John McDonald
It’s 2021 and there is a brand-new Halloween film gracing our screens, it only took 3 years since the last one – what have they been doing? Halloween Kills is the 12th installment in the franchise, that is a hell of a lot of films, and a hell of a lot of Myers, he’s getting some much-deserved screen time. This is a direct sequel to the 2018 film and as soon as that famous music starts to kick in, it honestly sends a shiver down your spine – things are about to go down. Let’s just talk about Myers for a second though, this man (if that is what he really is) is a one-man wrecking machine, nothing can stand in this mountainous being’s way, not even… a whole fire crew. They should stick to fighting fires because when it comes to actual fighting, they’re not so good at it.
Like its predecessor, Halloween Kills is directed by David Gordon Green (also the director of Pineapple Express of all things) and it delivers in its objectives; big scary man kills countless people in all kinds of cool ways. It turned out to be more than that though because it was incredibly intense from start to finish, with the creativeness of its deaths also being something to cheer about, even if that is quite a sadistic thing to celebrate. Halloween Kills has a certain atmosphere surrounding it, with it being so fast paced and the very technical and excellent score accelerating the pacing once more, it leaves you feeling quite unsettled, but in a good way, like all good slasher films should do.
Now, it wouldn’t be a horror film without some questionable acting, but I’m sorry to disappoint because the acting was fairly strong in this one. If you can ignore the amount of screaming in this (a hell of a lot of screaming) – that almost made it seem like a parody of a horror film (like in the Scary Movie films) – the acting was solid all round, especially from the scream queen herself, Jamie Lee Curtis, as well as Anthony Michael Hall. Curtis hardly appeared in the film and yet she expresses a lot of emotion, a lot of anger through her character, as she struggles with injury and the news that Myers is back on the prowl.
Halloween Kills begins where the last film ended, with the injured Deputy Frank Hawkins (Will Patton) being found by a local boy, before then whisking us away to a flashback of the infamous events of 1978 (the original Halloween film if you didn’t know) and the maiden capture of Myers, as well as the death of Hawkins’s partner. So, with the background established, fast forward back to the present day and Myers (James Jude Courtney) has escaped the burning house that Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her family trapped him in, before escaping themselves. With Myers now hunting everyone who gets in his way of succeeding at town domination, the towns people, led by Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), attempt to hunt Myers down. I’ll never understand how people aren’t able to just run away from a man who seems to walk slowly everywhere, but then again, the physics and logic of horror films don’t abide by normal rules.
With the townspeople on a quest for righteousness, and Myers on the hunt for Laurie – who by this time is recovering in hospital – he begins stampeding through house after house, collecting more victims for his bed post, and it leads to Myers returning home, back to where his thirst for killing began. The angry mob must now go to his place of origin and stop this apex predator in his tracks before he can kill anymore.
With this being a straight up carry on to the previous film, it was always going to be lacking when it came to story; only simple additions can be incorporated to its predecessor’s storyline, following the same cliches, and basically just being a continuation of the first. So, forgive it for lacking any real depth or originality. It was very creepy at times though, especially the ending with the added music, Laurie’s eerie monologue and a very timely violent ending montage.
As slasher films go it ticks all the boxes for what makes a memorable one. This franchise is one of the classic horror franchises and up there with the best of them, it does exactly what it set out to do – and then a sprinkle more – and does so with great creativeness and great self-pride. It sets itself up for a thrilling sequel, something we already know is confirmed to be in the works, and I’m guessing we will see more of the same, continuing exactly where we left this one, but maybe this time there will be a memorable finish to end it all for once – but probably not.
