Halloween Kills (2021) Universal/Horror RT: 106 minutes Rated R (strong bloody violence throughout, grisly images, language, some drug use) Director: David Gordon Green Screenplay: Scott Teems, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green Music: John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies Cinematography: Michael Simmonds Release date: October 15, 2021 (US) Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Anthony Michael Hall, Kyle Richards, Nancy Stephens, Robert Longstreet, Dylan Arnold, Charles Cyphers, Omar Dorsey, Jim Cummings, Carmela McNeal, Michael Smallwood, Scott MacArthur, Michael McDonald, Brian F. Durkin, David Lowe, Lenny Clarke, Diva Tyler, Salem Collins, Giselle Witt, J. Gaven Wilde, Jibrail Nantambu. Box Office: $92M (US)/$133.4M (World) Body Count: 30
Rating: *** ½
For once, a movie actually lives up to its title. Halloween Kills is a complete bloodbath, TOTALLY! The latest entry in the long-running horror series, it’s the sequel to 2018’s Halloween which itself is a direct sequel to the 1978 original. It’s a retcon job meaning it disregards every single one of the Halloween sequels and reboots the story of Michael Myers, aka “The Shape”, the psycho killer in the William Shatner mask. While it’s a great continuation of the story, it’s also the goriest chapter of the entire series. And yes, that includes Rob Zombie’s crappy remake of Halloween II.
One of the smartest things returning director David Gordon Green does in Halloween Kills is go back to where it all started, that fateful Halloween night in ’78 when Michael murdered three teens in the quiet suburb of Haddonfield. He takes us through a new series of events explaining how he was captured by local police and sent to Smith’s Grove Psychiatric Hospital only to escape 40 years later. In this new timeline, young deputy Hawkins (Mann, Kong: Skull Island) prevents Dr. Loomis from putting a bullet in Michael’s head, a decision his older self (Patton, No Way Out) comes to regret now that Michael’s back in town.
After the opening credits sequence (the retooled theme music still sends chills), Halloween Kills picks right up where the previous one left off with an injured Laurie Strode (Curtis) escaping her burning home with daughter Karen (Greer, Jurassic World) and teen granddaughter Allyson (Matichak, Foxhole), but not before reintroducing us to some familiar characters, survivors of Michael’s original rampage. A now fully grown Tommy Doyle (Hall, Sixteen Candles) is at a bar commemorating the 40th anniversary of that night with fellow survivors Lindsey Wallace (Richards), Marion Chambers (Stephens) and Lonnie Elam (Longstreet). Surely you know who they are, right? Tommy and Lindsey are the kids Laurie was watching, Marion was the late Dr. Loomis’ assistant and Lonnie is the boy that bullied Tommy.
ANYWAY, just like in the original Halloween II, Laurie is sidelined for most of the movie, lying unconscious in a hospital bed recovering from her ordeal. She thinks Michael perished in the fire and Karen lets her go on thinking that. Naturally, it didn’t kill him. Hell, it barely singed him. He emerges from the fire and proceeds to slaughter every first responder in sight. He’s off to a hell of a start!
With Laurie temporarily benched, somebody else has to lead the charge against Michael as he embarks on another bloody killing spree. That somebody is Tommy who forms a lynch mob after hearing Haddonfield’s most notorious native is on the loose again. It’s like something out of a Frankenstein movie with all the angry, frightened townspeople running the streets armed with guns, bats, knives and other instruments of death. It’s going to be another Halloween to remember.
In terms of body count, Halloween Kills is a record setter. Of the 30 deaths in the movie, Michael Myers is responsible for 25 of them beating his previous record of 20 kills in Halloween 5. There are a few cool kill scenes with lots of spurt and splatter. The fireman sequence involves an axe and buzz saw. One has his head smashed open. Later, somebody is stabbed in the neck with a broken fluorescent light bulb. Another person’s eyes are gouged out. One poor dope jumps to his death; his body is shown splattered on the ground below. This is all in addition to the many stabbings, slashings, impalings, shootings and brutal beatdowns. The gore effects, practical as opposed to CGI, are freaking amazing! Halloween Kills is a bloody mess in the best possible way.
Unlike several recent movies, Halloween Kills isn’t trying to make some grand statement about important social issues of the time- e.g. racism. It does have something to say about mob mentality, but since it was filmed more than a year before the Capitol insurrection, it’s not a political thing. No, this is purely an exercise in slasher horror and it’s GREAT! Not only is it better than its immediate predecessor, it’s the second best of the entire series (after the original, of course). In addition to the awesome kills, it has a few decent “BOO!” moments. It has lots of references to Halloweens past including a great one to Halloween III. It also has a wicked sense of humor like the scene where the gay couple now living in the old Myers house scares away a bunch of rotten kids with Michael’s story.
I have to admit it’s weird seeing Anthony Michael Hall as adult Tommy. Even after all these years, I still see him as the geeky teen from three John Hughes movies (four if you count National Lampoon’s Vacation). That being said, he goes a pretty good job of it. Here’s a man still haunted by childhood trauma. When given the opportunity to take revenge, he goes at it full force. It’s great to see Richards and Stephens reprising their roles. Welcome back, ladies.
Curtis does a fine job with what little she’s given to do. She shares a hospital room with Deputy Hawkins who expresses guilt over what went down that night in ’78. It’s not just that he let Michael live; he was also responsible for the accidental death of a fellow officer. In the role, Patton is quite good. Greer has some good moments as the concerned daughter and mother trying to hold her family together while coping with her husband’s death in the previous movie. Matichak also does good work as the granddaughter who joins in the hunt for Michael as a means of confronting her family legacy.
The only real flaw in Halloween Kills is the corny, over-serious dialogue, especially Laurie’s monologues about Michael being an unstoppable evil force or some such nonsense. But is it really a flaw? After all, this is what Halloween is all about. Michael Myers is pure evil and can’t be killed. He IS the boogeyman. In any event, I can overlook the goofy dialogue because Halloween Kills is so well done. The score is eerily effective, it’s shot with vicious fluidity and edited in a way that allows you to see the gory stuff in all of its blood-red glory. It’s AWESOME!
I’m sure everybody knows Halloween Kills is NOT the final chapter. Think of it as The Empire Strikes Back of the reboot trilogy. The next installment, Halloween Ends, is due a year from now. It’s supposedly the last one, but to that I say Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning. If it makes enough money, the makers will find a way to bring Michael Myers back. Either way, I can’t wait to see how it ends (if it ends).
