The Reel Rejects - HALLOWEEN (2018) IS A KILLER RETURN!! MOVIE REACTION!!

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

LAURIE STRODE RETURNS!! Halloween (2018) Full Movie Reaction Watch Along:   / thereelrejects   Go to https://www.HelloFresh.com/REJECTS10FM now to Get 10 Free Meals + a Free Item per box for Life with active subscription! Grab The New TARAfier Tee & Halloween Sweater: https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ HALLOWEEN (1978) Movie Reaction:    • HALLOWEEN (1978) IS SUSPENSEFUL AS HELL!! ...   They've seen the original series & the Rob Zombie reboots... now the Scream Queens RETURN for their Blumhouse's Halloween Reaction, Recap, Commentary, Breakdown, & Spoiler Review! Forty years after John Carpenter’s legendary 1978 classic, Halloween (2018) brings Michael Myers back to Haddonfield in a terrifying reboot/sequel from director David Gordon Green (The Exorcist: Believer, Pineapple Express) and Blumhouse Productions. Ignoring all previous sequels, this entry reconnects directly to the original, with Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis – True Lies, Knives Out) now a hardened survivor preparing for her final confrontation with The Shape. When Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney – Far and Away, Buffy the Vampire Slayer stuntman) escapes custody after a bus transfer crash, he embarks on a brutal killing spree through Haddonfield on Halloween night. Key moments include Michael’s horrifying single-take rampage through suburban homes, Laurie’s booby-trapped house showdown, and the fiery climax that reignited the franchise. The cast also features Judy Greer (Archer, Jurassic World) as Karen Nelson, Laurie’s daughter; Andi Matichak (Assimilate, Son) as Allyson Nelson, her granddaughter; Haluk Bilginer (Winter Sleep, EastEnders) as Dr. Sartain; and Will Patton (Remember the Titans, Armageddon) as Officer Hawkins. With Carpenter returning to provide the chilling score, this Halloween revival blends nostalgia, suspense, and visceral horror for fans new and old. Roxy Striar & Tara Erickson react to, review, and break down the shocking kills, character arcs, and legacy moments that make Halloween (2018) one of the most successful horror reboots of all time. Follow Roxy Striar YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@TheWhirlGirls Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roxystriar/?hl=en Twitter:  https://twitter.com/roxystriar Follow Tara Erickson: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TaraErickson Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/taraerickson/ Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thetaraerickson Intense Suspense by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Apparel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ Follow Us On Socials:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/  Tik-Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@reelrejects?lang=en Twitter: https://x.com/reelrejects Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ Music Used In Ad:  Hat the Jazz by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Happy Alley by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Co-Editor: John Humphrey Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB:  https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG ON INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER:  https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Tara and I monopolize this day of the week because we are the Sheejects. We are the horror horrors. We are the scream queens. And we are ready for Halloween 2018 on the count of three. One, two, three. Get it. Let's go be it. I fucking love that shit

I like that You know what's crazy Tara Is that I'll tell you in a second First I want to say Shout out to Prepper For helping Ed us down I know with these horror movies

It's particularly difficult Especially when we've got as much Blood and Boobies as we do In this franchise If you guys are on Apple Spotify Like comment If you're on YouTube Thumbs up comment

All that good stuff Also at Real Rejects That's where we are on social media we will get to the Patreon questions If you're a patron There's a tier where you can ask us questions And we will get to our top eight Which is exciting

You guys ask really great questions But before we go there Okay just looking really quick at the cast I'll probably pull that up in a little bit Because I feel like there's some people That I was like I know I know you from something But I want to know you how

Yeah Let me come to you, Tara How'd you feel about this? Dude, I loved it Is this your favorite Halloween movie? Yeah I mean, yes. On the franchise, is your favorite?

You know what? Yeah. Like, more than H2O? Yes. H2O was great, but I think this one really got me going. Is it because of the ending? Yes. Okay.

