Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Judie Greer and Andi Matichak Halloween Kills is a direct continuation of 2018’s Halloween. It follows on immediately after the climax of the previous film with Laurie (Curtis), Karen (Greer) and Allyson (Matichak) having torched their home to finally kill Michael Myers (Nick Castle). Unfortunately, fate has other plans. An incredibly on-point team of firefighters arrives at the blaze and before you can say bullshit Michael makes it out of his supposed death and then goes about killing all the firefighters.
Meanwhile, at a bar in Haddonfield, a large group of survivors of Michael’s original killing spree come together to raise a glass to their survival. When the news hits that Michael has escaped and is running amok once more in Haddonfield the citizens decide enough is enough, they have to kill Michael.
Evil must die
The stage is set, 2018’s Halloween was a lot of fun with interesting set pieces and a more human yet more terrifying Michael Myers and this time around the whole gang are here. What could possibly go wrong? Well, I’m here to tell you a surprisingly large amount.
While Halloween brought the franchise back to its roots with a human antagonist with some grotesque moments scattered throughout, Halloween Kills ramps up everything to eleven. For example, Michael’s opening performance is him easily killing a whole team of firefighters. This team consists of half a dozen well-armed and large men who are easily ripped apart by a man in his early 60s. This one scene lets you know how powerful Michael is in this iteration. It’s strange because this film is set about 20 minutes after the climax of the last film and yet this is a more superhuman Michael Myers.
The horror is nowhere near as scary as the previous film but the gore is brutal, nastily so in my opinion. I’ve never seen a guy get a butcher’s knife in his eye. It is quite an eye-opening experience. To match this brutality is a cartoonish group of civilians who want to hunt down Michael for what he’s done to the town. It’s fascinating to see the returning cast members from the original films now several decades older. You have a survivors group who want to kill Michael and they are a gaggle of cartoonish fools and how Michael deals with them is equal parts hilarious and horrific.
He transcends
The film doesn’t work and this is due to how poorly everyone is written. Their dialogue is so surface level that there is no depth behind any of these characters. Michael is honestly the most interesting character and when the story deviates from him to introduce us to his upcoming victims I found myself bored.
Halloween Kills is an okay horror. Seeing Michael Myers return once more was great, unfortunately, the rest of the cast didn’t live up to the heights of the previous film. Jamie Lee Curtis was also sadly relegated to that exposition character that every horror must-have. This was a huge step down since she was so brilliant in Halloween. Was this a trick or treat? Definitely, a trick if you ask me.
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