Halloween Kills (C- or 1.5/4 stars)
1978's iconic Halloween should be rolling over in its grave with this, the next {eye roll} sequel in the franchise, 'Halloween Kills' (directed by David Gordon Green). Halloween was rebooted in 2018 with Jamie Lee Curtis back in fine form. This is the sequel to THAT iteration. There is one more to go - the 12th(?), I believe. And really, there should be no more. The lore is exhausted. And I'm basically done with Michael Myers.
Thinking that they have finally killed masked serial killer Michael Myers once & for all, a severely injured/slashed Laurie Strode (Curtis), her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), & Laurie's teen granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), are racing to the hospital to tend to Laurie's wounds, which is also where Officer Hawkins (Will Patton) - who had a highly unfortunate run-in 40+ yrs. ago with the killer - is headed after being brutally attacked by someone else. Little do they know that Michael SOMEHOW managed to survive Laurie's fiery death trap and is ... again ... going on a murdering spree; starting with a host of firefighters there to put-out the blaze.
With the bodies piling up across Haddonfield, Illinois, we're re-acquainted with other survivors from Michael's 1st rampage, including Tommy (Anthony Michael Hall), Lonnie (Robert Longstreet), Lindsey (Kyle Richards, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), Leigh (Charles Cyphers) & Marion (Nancy Stephens). Tommy & Lonnie - whose son, Cameron (Dylan Arnold) is dating Allyson - decide to form a mob of vigilantes that will hunt down Michael to ensure that "Evil dies tonight!!" As Laurie recovers in the hospital, the hell bent mob grows & grows. But can anyone REALLY stop Michael?
Nothing can top the 1978 classic. 2018's re-boot was decent enough. But this sequel to THAT is an unstructured, grisly mess that focuses more on people shouting & brutal slaughters rather than well-modulated dread. Maybe audiences who are not as affiliated with the Halloween franchise could find this film entertaining enough as a pure slash 'em, dice 'em up horror flick. But this is Halloween, so ... it needs to be better. As for the angry mob - they rise so quickly; grabbing knives, pitch forks, irons(!), anything they can grab. But all they are is a mob. There is no character to examine. They are a ham-fisted monolith. So any potential thematic commentary on 'mob mentality' goes out the window -- this is a movie without a brain.
As for the bloodshed killings themselves, sure, a few are very inspired. But the film is littered with them; rather than several well-placed, suspense-building deaths. Gone IS that sense of doom & gloom. Gone is the "Where is Michael hiding now!?" It's mostly just people screaming their lines of dumb dialogue + gruesome deaths; rinse & repeat. No one even talks as any normal human being would talk. I also can't stand that the filmmakers have decided to make Michael Myers immortal. And so, when logic jumps out the window like that, ya gotta ask, what are we watching this for? Where are the stakes? 'Halloween Kills' barely registers as a movie and, the verve of John Carpenter's original vision is simply absent, here.
Thinking that they have finally killed masked serial killer Michael Myers once & for all, a severely injured/slashed Laurie Strode (Curtis), her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), & Laurie's teen granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), are racing to the hospital to tend to Laurie's wounds, which is also where Officer Hawkins (Will Patton) - who had a highly unfortunate run-in 40+ yrs. ago with the killer - is headed after being brutally attacked by someone else. Little do they know that Michael SOMEHOW managed to survive Laurie's fiery death trap and is ... again ... going on a murdering spree; starting with a host of firefighters there to put-out the blaze.
With the bodies piling up across Haddonfield, Illinois, we're re-acquainted with other survivors from Michael's 1st rampage, including Tommy (Anthony Michael Hall), Lonnie (Robert Longstreet), Lindsey (Kyle Richards, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), Leigh (Charles Cyphers) & Marion (Nancy Stephens). Tommy & Lonnie - whose son, Cameron (Dylan Arnold) is dating Allyson - decide to form a mob of vigilantes that will hunt down Michael to ensure that "Evil dies tonight!!" As Laurie recovers in the hospital, the hell bent mob grows & grows. But can anyone REALLY stop Michael?
Nothing can top the 1978 classic. 2018's re-boot was decent enough. But this sequel to THAT is an unstructured, grisly mess that focuses more on people shouting & brutal slaughters rather than well-modulated dread. Maybe audiences who are not as affiliated with the Halloween franchise could find this film entertaining enough as a pure slash 'em, dice 'em up horror flick. But this is Halloween, so ... it needs to be better. As for the angry mob - they rise so quickly; grabbing knives, pitch forks, irons(!), anything they can grab. But all they are is a mob. There is no character to examine. They are a ham-fisted monolith. So any potential thematic commentary on 'mob mentality' goes out the window -- this is a movie without a brain.
As for the bloodshed killings themselves, sure, a few are very inspired. But the film is littered with them; rather than several well-placed, suspense-building deaths. Gone IS that sense of doom & gloom. Gone is the "Where is Michael hiding now!?" It's mostly just people screaming their lines of dumb dialogue + gruesome deaths; rinse & repeat. No one even talks as any normal human being would talk. I also can't stand that the filmmakers have decided to make Michael Myers immortal. And so, when logic jumps out the window like that, ya gotta ask, what are we watching this for? Where are the stakes? 'Halloween Kills' barely registers as a movie and, the verve of John Carpenter's original vision is simply absent, here.