Halloween (18) ***
Laurie Strode (a returning Jamie Lee Curtis) always believed that Michael would one day be free to kill again, and has placed all of her focus on preparing to defend herself, to the dismay of her daughter (Judy Greer), who has been impacted by her mother’s obsession.
Blumhouse Productions has acquired the rights to Halloween and director David Gordon Green’s slasher horror goes back to basics. There is no reference to any of the other films in the series and this is set up as a sequel to the original, set forty years after John Carpenter’s original film with Curtis returning as Strode.
It’s scary, unnerving and graphically violent. And while there are bold efforts to bring in story elements such as post-traumatic stress and the importance of redemption for victims, Halloween doesn’t stray too far out of generic horror territory.
Nick Castle also returns to don the mask of the crazed killer. His Michael has been incarcerated in a mental institution, but makes a grizzly escape while being transferred to another facility and promptly set out on another killing spree.
The trauma of being the one who got away that night has loomed large in Laurie’s life. She has prepared her entire existence for his return and pushed her daughter to defend herself to the point of alienating her. But Michael is out, and just in time for October 31st.
With a bodycount far higher than the original film, this cranks up the violent and inventive deaths of various characters, and because of the date, he’s not the only person walking the streets with a knife and a mask, meaning many of his victims only realise their fate when it’s too late. His ultimate goal? To get to Laurie’s home, where they both do battle for once and for all.
The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid (12A) ***
A LOCAL FARMER fights back against a compulsory purchase order at the highest level of business in this Irish documentary which tells an extraordinary true story.
For years, Kildare farmer Thomas Reid took on the IDA who put him under increasing pressure to sell his land. They wanted to buy it for potential business expansion because of its proximity to the M50. The land is also situated right next to technology giant Intel, which could at some point be making expansion plans.
The IDA successfully obtained a compulsory purchase order, but Thomas was not for moving. His family had lived in the house and farmed the lands for more than 100 years and he knew no other way of life.
It’s a slow burner of a film, but the documentary manages to capture both Reid’s quirkiness and determination, and broadens into a film about the individual versus the establishment, man versus technology, and the rights of the individual versus the possible benefits to broader society.
At the heart of it all is Reid himself, weathering the growing stresses of the pressures to move placed upon him as he goes about his days living the only life he has ever lived, listening to the radio and talking to his cows.
