didn’t expect was a Laurie that was ready for him and who had been praying for his escape for years.

Why? To kill him, of course!

This isn’t the Laurie that Michael terrified 40 years ago. This Laurie is trained, vigilant, and ready to send Michael where he belongs. Hell. She’s weathered, angry, and a testament to what PTSD can do to you over the years. But most importantly, she’s not alone. Laurie has people who have her back.

Michael can’t relate and will be the thing that eventually leads to his downfall.

Check out the 5 spoiler free reasons you should watch the 2018 Halloween:

1. Laurie is a Complicated Badass with a Family

Coming into Halloween I was ready to see hermit Laurie secluding herself in the forest in a Boogeyman proof house, with guns a plenty, and no family to speak of. Because honestly, when do women ever get to move past their trauma and have a family in slasher/horror flicks like this? And especially if you’re an older woman like Laurie? Never. That’s how often.

Halloween makes sure that you understand what tragedy and violence has done to Laurie’s psyche, that just because she’s not a spring chicken doesn’t mean she can’t kick ass, and that she tried to move forward and have a family. She’s more than what Michael did to her. And it isn’t perfect (her relationship with her daughter is a mess) but it’s there and makes her one of the most complicated and badass women I have ever seen on the screen!

2. The Classics Are Remembered

Watch out for the blanket covered person in the corner, the houses visited, and the vanishing acts that happen in Halloween. All of them are callbacks to the original that some wouldn’t catch, but veterans of this franchise will. That’s what makes this sequel the best out of the bunch we’ve had to suffer through over the years. Halloween doesn’t forget that it all started with Laurie Strode and the Boogeyman that was out to get her.

3. Laurie Isn’t the Only Badass in This Family

Halloween is no longer JUST a battle between Laurie and Michael. It’s a struggle between a family who shares blood and their fight to survive each other. Parts of Laurie still fear Michael. But she keeps on fighting because she’s not alone in this anymore and she has something to lose. Laurie’s daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), are that something she can lose. But they’re also Laurie’s backup. They fight with her and are key to taking Michael down!

4. It’s Scary AF

Multiple times throughout Halloween I felt goosebumps raise all over my arms and shivers go down my spine aka something I haven’t felt in a while. I think we’ve become so used to gorey slasher flicks that go for epic deaths than actual scary moments like the ones in Halloween. Michael was slow, methodical, and terrified everyone that came his way because he took his time and didn’t speak a word. Basically, Halloween remembered where it came from and delivered a sequel that will remind people what REAL scary movies are like.

5. Every Character Matters, No Matter How Small

Every character mattered in Halloween. From the babysitter to the random cops guarding Laurie’s house, we got to see the kind of people they were. In turn, we felt their deaths more than if they were random strangers being killed. That’s not to say that there weren’t any stranger deaths, because there were. It just means that the movie felt richer, more well written, than the average horror slasher movies were used to nowadays.