Picking up where Halloween (2018) ends, Michael continues to terrorize Haddonfield. This time, the town isn’t going to take it sitting down.
**CONTENT WARNING: Violence, death, disturbing images**
Synopsis
Despite the elaborate trap set for Michael in the end of the previous film, Michael survives and continues his path of slaughter. Several of his original victims team up to put an end to him once and for all, rallying the whole town to help.
Context
This movie is a sequel to Halloween (2018), which erased all other continuities except Halloween (1978). We pick up the same night as 2018, while also incorporating flashbacks that expound on the events in 1978.
Overview
Having just watched the entire series and reviewed it as a whole, this movie is definitely on the higher end of the spectrum, though Halloween (2018) is ultimately the stronger film. There’s a lot to like about this one, and the quality is solid, but there are also a few unfortunate missteps. Is it worth watching? Sure! But don’t expect perfection.
**Spoilers below**
What Works
What’s the single most important thing to get right in a horror movie? The horror. Halloween Kills did a good job in this arena, with tension building atmosphere followed by gruesome deaths.
The scale of this one is grander than the others by bringing in large crowds. This also provides plenty of fodder for Michael’s massacre. No one is safe, including some of the main characters from 2018.
With the giant mob comes another dangerous factor—erroneous killing of innocents. This has been touched on in previous films, namely Halloween II (1981) and Halloween 4 (1988), but this time it was considerably more dramatic and a major part of the plot.
This being the 40 year mark of the original attack, four of Michael’s past victims, not including Laurie, return in this: Laurie’s babysitting wards Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) and Lindsay Wallace (Kyle Richards), Tommy’s former bully Lonnie Elam (Robert Longstreet), and Dr. Loomis’ assistant Marion (Nancy Stephens). The cool thing is that Lindsey and Marion are portrayed by their original actors, as is Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cyphers). Another fun fact, while not the original actor, this is the fourth actor to portray Tommy Doyle, with the first three being Brian Andrews, Paul Rudd, and Skyler Gisondo. The kicker here is that Anthony Michael Hall and Skyler Gisondo each happened to also play Griswold sons in two iterations of Vacation. Robert Longstreet has become a horror staple these days, though this may be the first time I’ve seen him outside of a Mike Flanagan production.
There are also some interesting new characters to show up this time around, most notably two couples, Vanessa (Carmela McNeal) & Marcus (Michael Smallwood) and Big John (Scott MacArthur) & Little John (Michael McDonald). Vanessa and Marcus are introduced wearing costumes of a sexy nurse and a doctor, respectively. At one point, Marcus cares so much about his stethoscope that he goes back to a bar to retrieve it, despite it seeming to be a prop for what is obviously a costume. This is explained later when Vanessa reveals that in actuality, she is a doctor and he is a nurse. What a fun little twist, and a play on gender norms. This couple further challenges those norms when Marcus complains that he doesn’t know how to use a gun, to which Vanessa declares she does and snatches the pistol.
Big John and Little John are the first gay couple of the franchise. I like both actors, especially Scott MacArthur from his role in The Mick, so it was fun seeing them as the new occupants of the Myers house. Also, that charcuterie board Little John whips up looks amazing.
And of course, as always, Jamie Lee Curtis is awesome, accompanied by the amazing Judy Greer.
I don’t know what magic they used to recreate Dr. Loomis in the past, but that was utter perfection. He looks exactly like Donald Pleasance here!
In Halloween (2018), we catch the briefest glimpse of three trick-or-treaters wearing the skeleton, pumpkin, and witch masks from Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). Here, those trick-or-treaters become actual recurring characters throughout the film. One falls victim to Michael, and the others abandon their masks as they flee, allowing Michael to set up a display of his three most recent victims donning the three masks. While Season of the Witch is among the most hated of the franchise, the reference is enjoyable and the shots of the victims look great.
There’s one particular plot point I’m so glad they addressed in this. By retconning everything past 1978, Laurie is no longer Michael’s sister. When viewing 1978 through this lens, Michael actually doesn’t target Laurie. He stalks her a bit early on, most likely because she’s the first person he sees through his window. But then he spins off to trail Tommy for a while before ultimately going across the street from Tommy’s house, where he kills his three major victims of that night. He really only attacks Laurie because she enters that house and finds him there. Then in 2018, Michael doesn’t beeline for Laurie upon his escape. Instead, Laurie actually hunts him down at first. Eventually Michael does end up at Laurie’s house, but only because Dr. Sartain brings him there. I did question whether Michael even remembered Laurie or cared about finishing her off, but rolled with it since everyone kept claiming it to be true. In Kills, though, they finally piece together the fact that Michael truly has no vested interest in Laurie specifically. She just keeps getting in his way.
What Fails
While the incorporation of the giant crowd is interesting, it also causes an unfortunate side effect. With such a large ensemble cast, we lose a lot of screen time with the characters who are intended to be important. Where 2018 heavily features Laurie’s family, they only show up in bits and pieces here, making it less personal. We get these intriguing new characters and the return of all these older characters, but most of them only appear in a couple of scenes before getting killed off. It could have spent more time with these various characters before purging them from the story.
As much as I like how sadly things play out with the other escaped inmate (Ross Bacon) who is mistaken for Michael by the mob, I kept expecting a twist where Karen puts all this effort into protecting him, only for him to turn and kill someone, maybe even her. The thing is, he might not be Michael Myers, but he’s still an escaped inmate from a high security criminal asylum. How do we know for sure that he’s harmless?
I’m glad Office Hawkins (Will Patton) survived the last film, and I feel bad that he’s been harboring this guilt for 40 years. But does he genuinely think that killing Michael back then would have actually kept him in the grave? Not a chance!
Speaking of, these people really need to consider more permanent solutions to ending Michael. How about decapitation or explosion, something he couldn’t possibly come back from (assuming they don’t kill the wrong person by accident *cough Resurrection cough*)? All this stabbing, shooting, and bludgeoning is clearly getting them nowhere. Why do they think this is going to work now when it hasn’t work any other time they’ve tried those things?
Conclusion
Complaints aside, I did generally enjoy this movie. It’s one of the higher films in the franchise, largely due to its cast and quality horror. There are some missed opportunities and disappointing moments, but nothing outrageously bad. Mostly I’m looking forward to the final movie in this particular trilogy to round out the series.
Score: 7/10
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