Helloween

Helloween is a brand-new horror romp from writer-director Phil Claydon (whose previous work includes Lesbian Vampire Killers). Based around what the plot-description describes as the “killer clown craze of 2016”, the film follows a few different characters as they encounter Carl Cane – a murderous individual with quite the following.

This is a movie which very much wears its influences on its sleeves, and it’s not afraid to sing its homages loud and proud. The most obvious example of this comes in how Carpenter's masterpiece Halloween (1978) effectively informs a great many of the screenplay’s plot progressions. From the opening scene of a young Cane claiming his first victim, to our protagonist’s being an obvious Doctor Loomis stand-in, there’s a lot to enjoy when it comes to identifying pastiche.

The implementation of contemporary issues of media and social media is what sets the narrative apart from the classic pictures this movie is riffing on (referring to the loyal, horrific following which Cane seems to be wielding). This element of the script is tremendously uncomfortable, and effective, for feeling so relevant to current times, wherein fascistic forces insight group violence upon others. That’s where this critic’s brain went to anyway, although the film never really gets complex regarding what exactly the takeaway should be in terms of our own world. But it’s already disturbing enough to see the impact of the media on a collective, aggressive mindset.

If there’s an issue with this movie, it’s unfortunately the pacing. What a lot of this piece relies on is a sustained sense of imminent threat and terror. However, this often struggles to shine through due to the drawn-out nature of one or two jump-scares. While one can clearly see that Claydon is crafting the film around being as entertaining as possible, beat-for-beat, occasionally those beats slightly misjudge the overall rhythms of a feature-film. And sometimes this has nothing whatsoever to do with the base structure of the movie; more often than not, it’s the individual sequences that require a leaner edit. But the story is all there.

Visually, this movie is working at a pretty high level, especially in the lighting and colour grading departments. This is a dramatically lit movie with a wonderful reliance on darkness and silhouette. It’s incredibly expressive stuff – particularly in moments when artificial moonlight is seen beaming through windows. Details such as this demonstrate just how well thought-through the cinematography is on a level of set-up and creative preparation – all with the intention of creating that unsettling atmosphere. The neon lights, and the manner in which they’re translated through the grade, lend the visual palette a wonderfully icky sense of grime and grit. It’s messy and in your face and cinematically addictive.

Claydon has vocalised how this movie is meant to serve as the perfect horror movie to watch on a Friday night. The kind of simple, fun slasher that will give you your hit of bloody frights and excitement. And overall, that’s what Helloween delivers: a meat-and potatoes-slasher with some added stylistic and social flavouring. Aesthetically recognisable, yet also quite engaging.