Universal Pictures
Fans have been waiting three years for the sequel to 2018’s Halloween, forced to endure an additional year’s wait thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, and then Universal made the surprise announcement that the film would be released day-and-date to its streaming service Peacock. That does not inspire a lot of confidence in a film that they probably consider ‘critic proof’. (And they even held critics at bay, promising a screening link early in the week then not sending it until midnight opening day.) So, does Universal have something to worry about, especially considering they committed to make this iteration of the franchise a trilogy with a third (and final?) film due next October?
Halloween Kills begins just minutes after the end of Halloween. It’s still 2018 in their world and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), he daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) believe they have finally succeeded in killing Michael Myers. But Laurie has been stabbed and they are on the way to the hospital as her house burns to the ground with Michael trapped inside. At the same time, Cameron (Dylan Arnold), discovers the severely injured body of Officer Hawkins (Will Patton), and manages to get help to get him to the hospital as well. The film then flashes back to 1978 when Hawkins was a new police officer facing off against Michael Myers, and a tragic accident left one of his brothers dead while another helped cover up the truth. Hawkins has carried this guilt for 40 years so he’s intent on taking Michael out.
The town of Haddonfield, though, doesn’t seem to know what’s been going on but Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) reminds a bar full of people what happened that night in 1978, and then the news breaks about all the mayhem and he immediately knows that Michael Myers is back. This time, though, the entire town is riled up enough to put an end to his reign of terror as they take to the streets chanting ‘evil dies tonight’. It’s really a very cool concept but … maybe that should have been saved for the last chapter because you can’t kill your villain in the middle movie of a trilogy.
Universal Pictures
And therein lies the major problem with Halloween Kills. We know there’s a third movie, so we know evil won’t die tonight. Sadly, the film just ends up being an excuse to kill off a massive number of townspeople while the ‘hero’ of the film, Laurie, spends the entire running time stuck in the hospital with Hawkins, both of them stitched up and really unable to participate. On the plus side, there are some fan-service cameos from the 1978 film including Kyle Richards (Lindsey), Charles Cyphers (Brackett) and Nancy Stephens (Marion), and the re-appearance of the Tommy Doyle and Lonnie Elam characters (played by different actors), anda very intense mob justice scene set inside the hospital where they believe they have Michael Myers cornered. There’s even a pretty neat flashback ‘cameo’ from one of the original 1978 cast members who is long dead (played by a look-alike or someone augmented with make-up or CGI, but it is uncanny).
But the film, while it has some really good moments and concepts, ultimately made me a bit angry. I don’t like the way these films have turned Michael into just an unrelenting killing machine with no purpose other than to kill. Yes, the film does attempt to give him some purpose for returning to Haddonfield, but there is just senseless killing along the way. Why does Michael just wander into strangers’ homes to kill them? The murder of a couple early in the film just left a bad taste in my mouth because it was unnecessary to the story. And, sadly, the film also has to follow the usual slasher film tropes where smart people do stupid things just to keep the killer alive until the end of the movie, or in this case until the third film. If you get the upper hand on a killer and you have a chance to take him out, don’t jab him once and throw away the weapon … especially if you’ve already spent half the night trying to kill him. There are a couple of scenes that are really egregious when entire crowds of people seem to just line up one-by-one to be slaughtered instead of all ganging up on Michael at the same time. But, of course, if they did that then there’d be no Halloween Ends next October.
So, I have very mixed feelings about Halloween Kills. There are some really good things here, especially in how it all flashes back to 1978 and builds a story for Hawkins. On the other hand, Hawkins’ story now pretty much retcons the entire throughline of the franchise that Michael Myers is coming back to kill Laurie. The familiar faces are good to see, I like how the story just jumps right back into things (so if you haven’t seen the 2018 film recently or at all, you really need to), and the angry hospital mob scene was very intense. But then you get back to smart people doing stupid things and that takes it all down a notch. I gave the 2018 film a three star review, but I can’t do that with this one because it truly does suffer from ‘Second Chapter Syndrome’. Perhaps once the third film is released we’ll look back on Halloween Kills and re-evaluate it once the story is complete. Honestly, The Empire Strikes Back was met with the same reaction because of its ambiguous ending, but now it’s regarded as the best film of the series. That may be a little much to hope for Halloween Kills, but once the story is complete we may at least be able to appreciate where this chapter is taking us.
Halloween Kills has a run time of 1 hour 46 minutes and is rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, grisly images, language and some drug use.
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