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‘Halloween’ is a terrifying trip through horror nostalgia its fans have waited 40 years to see

Michael Myers is back for another night of 'Halloween' terror to finish what he started in 1978.

Halloween 1978: A terrifying night that claimed the lives of three people in a small Illinois town. It has now been 40 years since that horror unfolded at the hands of a masked maniac.

But this time it’s different.

This time, she’s ready.

With her youthful babysitting days long behind her, Laurie Strode has spent four decades transforming into a laser-focused fighter preparing for the biggest moment in her life: To kill Haddonfield’s most notorious murderer.

“He’s waited for me. I’ve waited for him.”

Well, it’s Halloween… and Michael Myers has just escaped… again.

Jamie Lee Curtis is back in the role that launched her Hollywood career -- and it’s a devilishly exciting return horror fans have been drooling for. Nick Castle, the original actor behind the infamously eerie white mask, is also back to fill Michael Myers' blood-stained boots for another round of Halloween terror.

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Halloween 2018 is treated as a direct sequel to John Carpenter's original, which means all events that happened in the strain of sequels never actually took place in this new universe.

That's how Laurie Strode is back for another battle with the boogeyman even though she was killed in the opening sequence of 2002's Halloween: Resurrection.

With the Halloween saga reset, Laurie is now a grandmother who lives alone inside the home she's transformed into a makeshift fortress for the eventual night Michael Myers would return to find her.

It's a frightening fun ride that puts Laurie in the power position. She's not afraid anymore. Seeing her stare down Michael Myers is more satisfying than a trick-or-treater's overflowing pumpkin pail.

There are some missteps along the way, though -- including one cringe-worth death sequence that is so outlandishly ridiculous it distracts from the pulse-pounding fear it's trying to unhinge.

Halloween 2018's biggest successes come in the wicked winks toward its series predecessors -- and there are lots of them. The iconic pumpkin, witch and skeleton masks from Halloween III: Season of the Witch make a fun, albeit brief, cameo. You might even recognize the sandwich scene from Halloween II. The infamous "Sinclair" gravestone is back on the big screen along with a haunting homage to the original's finale where Michael Myers survived a standoff with Dr. Loomis. Fans will love it.

Although it's far from a perfect film, the Halloween nostalgia is enough to get any horror fan's blood flowing.

This will certainly slaughter the box office and become the most successful film in the Halloween franchise, so I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Michael Myers no matter how many ways they find to "off" him.

Remember what Tommy Doyle said all those years ago... "You can't kill the boogeyman."

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