Premise: Picking up directly after the events of Halloween (2018), this sequel aims to add a bit more social commentary behind what Michael Myers represents. Along the way there’s a lot of slashing and blood.
What I Didn’t Like: Halloween Kills tries too hard to be poetic. In this series, Mike Myers is a metaphor for how people turn into monsters. Myers very existence has driven the town into a frenzy driven by their fear of him. What’s missing our their pitchforks and torches. “Evil dies tonight!” They scream en masse.
I appreciate the risk to delve into the psychology of a slasher film, but this isn’t Scream, whose plot twist was always trying to avoid the anatomy of horror movies. Halloween Kills does NOTHING to avoid those pitfalls, which makes the social commentary unnecessary and heavy-handed. It plays out just like you think it will. And the showdown you think you’re gonna see, you don’t see.
What I Liked: It’s really great to see characters return. No matter how suddenly they act unlike themselves from the prequel, it’s still great to see Laurie Strode’s daughter (Judy Greer) have more of a backbone. Maybe its character development. We bounce back and forth from survivors of the original Mike Myers Halloween babysitter Massacre and that’s a treat. Welcome back Tommy Doyle (Anthony Hall) and Lindsay Hall (Kyle Richards), the two babysat children who watch their babysitters fight for their lives. More horror movies should think about expanding their universe by including characters like these.
The gore is good as always, but slashers desensitizes you. You come to expect all the impaling blood splatter.
Verdict: Halloween Kills is in theaters and streaming for free on the Peacock (NBC) app. I wanted to like this more because the prequel (when it finally got going) was action packed with some good scares. You might enjoy this sequel but unfortunately for me, it might have jumped the shark by veering away from what it should’ve been doing.