It really is. Like, if I'm trying to think of like, what was all the beginning of H2O, it was good, good acting. I mean, I can't remember every detail. I do remember, you know, when they come face to face, that was cool when she yells for his name, blah, blah, blah. But this is so dope. I mean, the way that, you know, she raised her and when she comes in and she's like, gotcha. It's a nice callback when the daughter says, gotcha, and then she shoots her. And she flips.

Like, she gets into that mode. I think it's because of the end. I really do. Like, that payoff, sick. It was everything I wanted and more. Yeah. I'm super with you. So what's interesting is, so you know, I've seen this before. And I remember walking out of the theater and thinking, I really like that movie. Yeah. I actually kind of remember that about all three of the upcoming, like these three movies. But I didn't have the attachment to it that I do now because we just binged all of them. And to me now, I was like, this movie is phenomenal. And I didn't have the context for this movie. that I had the first time now watching it

knowing even though I know this is only relevant to one but seeing Lori's entire journey through all of them even though they got nixed but just like us living through the pain with her so many times

and then watching what she was able to do here just the it's not a cage it's a trap yeah it's just the brilliance of that and me not remembering about Karen's character like as much as she didn't want to grow up like that. It's what ends up saving her life and her daughter's life. And I was sitting here

thinking to myself, this is the worst. This is so annoying. Like her daughter's there and she's like, I can't do it. I'm thinking to myself, come the F on sack up. Right. Me too. And then to find out it's gotcha. Thank God. What a payoff. Amazing. What a payoff. Unbelievable. And thank goodness, when that daughter grabbed that knife, I was like, hallelujah. And she didn't just go once. She went a few times and then we like yes instinct it's just like finally that was so good it was so good that movie is so good so amazing uh i don't want to spoil too much for you guys but terran i might be having a project come up soon where we might be doing an entire um deeper dive into Halloween and where things possibly go on our list true um and if we are doing that and when we are whatever i'm so

excited to re-talk about this. Yeah, me too. This is like, wow. All right. So let's get to these patron questions. Thanks for pulling that up, Tara. I, one more time for you guys at home who's like, how do we get to ask these? Go to patreon.com slash real rejects. That's where you can submit questions. And let's get to some of these right now. D.K. Lounge. Thank you. D.K. says, do you like the decision to have this be a direct sequel to the original and Rett Conning, Michael and Lori being siblings? Yeah, I'm fine with it. I want you to remember something right now. Do you remember when we started watching the second one? And I was like, their siblings?

I've seen the most recent three. I have no idea. I have no idea. I guess that's why because I guess they weren't. But I remember, I was so confused. Like, what? Wouldn't I have known that? Right.

Wild. No, I think it's smart for them. Well, actually, I guess if they had been siblings here, it wouldn't have made that much of a difference. It really wouldn't have. But I like this just being attached to the first one. I, me too. Absolutely. Thanks for the question, D.K.

Jaden Rhodes, people love this movie. We're included. A lot of people put this high in their ranking, but for me, it's the most overrated one in the franchise. Not the worst one, but it's definitely not a good movie in my opinion. Whoa. I'm curious if you all like this version of Laurie Strode, people say it's played a little over the top.

I happen to agree, and I think that they nailed the PTSD stuff in H2O. Okay, Jaden, I got to give this to you. I don't know if this is my number one. It might be. I don't know, but H2O is amazing. I loved what they did in H2O. Yeah, me too. That being, yeah, we loved that movie.

That being said, I am having a really hard time with the fact that people think that this is over a top version of Lori Strode. What? I didn't feel that way. I didn't feel that way at all. Like, I feel like this is somebody who has been completely traumatized, watched five people die, has a person who's been after, broke out of prison, and comes for her family. Like, what's more dramatic than that?

