Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Virginia Gardner, Nick Castle

Directed by David Gordon Green

Universal Pictures, in cinemas now

Laurie Strode has never gotten over that Halloween night 40 years ago when masked murderer Michael Myers killed some babysitters in Haddonfield. She may have survived that night of terror, but the impact has cost her multiple marriages and her daughter. Michael is now on the move again from a mental institution – what could possibly go wrong?

As someone who loves John Carpenter’s 1978 original, and to varying degrees the patchy sequels, the prospect of another go seemed a bad idea. The recent Rob Zombie versions added nothing to the mix, and Michael was probably now best left alone. But you can’t keep a popular movie villain down for long, and clearly there was enough here for Carpenter to be on board as an executive producer and to lure Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode.

Ignoring every sequel (including the Carpenter-scripted Halloween II which is set on the same night) it’s soon established that Michael isn’t Laurie’s brother (and this point is made clear) which makes the enmity between the two more interesting and primal. Once Michael escapes from the prison bus (that really can’t be a spoiler) it’s evident that director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) isn’t pulling punches with his material – this is brutal 18 Certificate material that makes no attempt to gentrify Myers. The killer is a relentless, unstoppable machine, and while it’s never directly referenced, the suggestion is that he is a supernatural bogeyman.

Danny McBride, David Gordon Green and Jeff Fradley’s script has great fun in playing with the standard ‘stalk and slash’ genre tropes that the original trailblazed, but more than being a copycat (as so many of the seasonal and holiday specific imitators were) they proudly wear that heritage on their sleeve. There are scenes that a new viewer would take at face value, whereas aficionados will spot multiple visual and script nods that are never so blatant that they wink at the audience and say ‘see what we did there?’ but add an extra layer of fun for the fans. This begins right from the opening credits and the use of the Jack-o-lantern, right down to some familiar shots in the finale.

It’s clear to see why Jamie Lee Curtis was drawn in to the project. She’s no one-dimensional character here, but a crazy lady with wild hair who’s trying to protect her daughter Karen (Judy Greer – Ant-Man) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak). The inclusion of Allyson means that we can have babysitting and school scenes and takes us back full circle to 1978’s premise. Laurie is no longer a victim, having spent the last four decades training herself and tooling herself up in her safehouse, ready for the inevitable showdown. She’s gone the full Sarah Connor and is now making her stand in a #MeToo world.

John Carpenter’s soundtrack is great too, co-composed by son Cody and godson Daniel Davies. The classic 5/4 theme is of course the one that sets the heart racing, but there’s plenty of other exciting new material to drive the narrative, particularly when Allyson is under threat. Oh, and an honourable mention for Will Patton (Armageddon) as obligatory police character Officer Hawkins – one of Laurie’s few supporters and one of the few sympathetic male characters in the movie.

Verdict: Far far better than we could have hoped for, this is a very adult horror film that doesn’t hang back with its slicing and dicing. It’s also very tense and by the time the two nemeses have their inevitable confrontation you might just be rocking in your seat. 9/10

Nick Joy