Halloween Kills – A Brutal Yet Filler Middle Film

What’s old is new again. 2018’s sequel to the 1978 classic Halloween, also titled Halloween, took the franchise that put Jamie Lee Curtis on the map in a new thrilling direction though as with all good things, they must come to an end. The 2018 Halloween was announced as the first film of a trilogy set to end the franchise with the next film Halloween Kills leading to Halloween Ends. The release of those latter films, like many others, was affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but now the middle film is upon us. Meanwhile with trilogies, some tend to focus more on the future than the present while it’s often difficult to build excitement for a second installment already knowing that there is a third and final installment where the story is set to end. Therefore the tension this second time around wasn’t quite there with that knowledge. That being said, this film wasn’t without its moments but they did not amount to much. It just seemed aimless and directionless as it for the most part felt like filler intending to set up Halloween Ends, however, it did so in an incredibly messy way.

Perhaps succumbing to the weight of expectation, Halloween Kills is merely a shell of the film that came before it. Taking place on that same night, Laurie (Curtis), Karen (Greer), and Allyson (Matichark) Strode were left reeling with the events of the last film where they survived the might of Michael Myers. Believing they had finally eliminated him once and for all, this clearly did not happen as he continued to wreak havoc upon the city of Haddonfield. To that extent, the film definitely lived up to the second part of its title as Myers left quite the body count in his wake as the film certainly ramped up the brutality with these kills more gruesome and visceral than in the last installment. While their necessity in the grand scheme is debatable as the film turns to those moments a few too many times, they were still the standouts connected by a macro story far removed from what made the previous film work. Looking beyond the Strode story in favor of some former survivors and the town as a whole who have understandably been terrorized for the last 40 years. the film attempts to bring things full circle but was nowhere near as interesting by both not doing these returning character justice at all and adding some forced commentary about crowd mentality.

With Laurie essentially sidelined which was disappointing in its own right, the revenge angle was mostly left to others as a means to move the characters and story towards the supposed finish line being the next film. However, the film goes about it in a messy way featuring plenty of moving parts and subplots that are just dangling there without ever coming together in enough of a satisfying way. Clearly trying to do far too much, Halloween Kills fails to do any one thing particularly well in its attempt to highlight the evil that was Michael Myers while either positioning and/or redeeming characters and give audiences some sense of closure. Though the script was nowhere near as strong this time around as the plot was driven and sometimes undercut by questionable or borderline stupid character decisions more akin to classic horror films, this took away from the tension and emotion of many scenes.

Despite its shortcomings, Halloween Kills still does enough to be somewhat entertaining in spite of its faults and the majority of that could be attributed to its performances. A big part of the previous film, Curtis’ Laurie Strode still shines here while making the most out of a surprisingly limited role here that is sure to leave most audiences wanting more. This left Greer and Matichak’s Karen and Allyson Strode to pick up the slack and they definitely delivered but both roles this time around also felt limited which was also disappointing. As mentioned, the film also features returning characters from the 1978 Halloween with Kyle Richards reprising her role as Lindsey and Nancy Stephens reprising her role as Marion and Anthony Michael Hall and Robert Longstreet playing older versions of Tommy Doyle and Lonnie Elam respectively. While each made an impression in their limited screen time, the films’s use of these characters was also disappointing.

Halloween Ends better be worth it.

still courtesy of Universal Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.