Halloween Kills Quicktake: Creepy, Disjointed, & Brutally Violent
Horror movie franchises have a track record of overstaying their welcome. Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Child’s Play were exciting at first, but studios kept producing half-ass sequels until fans soured on each series.
Jason Voorhees started off as a backwoods serial killer with a pillowcase on his head. The series’ tenth installment had him killing people in outer space. Could anyone with an ounce of respect for the franchise sign off on an idea like that? No way in hell.
Halloween 2018 is the best-case scenario for a series reimagining. The film was produced by a talented creative team which gave a damn about resurrecting the franchise.
Writer-director David Gordon Green and co-writers Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley revitalized the franchise through sheer force of will. They embraced the series most vital elements while trimming out the chaff tacked on by many lacklustre sequels.
The result was an exhilarating love letter to Halloween, a film that captured the essence of the series while updating it for a new generation of moviegoers. Halloween 2018 is a lean, mean, slasher flick that doesn’t waste a single minute of screen time.
Unfortunately, Halloween Kills feels like a whole other animal. It’s hard to fathom how the creative team who made Halloween 2018 also produced what amounts to a meandering series placeholder.
Halloween Kills doesn’t come anywhere close to capturing the visceral thrills of Halloween 2018. It doesn’t bother bringing anything new to the table, either. I won’t call it a step backwards, but this sequel exists to tread water until the next film arrives to close out the trilogy.
Halloween Kills starts right where the last film ends, with Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) trapped like a rat in Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) panic room as the house burns down around him. Laurie is bleeding out from her encounter with Michael and being rushed to the hospital by her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak).
“Halloween 2018 is the best-case scenario for a series reimagining.”
It’s no spoiler to say Michael Myers escapes the fiery deathtrap and continues his Halloween rampage. When news of his survival reaches the people of Haddonfield, they take matters into their own hands. The townsfolk form an angry mob and head off into the night to end Michael Myers’ reign of terror. Things go badly.
This is a Halloween movie, so you know the music and cinematography are on point. The series once again makes terrific use of John Carpenter’s original score, expanding on it with bloodcurdling new riffs and melodies.
Cinematographer Michael Simmonds transforms Haddonfield into a Halloween wonderland. In this eerie town, thick otherworldly fog drifts through the empty roads and streetlamps cast down lonely islands of golden light into a sea of jet-black shadows.
Halloween 2018 is a tight, revenge story centering on the Strode family. Halloween Kills isn’t as streamlined. The film sidelines Laurie to spend time with Haddonfield’s residents – at least until Michael Myers shows up and takes them out.
The movie unfolds through a series of random encounters rather than one cohesive story pitting the hero against the villain. There’s no mounting suspense or tension throughout the film. Whereas the last movie built up to a climactic showdown with the Strode women, Halloween Kills plays like a collection of violent scenes featuring people we don’t care about.
“This is a Halloween movie, so you know the music and cinematography are on point.”
If you want to see kills, though, this movie delivers on its promise. Michael Myers racks up a body count for the ages. So many bodies piled up early on that I lost count twenty minutes in. Gorehounds should have a blast with this one because Green embraces the film’s R-rating.
Michael Myers must have developed an artistic streak between movies because he now kills people with a lot more flair. He stabs one victim with every knife in his kitchen, leaving him splayed on the counter looking like the world’s most fu<ked up porcupine.
The camera often holds tight on the most depraved acts of violence. I get a kick out exaggerated violence in horror movies, but even I found myself flinching in my seat. The brutal, twisted kills are so cartoonishly over-the-top they become morbidly fun.
Halloween 2018 is an exceptional slasher flick that stands out for its thoughtful examination of horror tropes. Green explores the nature of trauma and anxiety and forces viewers to consider the cost of what we’re watching. We’re not allowed to forget that Laurie’s 40 years of PTSD exist because of the audience’s bloodlust.
Halloween Kills also tackles some intriguing themes, but Green’s interrogation feels disjointed this time around. After George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter protests throughout 2020, Halloween Kills takes on new subtext. After seeing too many videos of innocent black men shot in the back or choked out by cops, the film transforms into a commentary on unassailable whiteness.
“Michael Myers racks up a body count for the ages.”
Watching Halloween Kills made me consider how long Michael Myers’ reign of terror would last if he were a black man? Early on, we see this actual white devil flanked by armed police in the middle of his murderous rampage. The fact no one dares hit him with a fatal shot speaks volumes.
The film also explores the toxic sense of entitlement eating away at the country right now. Green digs into the notion of privilege and entitlement on a number of fronts. After all, who discovers a legendary murderer lurking in their house and decides to deal with him themselves? A white couple in Halloween Kills, that’s who. How violated do you have to feel to chase a killer upstairs into the darkness rather than run outside until the cops arrive?
Every day I turn on the news and it feels like we’re in the upside down. I see morons at city council meetings telling educators and scholars what to teach. I see knuckle draggers protesting outside hospitals, telling doctors what medicine to prescribe.
In Halloween Kills, we watch a riled-up community take the law into their own hands. Their fury speaks to their lack of faith in institutions dedicated to protecting them. How timely.
Halloween Kills is a middle-of-the-road sequel that’s still superior to most entries in the forty-three-year-old franchise. Halloween 2018 left me feeling like this series could do no wrong, but now I have my doubts about whether the creative team can land this plane. They may land it, or they might crash and burn, either way; I’m sticking around for the ride.
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