‘Evil dies tonight…’
David Gordon Green’s 2018 Halloween reboot was a home run because it gave the fans what they wanted. Laurie Strode. The Shape. A bloodbath. Whilst Green and his co-writer Danny McBride did a great job in bringing all of these things together, the fanbase had been waiting for a decent Halloween film for so long that really just seeing those characters together with that score playing over the top was enough. For that reason then, Halloween Kills had a much tougher job on its hands. Fan service would not be enough…
As with the original Halloween and its underrated sequel Halloween II, Halloween Kills follows on directly from the events of the film that preceded it. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is recovering from her latest Myers based escapade in hospital, her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) is still despairing about her mother’s antics and the rest of Haddonfield is going fucking nuts because a killer is in their midst. Business as usual then? Not quite.
Green brings back pretty much every character from the original movie with franchise favourites Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) and Lindsay Wallace (Kyle Richards, reprising her role over 40 years after the fact ) – the two kids being babysat in the source material – and a bunch of new characters appearing for the first time. All of whom form some kind of survivors vigilante group in the absence of any kind of reliable police presence. Less successful or necessary perhaps is the digital inclusion of Donald Pleasence as Dr. Loomis. It just doesn’t sit right with me.
So yes, while Green relies on some old favourites, this is by no means a tired trudge through Halloweens of old. This is a version of Haddonfield we’ve never seen before. Explosive, violent and on the verge of anarchy, the sheer scale of some of the set pieces employed here is unlike anything that this franchise has done before. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t. The same can be said for the more comedic elements of the film, the humorous scenes often jarring with the intense violence. Indeed, this is by far the most gory and gruesome entry in the whole franchise. Which is nice.
In the end, Halloween Kills is a successful sequel that just about justifies its own existence. It’s not a patch on the original or the reboot, but it’s a worthy entry in what is now undisputedly the greatest horror franchise of all time.
Book me to a ticket to Halloween Ends…