Halloween Kills (2021) review

30. Halloween Kills (2021)

Directed by: David Gordon Green

Produced by: Malek Akkad, Jason Blum, Bill Block

Screenplay by: Scott Teems, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Anthony Michael Hall

The 2018 reboot of “Halloween” is one of the best comebacks in horror history, perfectly capturing the spirit of the 1978 slasher classic while still feeling somehow evolved. But if we’ve learned anything with this franchise, it’s that it seems to have a difficult time functioning with success; the original had a bland sequel, the decent Part 4 was followed by the wretched Parts 5 and 6, “H20” led to the stupidity of “Resurrection,” and Rob Zombie’s remake gave way to a weird, polarizing follow-up. However, 2021’s “Halloween Kills” returns much of the same cast and crew, while adding a few old faces that haven’t appeared for a long time, so I figure maybe it’ll break the trend and turn out an equally satisfying next entry. Unfortunately, it ends up as another letdown; by no means awful, it’s nevertheless beset by ostentatious dialogue, an over-abundance of storylines, and a severe misjudgment of character focus.

Taking place on the same night as the last movie, it picks up with Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) being inadvertently freed from Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) burning house by firefighters, and resuming his killing spree back into Haddonfield. Elsewhere, a grown-up Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) meets up with fellow survivors Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens), Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards) and Lonnie Elam (Robert Longstreet), whose son Cameron (Dylan Arnold) is Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson’s (Andi Matichak) ex-boyfriend. With Laurie recovering in the hospital, along with Deputy Frank Hawkins (Will Patton), Allyson joins the group effort to hunt down Michael, which eventually deteriorates into a town-wide lynch mob. As Michael maneuvers back to his old home, common sense is obliterated, and the body count rises again.

In her sixth appearance as Laurie, Jamie Lee Curtis doesn’t get much to work with this time besides lie in bed and spout an occasional monologue; don’t get me wrong, she does as well as you’d expect, but there was so much intrigue and sadness with her in the last movie, and now, much like in “Halloween II,” she’s strangely generic and immobile throughout the film, and she doesn’t interact with Michael even once. However, I do think it’s kind of clever how they acknowledge that Laurie isn’t a target; Michael’s evil nature has nothing to do with her. Much more attention is devoted to how The Shape has affected other Haddonfield citizens; Hawkins feels guilt over not killing him back in 1978, we see the collective pain and anger with those who have lost loved ones, and I like the idea of his survivors having sort of a yearly support group. Just the fact that they were able to get so many members of the original cast—some of whom hadn’t acted in years—is really neat; they even got Charles Cyphers as former sheriff Leigh Brackett, now working as a hospital security guard.

The downside is that much of what happens doesn’t feel necessary; while I admire the grainy look of the ‘70s flashback scenes—I was shocked to discover their re-creation of Dr. Loomis (Tom Jones Jr.) was not done through elaborate prosthetics, just a convincing Donald Pleasence look-alike with a little makeup—what do we learn from them? Hawkins as well just spends the movie in a hospital bed bummed out about the situation, and I didn’t really need to know that he and Laurie had an affectionate history. On top of that, the part that genuinely annoys me is the utilization of Tommy; he’s in the movie way too much, to the point that he almost feels like the main protagonist, which I think is a big miscalculation. He doesn’t act like a man living with trauma, but more like a man who wants to play an action hero, wielding a baseball bat and giving these obnoxiously cheesy lines that are clearly just supposed to be trailer fodder; no matter how many times they say “Evil dies tonight,” it never sounds cool. Actually, a lot of the dialogue is like that, but without hearing it from a sincere voice like Loomis, it just comes off as awkward to hear some of these lines.

With that said, once in a while, the film will slip in a little bit of comedy, most of it centered around a couple named Big John (Scott MacArthur) and Little John (Michael McDonald) who live in the old Myers house. They scare off some mischievous trick-or-treaters, and wield these very small knives like they’re these super dangerous weapons; that part gets a big laugh out of me. Michael is especially brutal, even though I feel like some of his kills just defy any sense of logic, like having characters with an escape route right behind them, and they just kind of freeze up and accept death. The weirdest is with bar patron Vanessa (Carmela McNeal), who has a gun pointed right at him while he’s sitting in a car, and he swings the door at her, which somehow causes her to accidentally shoot herself instead. On the other hand, one moment I’ve gained an appreciation for is when he stabs the already dead Phil (Lenny Clarke) with multiple kitchen knives; at first I thought it looked really silly, until I realized it was Michael testing out different knives to see which one he liked best.

But as the movie goes on, the story becomes less about anything The Shape is actually doing, as a large chunk of the film focuses on the citizens going after a fellow Smith’s Grove escapee (Ross Bacon), who they mistake for Michael…even though he doesn’t look anything like him. Okay, I know the niche with Michael is that we don’t see his face; but realistically, in this culture where there’s an obsession with crime documentaries and serial killers, the characters would know. There’d be TV shows about his court case, his mug shot would be plastered on the news, there’s no reason why they’d suspect this short, fidgety guy to be Michael. Obviously, I’m thinking too deep about it, but this is kind of a big part of the movie, and it’s just frustrating and taking time away from other story elements I actually find engaging. I like the idea of addressing mob mentality in horror movies, kind of like the villagers in “Frankenstein,” but it’s done completely wrong, and only undermines the survival element.

As much as I wanted to be more forgiving with a second viewing, my opinion of “Halloween Kills” hasn’t changed much. The performances and music are good, and the suspense and gore are solid, but the story gets so bogged down by unneeded details and obvious commentary, it becomes kind of exhausting. By the time we get to the end, which is weirdly paced with all these callbacks and even more self-important speeches, with Karen (Judy Greer) meeting her fate in such a lifeless manner, I’m not even shocked as much as I am confused. However, unlike seemingly most of the general public, I definitely wouldn’t call it terrible. I’ve seen terrible “Halloween” films, man; we had a Thorn cult, kung fu Busta Rhymes, and weird white horse mythology, this is not as bad as that. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a mess, and a disappointment after the previous film, but not without effort or enthusiasm.

My rating: 5.5/10