by Carolyn Blum
Halloween Kills definitely killed something, that something being my spirit. Halloween Kills was released on October 15 and directed by David Gordon Green. The movie picks up right where Halloween (2018) left off: With Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and the rest of the Strode women, Karen (Judy Greer) and Allyson (Andi Matichak), speeding away from Laurie’s burning compound with Michael trapped inside. They think that the worst is over–that they finally succeeded in ending Michael’s reign of terror. To their dismay, they discover that Michael survived the fire and is now continuing his bloody rampage through the town. When the news breaks, Laurie is determined to finish the job. Fighting through the pain of the injuries she sustained from Michael, Laurie and her family prepare to defend themselves. Their determination and resilience inspire the residents of Haddonfield to fight back against the Boogeyman that has haunted them for so long. Amongst the mob of vigilantes are survivors of Michael’s first attack on their town in 1978, who have had enough and decide that “evil dies tonight.”
The best, and possibly only good thing about this movie was James Jude Courtney’s performance as Michael. He does an amazing job portraying Michael as he falls further and further from his humanity and transcends into something much worse than a blood-hungry little kid. He becomes the “essence of evil”. Apparent in his mechanical walk, Michael looks like a well-oiled machine all wound up and set loose in Haddonfield. His performance offers some delightfully bloody kills which do not shy away from showcasing Michael’s new and improved killing techniques. These skills are clearly a result of the time he had to develop and mull over while imprisoned. Beyond that, the movie is dull and unimagined.
The plot is all over the place, jumping back and forth in time with no real cohesion to any of the events. Stuff just happens, leaving us in the dust as to why. The poorly thought-out tone switches create confusion as to whether the movie is supposed to be taken seriously or seen as a silly slasher flick.
The greatest downfall of the film, however, are the characters. As mentioned before, the movie re-introduces us to the characters from the original Halloween film; only now they’re all grown up. Moviegoers who may have been excited to see the Strode generations fight Michael again in this film will be disappointed as the side characters are now front and center–hogging the spotlight away from Laurie and her family. The movie tries to remind us of where we’ve seen them before and why they care so much about killing Michael, but it just leaves the audience bored and discombobulated. Trying to build so many characters all at once takes up way too much time–time that could have been used to focus on the growth of the main characters from the previous movie. Instead, they are unable to progress in any way, which leaves them in the same position they were in at the end of Halloween (2018) and the beginning of this film: With almost no characterization. We are forced to watch a bunch of half-flushed out characters hyped-up on adrenaline and a 40-year grudge run around a suburban town armed to the teeth and looking for blood.
It feels like this film is stuck in limbo as it provides nothing to continue the franchise, nor does it develop any of the characters in a meaningful way. With the knowledge that this is a trilogy, we can’t expect any of the titular characters to meet their end in this second installment. Additionally, the confirmation of Michael’s return in the 2022 film, Halloween Ends, spoils the premise of the 2021 film, that evil does not, in fact, die tonight.
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