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Halloween Kills (contains some spoilers)


The new Halloween film was just released, both in cinemas and streaming on Peacock. I have Peacock so I was able to watch it for free. I'm very happy about that, because this movie would not have been worth the $20+ fee at a movie theatre. 




The film takes place on the same night as the 2018 film, and picks up where the other one left off. An injured Laurie, her daughter Karen and granddaughter Allyson are being rushed to the hospital after having trapped Michael in the basement of Laurie's house and setting it on fire. Firemen rush to put out the blaze, but Michael is still alive and escapes. Meanwhile at a bar in town, the locals are celebrating Halloween, including a grown up Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) and Lindsay (the kids that Laurie babysat in the 78 original), Lonnie (the kid who got scared away from the Myers house by Dr. Loomis), and Marion (the nurse who was attacked in the car with Loomis but survived). When news gets around that Myers is still alive and on the loose, Tommy organizes a mob to hunt down Michael and kill him once and for all. 




The problem with the film is that it quickly degenerates into a chaotic mess. They had the elements to give us a good story (the returning characters from the original and references, including the Silver Shamrock masks from Halloween III, taking place on the same night, etc), but the plot starts to go all over the place, making it tonally scattered. The townspeople building up into a frenzied mob was a bit much, especially after they target a short, stubby man who they think is Myers, despite physically looking nothing like him. I know that most people probably never saw him, but considering he's become a legend in Haddonfield, you'd think they'd have a general idea of his appearance (a guy in a white mask), including Tommy, who actually did see him. All the characters make a bunch of very stupid decisions ("there's strength in numbers!") and then they all go looking for/after Myers alone or one at a time. And while some of the kills are decent, some of just ridiculous. When the firefighters get to the burning house, one of them spots Michael emerging from it. There are at least 6 - 7 firemen with axes and electric saws, but Michael suddenly pulls a bunch of random John Wick style moves and single-handedly slaughters them all. When the hell did Myers learn to fight like one of the Avengers??? He gets punched, stabbed, cut, hit multiple times by the angry mob at the end and just like a superhero, suddenly stands up and kills everyone with moves that would make Iron Man and Natasha Romanoff look like amateurs. If he started flying or shot laser beams, I doubt I would've been surprised.




I know that one of the major aspects of enjoying a horror film is to suspend your disbelief, but this movie just goes overboard, tossing in random things to see what sticks. It can't decide if it wants to be an action film, a commentary about mob mentality (something that works better for a zombie flick), or simply try to be an effective slasher, which it fails at. While I didn't think the 2018 film was particularly fantastic, at least it gave Laurie Strode a more interesting role and made her somewhat of a badass. Here, she basically stays stuck in the hospital, recovering from her wounds, while spouting philosophical nonsense. Between that and the angry mob shouting "Evil dies tonight!", the script was mostly laughable. Halloween Kills is ultimately a disappointing mess.





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