Halloween Kills – Tries Something Amongst the Chaos
Director: David Gordon Green
Writer: Scott Teems, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green (Screenplay) John Carpenter, Debra Hill (Characters)
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Will Patton, Nick Castle, Anthony Michael Hall, Thomas Mann, Jim Cummings
Plot: The saga of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode continues in the next thrilling chapter of the Halloween series.
Runtime: 1 Hour 46 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Halloween Kills starts in the aftermath of the latest attack, Laurie (Curtis), Karen (Greer) and Allyson (Matichak) are leaving Michael to burn, only for him to escape and continue the rampage.
This will bring other survivors lead by Tommy Doyle (Hall) to bring the city together, to go hunting for Michael to end his reign of terror forever.
Thoughts on Halloween Kills
Characters & Performances – Laurie injured from the last movie is filled with the relief of ending it all, only to learn the truth and wanting to get back out there and finish the job. Jamie Lee Curtis doesn’t have much to do in this outing, she feels underused, but understandable after the injury in the last one. Karen is the nagging daughter of Laurie, who always looks and acts like the most innocent person in the story, she has just lost her husband, learnt her mother was always telling the truth and that her daughter is in danger, with her still trying to do the right thing. Judy Greer in the trailers, looked like a miscast, but with his genuine performance, it fits the film a lot better. Allyson is the daughter, who has seen her father killed, decided to take back her cheating boyfriend and sudden is ready to fight a serial killer. This is the beginning of the very annoying characters in this film, and it is a long list. Saying that, Andy Matichak does what she can with the role, not getting enough time to shine. The strangest decision in this movie, is to put a firm spotlight on a grown up Tommy Doyle, who is leading the charge to hunt down Michael, this is interesting because it will show us another victim who has dealt with this for years and it will show how somebody can swing a violent crowd in their favour. Officer Hawkins does have an interested addition to his character, only for most if this to get hidden away in a minute sequence, when it could have been a lot more interesting to dive into. In fact the next two character we can say are fun for this genre, are Big and Little John, living the Myers home and even then we didn’t get the pay off offered up.
Story – The story does pick up right where the last one ended, seeing the aftermath of the town learning about the murders and deciding to band together to end the terror Michael is causing. This is a story that I feel I could talk about for a long time, I want to start by praising the idea of turning the slasher genre around, ditching the innocent victims and diving head first into trying to hunt the killer down, not be afraid of him. This works because it creates the mob mentality in the town, with the people getting out of control, not listening to the full story before action. This sadly doesn’t get enough spotlight because we end up going through the routinely mostly annoying characters that never seem real and by the end of the film, it does feel like we are meant to be rooting for Michael. The story does dive back in time too, looking at Hawkins part within the hunt for Michael, trying to create a new narrative for him to be hunting. With so many smarter ideas here, the story does end up getting bogged down into a chaotic situation, which is more about the blood splatter than anything else.
Themes – Halloween Kills is a horror that won’t hold back on the violence, which we knew was coming from the trailers, this one is relentless with the attacks, even if some feel more over the top than what we would expect from Michael as a character. This film seems to be set in the longest night ever, which works to contain the story, but to see someone have a lifesaving operation, wake up and walk about, just doesn’t seem realistic in a time frame side of things.
Final Thoughts – Halloween Kills is a chaotic mess of storytelling, despite trying to do something different to the typical slasher movie.
