This movie does not "capture the essence" of the original Halloween

And a bit of a mess -- is it about the journalists? (We learn that answer rather quickly) Is it about Laurie Strode? Her daughter? Her granddaughter? Why bother with the babysitter? Is Michael on a revenge mission? Are the few teenagers he kills along the way just him passing time?

I might see this film one day, the fact the critics themselves like it so much pulls me away from this already, first Halloween did not have exactly good critics initially, it was breaking a new ground, and critics were not ready for it at that time, it did something new. What this new one seems to do from what I hear is to repeat what has already been done, nothing new, no breaking of trends, hence why critics usually have no problem with it. If it's something innovative and new, and critics love it, their response is a little bit different, they sort of start saying something like it's a new Psycho, oh well that was actually what some of them even said later on back in 78.

No not at all, Psycho was something new, it was bound to shock the audience, it had the kind of shock quite unimaginable for many people today, todays'blood and gore is not shocking, it is usually the exact opposite. What was shocking about Halloween in 1978 was the lack of blood, its whole approach was about hiding as much in the shadows, the whole film was like a virus sneaking underneath your skin pretending it is a vitamin D, completely disturbing, and without any blood, its shocks were from the story, shocking was seeing dead Annie on the bed with the tombstone above her head for instance. That kind of a film makes you distrust the flow of the film, leaving you unsettled because you never know what it is capable of doing to you, in a way the film even felt like it was more of a thriller than a horror anyway. Psycho actually was shocking exactly because of this approach too, its violence was shocking because it was unexpected in a film that felt like a mild drama or thriller for most of the film. Many new films today are too loud, explicit, showing too much, and leaving little to an imagination. Gore itself is not an issue, it has just become a reflection of how directors want to scare you, graphic violence is not shocking if there's too much of it anyway, it makes you numb.

Also, the original came out during a perfect era, the 70's. Life was just....different. You could never recreate that feel in this modern day. Same with Jaws. Those movies benefited in part by a perfect storm of era, location, and overall zeitgeist. And times were simpler. No cell phones or internet. Could you imagine trying to capture the simple magic Halloween or Jaws had in a movie made today? It would be near impossible. In today's day and age, if a Michael Meyers-esque killing spree happened....CNN and TMZ would be there flooding the town within hours. If Brody, Hooper and Quint were stuck on a sinking boat and the CB was busted, they'd just pull out their cell phones.

You can't recreate the magic of the originals. Not even close. For starters....MM has been played out. It was great when he was a mystery. When he truly was, to us, the Boogeyman. Now....well, he's on lunchboxes and t-shirts....FB memes and action figures.

In the original, which took place in the 70's......high school girls weren't sending nude selfies.....they giggled about kissing a boy, or going to the dance. On the radio in the background of a day....you had Blue Oyster Cult (Don't Fear the Reaper). Perfect. Nowadays.....you'd have Bruno Mars. Man, things have just changed.

The first mistake the writers and directors made with this latest attempt is.....the same mistake Zombie made--which is to assume scary requires lots of blood and guts. The original had almost no blood whatsoever. It relied on the spookiness of what lurked in the shadows.

I admire the attempt. And it was still a pretty good movie. In fact, some of the scenes and cinematography were beautifully shot. But as a whole....not many people understand how to produce the magic Carpenter and Hill created in 1978.