I SEE DEAD PEOPLE.............THE NEW "HALLOWEEN".........

Halloween (2018)    Overall, not a bad idea for jump-starting an old franchise........

              .........pretend that all the sequels never happened........re-start from where the first one ended......

               Come to think of it, haven't "Game Of Thrones" fans done that already with Season 8?  Not to mention the "Star Wars" fanbase, demanding a re-do of "The Last Jedi".........

                As for BQ, I'd want to remake "Diamonds Are Forever"  and completely re-do that seriously suck-ass oil rig battle.......

                 So here's the all new reconstituted official "Halloween II", with Jamie Lee Curtis now a close-to-unhinged senior, living like an alt-right survivalist.......waiting for her mano e mano smackdown with indestructible boogeyman Michael Myers........

                  All the tropes are in place, including horny teens, insufferable Brit podcasters, assorted townsfolk and cops.......all them practically wearing PLEASE STAB ME TO DEATH placards around their necks.....

                  Heh, heh, heh......Michael Myers doesn't need to be asked twice...........

                  Other than the guilty pleasure of watching an aging Curtis take futile shotgun blasts at Michael Myers' self-sealing skin, you really start to wonder if any of this was worth all the effort......

                 One or two things did stand out........a striking shot of Myers and his fellow loony-bin inmates positioned across a vast concrete checkerboard...........like something left over from a '60's Michealangelo Antonioni silm.......

                  No doubt the filmmakers loved declaring how cool 'n cutting edge they were by having Michael snap a little kid's neck.......(but later on, he does spare a bawling infant who's just askin' for a carving knife cuddle.......)

                   And we kind of liked the teen actor who made effective use of his limited screen time by blatantly channeling a young Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Good idea, kid, since you're the only one in the supporting cast I can recall for more than 5 seconds.......

                  The rest of it?.......(pause for heavy dramatic, resigned sigh......)   You could probably write it yourself without even seeing it........

                 Since that's what enraged fans want to do now whenever they feel thwarted and dissatisfied by a horror/sci-fi/fantasy project, be my guest. Feel free. As for what's actually here on film.......

2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2) and that's mostly for Jamie Lee Curtis's fully committed work as our favorite monster-battler.......

                   Can't wait for her and David Copperfield to re-make "Terror Train"......maybe this time taking place on a Royal Caribbean food-poisoned cruise ship.........(memo to studios: don't forget to send the royalty checks for that idea to The Beached Quill......)