Picking up directly after the conclusion of 2018s relaunch of the franchise, Halloween Kills continues the efforts of Michael Myers to haunt the people of Haddonfield on Halloween night.
2018's Halloween - a sequel to 1978's Halloween that relaunched the franchise and the timeline, in doing so wiping out the existence of all previous installments, good or bad - saw Jamie Lee Curtis return to the role of Laurie Strode, now caught in a permanent survival mode and haunted by the memories of the events of Halloween night, 1978. An alcoholic loner whose supposed paranoid fears have cost her her family, the end of the first film saw her worst fears come true when Michael attacked her home, but reunited with her daughter and granddaughter (Judy Greer and Andi Matichak) as Michael stood trapped in a burning building.
It's fair to say that the Halloween series has had many ups and downs over its 40+ years of existence, with poorly judged plot machinations, mediocre remakes and no real explanation as to why Michael chooses to kill on October 31st when he could be out trick or treating. Avoiding contrived explanations altogether, this sequel makes the good choice to continue the action of the previous film into the late hours of October 31st, 2018, bringing in a slew of new characters to face off against Michael whilst Laurie - badly injured by Michael at the end of the last film - receives medical attention at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital.
Well, when I say new characters, what Halloween Kills actually does is re-introduce legacy characters to further their stories in this new timeline. Okay, so there may not be many fans of the franchise (Halloweeners, maybe?) who are curious about how nurse Marion (Nancy Stephens from Halloween's 1, 2 & H20) has been holding up, but the boy Laurie was babysitting 40 year ago, Tommy Doyle, is an important character within the lore of the films. Now played by Anthony Michael Hall (after Paul Rudd last occupied the role in the widely hated Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers), Tommy spends his Halloweens bringing together survivors of Myers's first killing spree to commemorate the lives of those lost, and along with childhood friend and fellow survivor Lindsey (played by original actress Kyle Richards) is ready to round up the townspeople to take down Myers when they hear of his latest crimes.
Given that the marketing for these most recent entries in the franchise has been focused on the face off between Michael and Laurie, it's surprising to see how little screen time they share in Halloween Kills. Instead co-writers David Gordon Green and Danny McBride have dug deeper into John Carpenter's toy chest to play with different characters and create a story that draws from the now non-canon original series, in particular the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital set Halloween II from 1981. There's a heavy dose of fan service and plot contrivance at play with the use of Tommy Doyle, whose survivors club seems an unlikely group of damaged misfits, still coming together 40 years later to remember that fateful night in 1978. However, when word gets out of Michael's ongoing rampage and mob mentality takes over, it's nice to see the franchise dig into one of the most timeless tropes of the slasher franchise - watching stupid people get killed for making stupid decisions in a variety of violent ways.
One of the biggest criticisms of Green's first instalment was that it didn't deliver enough blood and guts to satiate the appetite of modern horror audiences. Well, it seems that Green's taken that criticism on board, as Halloween Kills is one of the most violent films I've seen in some time. From the off, as Michael tears through a group of firefighters attending the burning house he's trapped in, this is a more visceral, nastier, deadlier Myers than before. In that respect, Halloween Kills delivers in spades, and as Michael works his way from house to house (now no longer bothered about babysitters and their boyfriends. Anyone with a pulse will do), we fear for what's coming next.
Given Jamie Lee Curtis is the marquee name for this franchise, it was a bold move to restrict her role to the extent this film does. Some of the tactics this film uses to distract us from that do work, including an extended flashback sequence to the night of 1978 that focuses on Will Patton's Officer Hawkins interaction with Michael (played in flashback by Thomas Mann, opposite Jim Cummings in a great cameo), but Halloween Kills struggles to find relevance in being the middle part of a planned trilogy that will come to a close next year with Halloween Ends. It's definitely a leap forward for Green as a horror director, creating some tense moments and bloody set-pieces, but the mob mentality storyline, with its "evil dies tonight" chant, sits uneasily in a post-Trump world, making you want to side with Michael who, lest we forget, is on a killing spree.
There's some interesting ideas set up about Michael's motivations (or lack thereof) to be explored in next year's grand finale of the Halloween franchise (or at least until it gets rebooted again), and despite fears that this is a placeholder instalment, as the film's final moments raise a number of questions about Michael's seemingly supernatural survival ability that can't go unanswered, Halloween Kills makes itself necessary viewing before we get to next year's ultimate face off between the franchise's most enduring characters.
Verdict
3.5/5
