Halloween Kills
UNIVERSALIf David Gordon Green’s 2018 reboot of Halloween felt like The Force Awakens of the Halloween franchise, then its sequel, Halloween Kills is akin to The Last Jedi of its new trilogy. Does it mean that Halloween Ends could be as universally panned as The Rise of Skywalker? Time will tell, but Halloween Kills is definitely the most subversive entry of the franchise by far, throwing any pre-conceived expectations fans or critics had out of the window in a devilishly fun midnight madness picture fueled with some of the series’ most vicious kills and better performances.
Series veteran Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode, but takes a surprising backseat in Halloween Kills. Writer/director Gordon Green alongside co-writers Scott Teems and Danny McBride focus instead on the citizens of Haddonfield who want to take matters into their own hands to eliminate The Shape AKA Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) once and for all. The film picks up right after 2018’s Halloween left off, with Myers surviving the fire that destroyed Laurie’s house and murdering every single firefighter who came to extinguish it; the Horror icon brutally shredding every firefighter only establishes what will come in some of the most brutal Halloween action since Rob Zombie’s Halloween II. It may not have the same aesthetic prowess of Zombie’s 16mm photography, but the choreography here is superb. Every brutal kill is designed to make an audience member squeal or be surprised, at just the right moment, and get an incredible cathartic release whenever Myers sprints to tackle a character or straight up use his quick-wit to topple a citizen to his advantage.
Unfortunately for Laurie, nothing will stop Myers from getting into Halloween Memorial Hospital (a Halloween II can’t be done without a hospital it seems) to kill her. Unless returning characters Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards), Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens) and Lonnie Elam (Robert Longstreet) mobilise Haddonfield to defeat Myers, who is getting more and more violent or angry.
Green and cinematographer Michael Simmonds represent Myers’ angst and fury through visually exciting set-pieces that celebrates the best of John Carpenter’s classic aesthetics in the 1978 original. Whether it’s first person-shots through a firefighter mask as they enter Strode’s house, which only amplifies the tension present inside, or an aggressively shaky camera during close encounters with The Shape, there’s never a dull moment in Halloween Kills’ action and representation of Myers’ drive to inflict pain and evil amongst everyone he touches. The audience is consistently on their toes – never once having a moment to breathe, since Myers could be anywhere, at anytime, lurking in the black of night.
Some may call the film “idiotic” as “the franchise is running on fumes,” which is valid, since there’s only so much that can be done with Myers before it becomes tedious, but there is nothing idiotic about a purely self-aware slasher that augments its body count with some of the most ridiculous and over-the-top kills of the Halloween franchise yet. When the writer’s room runs out of ideas, jump the shark, and Halloween Kills more than does that on many occasions.
The kills are so exuberant in their ridiculousness that it becomes very hard not to find this film insanely fun. As John and Cody Carpenter (+ Daniel Davies)’s score starts to shrill louder during its kills through variations of familiar franchise themes, one can get hypnotised in an instant at the way Gordon Green et al. have meticulously crafted every single aspect of a kill to make audience members either squeal, cringe, or, even better, cheer at Myers who is getting better with age at finding gorier ways to kill his victims. As the body count grows, the violence starts to become more elaborate. And audiences who are looking for a film that won’t require much thinking and truly deliver on the word KILLS from its title will more than be satisfied.
It’s when the film starts to get political through a haphazard commentary on mob mentality that it progressively starts to lose its steam, especially during a scene where Doyle and company take over Haddonfield Hospital and chant “Evil Dies Tonight!” It references lots of past events from the first Halloween as a catalyst for their mob-like activities and a reason for their angst, but it doesn’t come across as being a poignant political subtext or a commentary on mob mentality, it’s just there for the sake of being there, and once the sequence is over, it never gets mentioned again. Even worse, if the filmmakers had cut the sequence from the film entirely, it wouldn’t have made a difference, since Doyle eventually tracks Myers outside of the hospital and none of it particularly changes any of the characters’ arc.
It is a shame, since Anthony Michael Hall is excellent as Doyle and gives one of the very best performances of his career. He’s one of the best parts of the ensemble and completely revels in playing an emotionally traumatic individual who fuels his violent act against Myers through that trauma that has haunted him for the past forty years. Nevertheless, the most interesting exploration of generational trauma here isn’t in Jamie Lee Curtis, who does make the most of her limited screen time, but in Andi Matichak’s Allyson whose character becomes more confident and mature compared to the last film. Matichak utilises Allyson’s past trauma to bring out the best in her, finally realising that the person her grandmother has feared all her life indeed exists makes her able to want to help with Tommy in tracking Myers and killing him – even if she’s unsuccessful.
In the first film, Matichak’s Allyson is legitimately afraid of Myers. Now she wants to finish the job herself and not let her anxiety take the better of her. It’s terrific character growth, and one could hope that she becomes the ultimate final girl in the next film, as it looks like the baton will be passed from Laurie to Allyson. Generational trauma has become a recurring theme in the Halloween franchise, and the series should have more to offer, but when it’s done this well – and with two great actors to boot – it doesn’t really matter. Some of the returning stars craft a sufficient turn, particularly Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, but since their screen time is so limited and their returns used in subversive ways they do not make that much of an impact compared to Michael Hall and Matichak, who should’ve been top billed.
It’s no secret that Halloween Kills is radically different from anything that has come before it in context of its own roots—for better or worse. Some will laud at the film’s no-nonsense approach to deliver the most cathartic and entertaining array of kills possible, with little to no care on plot, while others will hate the film’s subversive nature and its badly placed commentary on mob mentality. In reality, Halloween Kills is a purely fun midnight slasher picture that will become a future cult classic if audiences seek the film out on the biggest screen possible, ready to witness another round of Haddonfield v. The Shape, while expecting nothing more, resulting in an emotionally satisfying ride that’ll produce one hell of a cathartic release as soon as the credits roll.