Have you heard of the challenge that is ludicrous? In an effort to be more productive, I set a goal of writing three books in one year. If I am able to consistently write 1,000 words a day, in two months I’ll have 60,000 words which is what is considered a full-length novel. My books typically are between 70-80,000 words. That’s two and a half months per book, that’s seven and a half months for three. It is doable. If I’m consistent. And I have been. I’m at 18,000 words after eighteen days. After today, I’ll be at 19,000 words. I have to say, I’m loving this challenge. It keeps me writing. And when I’m writing, I’m happy. So, yeah. I’m happy I decided to challenge myself. What about you? Any challenges you want to set for yourself? Comment below. I’d love to hear about them.
GUELPH BOOKBASH!
Local authors, free books, non-profit event. What’s not to love?
This movie, hell, this movie hurt my feelings. I don’t know how else to say it. The series had the potential to be great. Stunning. A tribute to horror. Instead, they took a dump on it. I’ll try to explain why. I may go on for a bit, but hopefully at the end of it, you’ll see why I think so. And please, all contrary opinions are welcome!
Halloween 2018: The idea behind this film was for moviegoers and fans to forget all the Halloween movies in between the OG Halloween and this one. So, no Halloween 2 and up. No alternate H2O storyline. None of that. And I was absolutely cool with that. I enjoyed the other movies, sure, but in the same way I enjoyed Friday the 13th Part 6: Jason Lives. Fun, but not scary, and not a movie to take seriously. That’s how I viewed all the other Halloween films after the OG. And then they released Halloween 2018.
A stellar movie. I loved it. It was scary. Micheal Myers was brought back to the screen in spectacular fashion. Now, the movie plot itself was essentially a repeat of the OG, you know, Micheal escapes, he’s going to Haddonfield, his doctor warns everyone, and not everyone believes him. A goddamn carbon copy. Except in this film, Micheal’s doctor helped to facilitate his escape. Dr. Loomis from the OG did not do that. Now, I am familiar with all the Halloween films and in Halloween the Curse of Micheal Myers (Paul Rudd was in this before he was famous), Micheal’s doctor let him loose so he could hunt done Laurie Strode’s granddaughter, the only surviving person from that line, to complete some ritual. Silly, but like I said, fun.
In Halloween 2018, the doctor-facilitated-release was done so much better so I didn’t care that a plot from a movie we were supposed to ignore showed up in this film. To be clear: I loved this film. Laurie wasn’t related to Micheal. Micheal was just an indiscriminate killing machine. He lurked, he hunted, he killed and because all of his targets were random, you couldn’t predict where he would be. He was like the weather. He destroyed everything in his path. It didn’t matter to him who you are. Rich, poor, doesn’t matter. That is what made him scary. Everyone is a potential victim. No one is safe. And you never knew where he’d turn up. A recipe for horror excellence.
Halloween Kills: The firefighters, while trying to put out the fire at Laurie’s home at the end of Halloween 2018, set Micheal free. Now, here’s where they started to go off the rails. Micheal in the OG and in 2018 was a lone stalker. He hid. He stalked. He killed and then he slunk off into the shadows. In this one, he goes out onto the porch, looks at all the firefighters there, and decides to go all Jet Li-Steven Segal-Jason Statham on everybody. Decides to take on ten or more in-shape firefighters, wielding axes and power-tools. Like, what? They had already established that this is not what Micheal does. Micheal actually would have walked out of the back door and disappeared into the darkness of the woods. He would not attempt to be the newest action star. Okay. Lame, but okay, still watchable. There is still time to course correct.
And then more absurdity follows. The town knows Micheal is around, doing his shadow walk-about and kill-thing, and they decide to get together and hunt him down. In this weird happening, an innocent person is killed. This exact same thing happened in Halloween 4, The Return of Michael Myers. You know, one of those movies that didn’t happen in this rebooted universe? And it wasn’t a good premise in that movie either. It was cool that they had Lindsay and Tommy helping from the OG, for nostalgia points, but still the idea was beyond crap.
