This is a review for the Standard 2D screening of Halloween Kills.
Miichael Myers returns as brutal as ever, in this nostalgia-trip filled Horror slasher sequel!
Summary
This movie continues directly after Halloween (2018). It’s great when a sequel can pick up right after, instead of some time later. The movie does re-introduce us to the rest of the original characters from Halloween (1978). The canon movies to watch are Halloween (1978) and Halloween (2018). The filmakers have scrapped what happens in the rest of the movies storyline as Laurie is no longer Michael Myers sister like the story of Halloween 2 (1981) and is instead his babysitter still.
Review
Firstly, the original characters: Lonnie (Robert Longstreet), Tommy (Anthony Michael Hall) , Lindsey (Kyle Richards) and Marion (Nancy Stephens) are all in a bar, they are reminiscing about what the antagonist Michael Myers had taken from them, it’s chilling! Their flashbacks to 1978 are a great addition to the movie to build up empathy for the characters; this focuses on their traumas caused by The Shape.
We’re finally back to seeing the Strode family Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), Karen (Judy Greer) and Allyson (Andi Matichak). whom are still in total shock following the previous movies events, you can feel the anxiety and fear leaking through the screen and they are giving off the impression in some parts a sense of relief where they thought that Michael Myers is gone for good!
The Shape returns
The daunting and callous Michael Myers was trapped, until the Firefighters show up and they accidentally unleash evil itself, right out of the burning blazes! Brutal scope of Michael Myers wreaks havoc upon them all, it’s incredible how Myers does not hold back against so many! The cinematography looks amazing with orange/yellow fire, pouring water from the gutters and against the dark emotionless shape of Michael. Cold and menacing!
Strode Family
The relationship between the Strode family characters and the rest of the town consist of everyone being frustrated with eachother that they cannot seem to stop The Shape from causing so much pain and horrorific acts upon their loved ones and the town to the anger that they are putting themselves in harms way to hopefully defeat Michael.
Throughout the film, Tommy driving the side plot of the movie until this eventually comes together for the final parts of the movie. Tommy was a big part of bringing: courage, fear and anxiety upon the town. This is very stirring to the story however and leads into what will be discussed next.
Themes
The theme to this movie seems to be about self-reflection and there’s a brief confusing moment where Laurie and Officer Hawkins (Will Patton) very briefly try to delve into the psychology of Michael Myers and why he is like this. It feels oddly out of place as if this moment was an add-on to get the movie moving forward except fails to really explain this. However, this makes a great attempt to connect with how the town begins to act like a mob and cause panic and chaos which is supposed to parallel what Michael has been able to do.
Compared to the 2018 movie, this did become heavily focused on the past, to drive the plot. However, this did make way for some of the best nostalgic vibes where we see flashback scenes to a version of the 1978 story of events.
There were some comedic moments in the movie which lightened the mood and this slightly took a breather from how dark the rest of the storyline is. The characters Big John (Scott MacArthur) and Little John (Michael McDonald) were hilarious and the lines did get instantly cheesy when Little John said “Michael, You have come home!” this brought out that 70s/80s pop culture horror movie vibes to the big screen again.
Visuals
The movie is very high quality in terms of practical effects and makeup. It’s brilliant how they brought a particular character (Doctor Loomis) using a body double and voice actor back instead of depending on CGI and deepfakes for this. They pulled this off extremely well and was on par almost with the late great Donald Pleasence appearance respectfully.
Music
In terms of music, John Carpenter alongside Cody Carpenter are back as epic as ever with their iconic music scores and new tracks. Each part of the film is filled with awesomely placed chilling pieces to match the pace perfectly and build up suspense just before Michael comes for those victims.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the killing sequences were done really well, action packed to leave you on the edge of your seat in shock. The flasbacks made for some interesting nostalgic vibes. Some parts of the movie were mediocre and other moments were predictable in terms of who the forgettable throwaway characters would be. The movie definitely justifies the rating with how gory and violent the film is.
The ending to the movie was not very satisfying and also disappointing, to have character conclusions rushed at the very last moment. The final act should have been kept for the Halloween Ends movie.
The lack of Laurie showing up much was clearly to set up her larger involvement in the next film to come.
It was definitely worth watching and would watch again. Hopefully the next movie will have a more satisfying ending and not repeat the same mistakes that this movie has.
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