Halloween Kills - Theatrical Review

With the previous movie, Michael Myers spent his life after the first film in a mental institution until his deranged doctor Sartain busted him out and he went on a killing spree again. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode went from a shy bookworm student into a mean killing machine akin to Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. She and her family lived a life that was meant to kill Michael Myers if the day ever came. Well, that day came in the previous film that had its ending leaving Myers in a fiery basement meeting his ultimate death. 

Halloween Kills picks up right after this and of course, Myers survives and turns into John Wick and brutally murders a dozen people right off the bat with any weapon he can get his hands on. Across town at a Haddonfield bar, the locales are dressed up for the titular holiday when Tommy Doyle - the kid being babysat by Laurie in the original film - gets on stage, now an older man played Anthony Michael Hall and tells the bar full of patrons about that fateful night in 1978. With him are some of the other characters from that first film to drink their sorrows and honor the fallen. Soon enough, news breaks out of Myers' return which lands Laurie in the hospital, similar to the original but removed from canon Halloween II. The difference here is now the older Tommy Doyle and his pals team up in a mad mob with other townsfolk to hunt Myers and kill him once and for all. "Evil Dies Tonight" is a persistent theme.

Laurie and Myers never come face to face this time around. Green is obviously saving this for his final film which has already been shot and has a release date of one year from now. What this film tries to do, is show the negative and evil effect that Myers has had on the town, turning everyone into angry animals who are hellbent on killing out of fear. The trouble is that it's delivered in such a horrible fashion that this whole plot point is laughable and beyond cheesy. The dialogue is straight slapstick with lines such as "He's an apex predator", or "Evil Dies Tonight" constantly being said. It's beyond dumb. Additionally, even if Green's artistic eye captures some terrifying moments with Myers, the editing of this film is just wonky and misguided.

The only saving grace here is how ruthless, mean, and salty Michael Myers is this time around. He takes pleasure in his killing, resorting to some impressive and creative murders that just ooze blood, brains, guts, and gore. For those who are looking for that old, simple stalker to peak around bushes and trees to terrify the victims with a stab here and there - this is not that rodeo. Halloween Kills is a full-on buzzsaw eye-gouge, stab someone twenty times type of slasher here and it never lets up. 

Ultimately, Halloween Kills is mostly filler until everyone gets that final showdown between the two that started it all over forty years ago. Carpenter's new score is phenomenal and adds some new, modern notes to the iconic original score and a few winks and nods to the original film as well as Halloween III are added in for fans of the franchise. And the fact that Green had two characters watching Minnie and Moskowitz on television just made everything better here. Halloween Kills is a bloody good time despite its notable flaws. Ultimately how well this entry works or is remembered will depend entirely on Halloween Ends next year. Recommended! 

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