Exactly. And there's years on her. She's a grandma now, and it makes just complete sense that it's just been so many years. It's weighed on her. So, of course, she's going to have, you know, PTSD. I do like how they, but I am with you, Jaden, you know, how they handled her PTSD. And the other one, remember how she was, like, drinking wine? And she made the guy go away and then slam the wine.

And I was like, oh, those little details, I really like that, that it was. She was drinking wine in this one. She was, but I meant, like, different. They were trying to make it not as obvious as to what she was dealing with. She was trying to hide it from people. In this one, she's not. She's very much like, like, why do you want to dig up this story? Like, you know, like, fuck off to those people, the journalists, because, like, they were asking her dumb questions.

And, like, she's just there being prepped. If I'm giving. Yeah. Yeah, I'm with you. Actually, I'll see the rest of the questions to see if my other point comes up on this. Okay. Real talk, reject nation. As many of you know, this year, I started off at over 218 pounds, over 22% body fat,

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would you have preferred that the story be as it has been for the last 40 years than being them being brother and sister do you like this new direction where they have no connection at all whatsoever but yet they continue to hint that there is some kind of connection between the two of them what are your thoughts so we just kind of address this a little bit um but i i i guess terra let's let's focus on the second part of this, some other kind of connection between the two of them. What do you find that their connection is really here? Well, I'm trying to think of that right now.

It's like spiritual almost, but I think it's because of the babysitter stuff, you know? Yeah, it's because she was the one, she was the last one to really kill him. Not kill him, but like try to kill him almost, is what she thought. And then I

Why did they retcon it, though? Yeah. That part, the brother-sister part, I wonder. Because it did make sense that that's why he would be going after her because he already killed his first sister. He's young and he's like, kill him all type of a deal. And that's my only connection that I can really make is just like she went after him with the freaking, you know, hangar, thought she killed him.

I thought was a good choice. Yeah. Madlove. Thank you, Mad Love. I find this to be the best sequel in the entire franchise. and even believe that they could have ended it here and it would have been a great finale. I agree with that.

I also like the fact that it could have been a great finale. I also like the writers decided to retcon the sibling connection as John Carpenter hated that he wrote that into his sequel. He did. Where's the film as of now fall in your ranking? We'll talk more official rankings later on, but I think pretty high for both of us. Pretty high.

I didn't know John Carpenter hated that. That's a really good reason to retcon something. Yeah, and he's a co-writer on this. So he was like, nah. He's like, nope, skip it. Okay. Austin, thank you, Austin. I'm assuming you figured out this only includes Halloween in 1979 in this timeline,

so I wanted to ask you, which movie do you like the most between all the movies? Number one, wanting to kill his family, basically every movie besides the modern ones. Number two, the whole curse of Thorne, Phil, trilogy of him being controlled. Number three, no motive and pure evil. Number three. You like no motive and pure evil? I know that there's five timelines. we looked into this a little bit.

I do like this timeline a lot, but I don't think we can fully answer that until the next two movies. I agree, because I like the number one wanting to kill his family, but now that I know they reconded it, I'm like, you know, she's not a sister. My assumption is we will find out

maybe more of a motive in the other ones. I don't know, but there are... Not number two. Not number... But there are people who have zero motive and are pure evil serial killers, so that bug, bug, me that much. James Hattnery the second. Thank you, James. Now that you are here,

yes, we are. How do you feel about the franchise as a whole being so connected and also disconnect at the same time? For example, this final timeline comes after Halloween, 1978, retconning all the murders and other films. Do you think these plot changes help or hurt the franchise going forward to the last two films? I don't think it hurts it because, I mean, they're setting up what they want to continue for the next two movies, so they're going to have to stay true to that. And obviously, the other movies, which followed that she was his sister, a lot of them, not that great.

So I don't mind that they switched it up because I love this movie. And there was quite a few in there where I was like, don't like it. There are some storylines that I wish that we were able to go back and develop more, like Josh Hartnett stuff. Right. I'm bummed to miss out on some certain things. But in general, I do think this makes it more accessible for audiences as well. Well, I think so, too.

