DIRECTOR: David Gordon Green
PRODUCERS: Jason Blum & Malek Akkad
WRITERS: David Gordon Green & Danny McBride & Scott Teems
PERFORMERS: Jamie Lee Curtis Judy Greer Andi Matichak Anthony Michael Hall
Kyle Richards Nancy Stephens
43 years ago a small film with a small budget terrified the living daylights out of everyone, what came out of that was the evolution of a horror franchise with sequel after sequel in different incarnations and storylines. Then just four years ago in 2018, a 40th anniversary sequel (directly from the original) was released and sent everyone over the edge when HE came home once again! Last time he was burned alive... now he's back for another round, only now... everyone, including the survivors from the first film, are after him in Halloween Kills.
When we last saw Michael Myers, he was presumed dead in a burning house fire, of course we all know he survived that because it's Michael Myers. He's not human, he's inhuman; so there's no doubt he lived. The thing about Michael Myers and what makes him such a legendary character is that everything about him is a mystery. His evil nature, his face, not to mention his silence, all those things and more are what makes such a terrifying presence and ever since 1978 when he was first introduced, no one ever knew what made him the way he was. In this lastest entry, the story picks up where the last one left off and continues in the present time as we know it. The Strode girls are recovering from their previous encounter with Michael, they're convinced that he's dead only to discover that he isn't! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that someone as inhuman as Michael Myers would survive a housefire! Jamie Lee Curtis' character spent the last four decades preparing for his return home. But how were they supposed to know that? They clearly didn't know how indestructible Michael really was or what drove him or made him so evil.
What I did like about the film was the revolutionary aspect behind it. The Haddonfield residents are so fed up with Michael's reign of terror, that once word of his presence is out everyone's out to get him; and who better to lead the resistance than a grown up Tommy Doyle (from the 1978 original and played by Anthony Michael Hall). Let's talk about him for a moment: I personally would have preferred the original actor who played Tommy, but Hall definitely brought something new to the table as he portrayed the character in a way I hadn't seen before: a grown man with a goal to rid himself of a past traumatic experience. But it sends him so far over the edge that he winds up taking the whole town with him. His performance however, was so spot on that I saw so much of his younger counterpart in him. Even the 1978 easter egg moments were top notch for me, when they appeared I was blown away by the new additions that was added. With them they all made sense as to how Michael was captured and how he spent all that time locked away from society before his escape. And the brief appearance of the late Donald Pleasance as his psychiatrist blew me away!!! The additions of the original actors from the 1978 original really made the movie for me, as did the flashback scenes; but even the new players had something to offer too and it was worth the view.
EVIL DIES TONIGHT!!! (OR DOES IT?)
The main goal was to get everybody in line to rally up against the killer, yet nobody knew how to stop him. It even got to the point where everybody was turning on each other out of desperation and madness and just like in The Dark Knight... madness takes it's toll on good people and everyone starts going crazy. All you hear in the film is "EVIL DIES TONIGHT!!!", but I think the real question is... Does it? Even at the climax you want to see Michael get what he deserves by everyone, from Tommy to Lindsey to Brackett to the Strodes... everyone. I guess not everyone was expecting something like this to say one thing and then have it turn out to be the other way around. This was so underplayed that it almost didn't make sense, I really thought this would be the end of it; but then again, this is Michael Myers were talking about here and there's supposed to be another one coming out. It seemed like this was trying too hard to be something it wasn't despite it's likability. Now I liked the film, but it didn't need to be about good people turning on each other, just everyone uniting for a common purpose. If I were to give any cons on this film, it would be the overplaying of it's advertisement. If Evil was supposed to die tonight, why did it turn out to be the opposite? Not that I was surprised at that, but I was rather disappointed at it instead for my own reasons. Maybe they want to save it for the next one or maybe something was just overdone and it was too late to turn back. If anything this is something that should have been saved for the upcoming follow-up set for next year.
Halloween Kills was more than just a horror sequel, it was a sequel of revolutionary proportions. It had the right drive, but the wrong set of things. But even so, I still liked it for it's suspense moments, the kills, the original feel that it had and it completely exceeded my expectations on nearly every level, minus the ending. But when the credits rolled and that ageless haunting theme had played, I felt chills running down my spine thinking 'what's going to happen in the next one?' Hopefully, it will be the end of it for sure because it involves the word "Ends" and we all know what that means right? This is it... over, finished, things like that. But I personally can't wait to see how things play out in that one. All in all, I highly recommend this to any Halloween fan or horror fan in general and the long wait it took for this film to be released despite the pandemic... in the end was very well worth it and worth seeing in the movie theater!!! Well played, well executed, but next time... make the theme of the film more true to it's message than what you put out there and that's all I ask. Go see this if you haven't already, be safe everyone and Happy Halloween.
MY RATING: 4 out of 5