The thing I did not know about this movie going in, requiring Alex explain it to me, was that this movie proceeds from the premise there has only been one other Halloween movie. The first one. All the other Halloween movies, Halloween: H20 or whatever, either never occurred, or were in some alternate universe.
The reason this came up was I could not understand why everyone was treating Jamie Lee Curtis like she was nuts for training extensively with firearms, building a home with a high fence, floodlights, and security cameras everywhere, and a freaking hideyhole safe room under the kitchen island. She is convinced Michael Myers will escape and try to kill her again, and I'm sitting there going, "No shit. He's escaped like 7 times, and tried to kill her at least 4 of those times."
But no, according to this movie, Michael never escaped the psychiatric hospital after the first time he was apprehended. She's just been preparing like crazy for the last 40 years out of the belief an almost entirely unresponsive man will escape confinement and try to kill her again. Seems a little stranger that way, although I would not be surprised an experience like that in your teenage years would mess you up.
And it is interesting - and a little painful - to see Curtis play her as unable to put that fear aside for more than a few minutes at a time. Even when she knows her daughter doesn't want her around her granddaughter, and that her granddaughter invited her to a dinner in the hopes it would go well. She can't help excitedly talking about how she saw "the shadow" or the "specter" or something, or trying to give her daughter a gun while complaining about how bad the security of their home is.
I admit I don't get Michael's fixation on her, considering he seems willing to kill nearly any other person he comes across. Old man, podcasters, mechanics, sleazy "Nice Guy" teenager. It seems to me that he should either be killing just anyone, in which case Laurie and her descendants shouldn't matter more than anyone else. Or he should be locked on her and just ignore anyone who doesn't actively try to impede him. But this may be the only Halloween movie I've watched the whole way through, so there may be explanations I don't know.
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Yeah, I'm not sure I can make sense of how many Halloween timelines there are now. I give it ten years before some bright spark tries to do a crossover movie involving all of them.
Myers' obsession with Laurie depends on which timeline you're going with. The 1981 Halloween II reveals that she's his sister, and the 80's and 90's sequels follow on from that, even though Laurie's not in 4, 5, or 6. Rob Zombie's remake and its sequel also make the pair into siblings.
There's nothing in the original about any connection between the two so if this new one follows from that, then the connection is undefined. Maybe it's just that she's the one that got away?
The original is one of my favourite films, but I haven't seen this one yet. I've been waiting for it to come out on home video, or whatever it's called these days.
Laurie as the one who got away makes as much sense as anything. I don't remember anyone suggesting Michael and Laurie were related this time.
The one that got away is probably the best reason behind Michael's obsession with her. As Calvin says, the new film picks up 40 years after the original and anything in between simply didn't happen, including the revelation that Michael and Laurie are siblings. In fact, it's explicitly stated in this film that they are not.
As a fan of the first (and the second) film, I enjoyed this when I saw it, though it is a little formulaic. There are nice nods back to the original which you'd only pick up on if you're either a) a rabid fan of the original who knows it frame by frame or b) you get to watch the original a few days before seeing this one - which is what I did.
I thought it was okay but had its problems; could have done without the hint of a sequel, though.
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