I will say the back in time sequences looked great! During this sequence, they tried to make Micheal’s home an intricate part of the KILLS movie, but I wasn’t convinced. All this killing so he could go and stare out of his sister’s window? Really? If there was more to it than that, with evidence of it provided by the movie, I’d be glad to read about it in the comments. This was not a good movie. It was barely watchable. That’s all I can say about it.
Halloween Ends: I can’t say that this was watchable. The opening scene was freaking incredible though. Suspense and a kick-ass surprise, this opening had me sitting up straight thinking, interesting. And then an hour goes by. No Micheal. Hmmm. Isn’t this a Halloween movie?
It was like they tried to do a character study in the middle of a horror film. Why? I don’t know. I initially thought, ok, Corey killed a kid by accident so now we have a broken character. It would be logical to believe the other broken characters (Laurie and her granddaughter) would take him in as one of their own and they’d band together somehow. And that’s kind of how it started. But that’s not where it went.
Corey and Allyson become love interests. Corey tries to corrupt Allyson while exploring his inner Michael. What? And that’s not even the worst of it. They bulldozed Micheal’s house and he ended up in the sewers. An old homeless man knew he was there and had, for some reason, reverence for Micheal (a similar idea happened in Halloween 5 where some homeless man nurses Micheal back to health after being shot and then was later killed by Micheal). So Corey is dragged into the sewer and left alone. He wakes up, tries to leave and Micheal grabs him by the throat and they gaze into each other’s eyes. Now, Micheal, who kills everyone, finds in young Corey, what? A friend? A kindred spirit? A killing buddy? What in the actual hell? He releases Corey and off Corey goes trying to turn Allyson evil while being yelled at by the stereotypical overbearing-serial-killer-mother trope.
Yeah. Corey though, is not strong enough to kill effectively on his own. He, of course, comes to the conclusion that he needs Micheal’s mask. He fights Micheal for it in the sewer and wins. Wins! Are we supposed to forget that Michael had Corey by the throat not too long ago and released him? Just a short time ago, Micheal was stronger and now he’s not? Annoying.
Corey now has the mask and goes about killing in a Michael-type way. He stalks, he’s inordinately strong, and he’s cruel. Except for the part that he actually targets people. Micheal does not. Corey went after bullies. Micheal couldn’t have cared less. In trying to imply they were creating a new Micheal, they forgot what made Micheal so scary.
And this grooming crap has been done before. The end of Friday the 13th Part 4, The Final Chapter, they had Tommy Jarvis give crazy eyes at the end. And in Halloween 5, the had Jamie Lloyd, the daughter of Laurie Strode (in this timeline, Micheal’s niece) wearing the OG clown costume with her holding a large bloody knife, implying Jamie was going to be the next Micheal. It didn’t work then, and it sure as shit didn’t work here.
So, of course Corey goes after Laurie next (because she’s standing in the way of him and Allyson and not his own murderous behaviour, of course). He dies, and won’t the real Micheal Myers please stand up? And he does. He fights Laurie. And he loses. And then he is paraded through town on the roof of a car and dropped into a grinder where he is mashed to pieces. The police are cool with this. The state police are cool with this. Why? That is illegal. And for the police and the entire town to be complicit in it is just silly. And for what? So they could have a drawn-out dramatic ending? Pointless.
Final thoughts: These films could have been great. And Halloween 2018 indicated they were attempting to make great films. And then they wrote scripts in a committee (which never works). And reused crap storylines from past films we were supposed to ignore.
Halloween has great product recognition or branding. Fans will always go out to see one of these films; myself included. It was always going to make money. That does not mean it was good. And they might have taken my money, but they lost my trust, but since it was Halloween Ends, I’m not too sure that they care.
SIDENOTE: All the actors did a great job. It’s the scripts I have an issue with.
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Resources on YouTube for health and fitness: Will Tennyson, Greg Doucette, Joni Shreve, More Plates More Dates, and Knees over toes guy.
Resources to check out on YouTube for running: Aravaipa Running, Confidence in Chaos, Dr. Mark Cucuzzella (for form), and Billy Yang for inspirational ultra videos.
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