Michael Meyers is in playoff mode in the latest Halloween movie, but character development and half-baked plot points strangle “Halloween Kills.”
When The Shape first terrorized Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night 1978, director John Carpenter was focused on simply making a good movie. There were no plans for sequels, and sequels to those sequels, and reboots to follow those and so on. Carpenter didn’t set out on his second feature film as a director to create the cultural icon of Michael Meyers, but more than 40 years later, Michael is still celebrating Halloween with his favorite pastime, murder. The second “Halloween” film from director David Gordon Green and writer Danny Mcbride doubles up on bloodshed, but ultimately relegates its characters to the backseat until the Boogeyman is ready for them.
“Halloween Kills” opens with a flashback to “Halloween II” (1981) which has apparently been re-incorporated as a part of the new trilogy’s canon, depicting The Shape’s fateful capture on Halloween night in 1978 as well as setting up all-important plot points to be used later in the film. It then cuts to Laurie Strode, her daughter and granddaughter riding in the back of a truck on their way to the hospital following the events of “Halloween” (2018), during which the trio were able to trap Michael Meyers in Laurie’s basement before burning the house down in an attempt to finally kill the essence of evil.
To Laurie’s horror, they pass a team of firetrucks en route to extinguish the blaze intended to end Michael’s reign of terror. Her cries of “let it burn” go unheard, and The Shape escapes the inferno with help from the unsuspecting firefighters. Michael thanks the first responders in the only way he knows how… brutally murdering all of them before heading back out on the town to continue his night of horror.
“Halloween Kills” is chock-full of the gory goodness that fans of the series have come to expect. The film absolutely lives up to its title, affording Michael a plethora of victims to dispose of in a variety of ways. Be it strangling, eye-gouging, impaling with a fluorescent light bulb, or good-old stabbing, Haddonfield’s Boogeyman gets his licks in throughout the 105 minute runtime.
Original “Halloween” director and Michael Meyers co-creator John Carpenter is back to once again provide a thoroughly chilling score. Carpenter keeps his iconic theme intact but adds layers of synths and reverb to put a new twist on a timeless piece of music. Carpenter also composes some new pieces just for this film, all of which are more spine-tingling than the last. Michael Meyers’ acts of evil would not be nearly as horrifying if his daddy weren’t there to set the mood.
Brutal kills and a bone-chilling score, though, are not enough to keep “Halloween Kills” from falling victim to a classic horror movie pitfall, underdeveloped characters and plot points.
The movie sidelines Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), the franchise’s central protagonist, by keeping her in the hospital while she recovers from the injuries she sustained during the previous film. Continuity is important, and this film takes good care to realistically explain why Laurie can’t participate in the Halloween festivities this time around. Laurie’s absence isn’t the problem, it’s the characters that stand in for her. While their motivations could not be more clear – the phrase “evil dies tonight” is parroted again and again throughout the film – they remain wholly underdeveloped, existing as caricatures whose motivations are glazed over for the sake of keeping the plot moving.
The film centers on the people of Haddonfield – many of whom have been affected in some way by Michael’s original killing spree – as they band together to hunt down and kill the Boogeyman once and for all. It’s an interesting idea on paper, but a clumsily executed one in this instance. The film wants to say something about the dangers of mob mentality, but it misses the mark by having its characters shrug off a tragic outcome brought on by their zealotry as if nothing happened.
The ideas are there, but “Halloween Kills” undermines itself by not taking time to reflect on what its characters have done, all in the name of vanquishing evil. It’s easy to shrug off Michael Meyers massacring a group of people, because that’s what he’s supposed to do, but moving on without a beat when other characters do something horrific doesn’t work the same way.
Perhaps the most developed characters are two with only a few minutes of screen time. Big John and Little John – played by Scott MacArthur and Michael McDonald – are a gay couple living in the old Meyers home, the one in which a young Michael murdered his sister over 40 years ago. Needless to say, the two don’t survive the film, but they felt better realized and more relatable in five minutes than the film’s main characters did in almost two hours.
Ultimately, “Halloween Kills” earns its title with kills for the sake of kills without any other solid ideas to support the premise. Yet, even without the psychological resonance of its 2018 predecessor, it’s still a great time at the movies for anyone looking to get into the spooky spirit by watching one of the all-time horror icons do what he does best. The kills are stylish, well-shot and directed, and over the top in the best way. Michael Meyers’ latest big screen outing is an action movie featuring an unstoppable serial murderer as its main character.
Despite the tagline “evil dies tonight,” Michael Meyers is not laid to rest in this film, quite the opposite actually. The Shape will return in the final film of Green and McBride’s trilogy, titled “Halloween Ends” which is expected to release in October of 2022. Until then, lock up your kitchen knives and keep your babysitters close, evil is still on the loose.
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