Okay. Yeah. Leon 03. Thank you, Leon. This franchise is a very bad habit of, always starting a new sequel timeline with a very good, strong movie, H2, H2, H2, H2, H2-O, remake, remake, remake, remake, and you all predict that this trend will continue on this new timeline. I've seen these movies, so I can't predict. I actually don't remember what happens in the next two. I think I remember liking them, though,

but I think that the most recent one, I remember having a lot of more issues with, if I remember correctly. Okay. I think that this is the movie that people always quote this line, evil dies tonight. I think that most recent one is where they quote that where it was like, what the hell is happening here?

But we'll see when we get there. I hope that they won't continue on that trend, but they will continue on this trend, that it's original Halloween, this movie. And then the rest will follow that, leaving all the others left out in the wind. Okay, we're taking one more from Stoned Trunks. Thank you, Stone Trunks. Here we go, Stone Trunks.

Hi, Ishijex. Obviously, I haven't seen the vid yet, but I'm guessing you guys made a lot of comparisons to H2O. What with this being commonly referred to as H40 by fans? Oh, that's cool. I wanted to know if y'all preferred both in terms. of the movie itself and the characterizations of Lori and both Laura was haunted

but still trying to lead in normal life in H2O versus Lori being a shut-in who trained herself Sarah Connor style in age 40 love the reactions as always

thanks for the question stone trunks yeah I mean H2O is the one we referenced the most in H40 we seem to be obsessed with so I think there's a lot

of comparisons totally I mean they're both really high up there like I love them yeah so much fun great writing, you know, people grabbed a weapon. They did the right thing, and I like that.

Correct me wrong, but that's our new thing is that we only answer the first eight, right? Yeah, you can do nine if we have, it's 813, so we could probably do one more, and then we got a rock and roll. You're okay, do one more? Yeah. Okay, here we go. Last one, actually, last time I was fibbing, this time I'm not. R.C. Flores, I really like Halloween 2018. This is one of the longest running horror franchises spanning five different decades.

Holy shit. Wow, yeah. Late 70s through early 2020s. Overall, do you think the franchise has done a good job of keeping up times and appealing to new generations of slasher fans? Tara, what do you think? I do, except for some of the reactions that obviously we watch, you can go check them out. I can't remember the numbers that I was like, this is a terrible movie.

But in general, this movie for me, total revival of the whole thing, of the reason why everybody loves the OG Halloween. We bring it back. I'm all about it. And obviously H2O also did a really great job at that. But then they went in other directions after. It wasn't very great. But this is a really nice, like, rebirth to the franchise,

and I'm totally down for it. The more I'm remembering the other movies, the more I remember I think I had some issues. I'm kind of nervous about going into them. But we will see. I think that this movie did a great job of keeping up with the times and generations and making it easier.

I love that people call it H-40. That makes a lot of sense to me. And I think it's really hard to span over decades. And I think that there is one reason that this works. And I don't think it would have worked without this one reason. And that reason is Jamie. Because without getting Jamie back for this, there would have been no reason to do a Halloween sequel.

Agreed. If we didn't have her, why would we do this? Skip it. So I think she spans the test of time as a final girl. Like she is just so strong. she's the strongest part of the franchise and while we miss Loomis to me this has always been a Laurie

franchise so I'm happy that she's the reason why this is working yeah me too and I know that the other one said you know she's a shut in and this one the other one she was dealing with her PTSD but in a better way and I like seeing both of the sides and seeing those both of the sides

of what Lori could have turned out as and having this being a part of her life that they're both in good movies that we enjoy very much. Agreed, agreed, agreed. So happy that we love this one. What a fun Halloween movie.

Can't wait to watch the next two with you. Any final thoughts for the people to hear? No, man, I loved it. What a good time. Great ending. We'll see you guys soon. Later, Rejects.