Halloween Kills is kind of a mess. It’s ambitious and I appreciate the decision to try to take the franchise in a different direction. To not make the same movie or the standard slasher film all over again. And I like the choices it makes… but the movie is just so unfocused, rambling, and sometimes contradictory about what itself.
The flick opens a few minutes after the 2018 film ends. It’s still Halloween night (and will be for the rest of the film) and Michael Myers ain’t what you’d call dead after all (shocking, I know). But now he’s slightly crispy and just as cranky as ever so he keeps on keepin’ on with the murders. And the people of Haddonfield are tired of all this bullshit and decide to take matters into their own collective vigilante hands.
And that’s a cool idea. I’m not sure the franchise, as fractured as it is with this latest reboot, really earns this storyline though. If there had been Halloweens 2 through whatever, then maybe. But this is a town that suffered three deaths 40 years ago and we’re to believe they are all so full of righteous rage, they’d form an angry mob (just without pitchforks and torches). I still think it’s an interesting idea…
Also interesting is that this movie is trying to introduce a moral message to the franchise. I’m not sure we need that but if they landed it properly, I’d have liked it. But it seems kind of arbitrary and forced… But, for a while, it was neat feeling the anarchy of the crowd start to unravel. Not a bad message certainly, though even in that, the movie is just too unfocused for it to work. I mean, teach me Mr. Movie that lynch mobs are bad… until you decide they aren’t. Gotcha. Totally on-message there.
As far as Michael goes, he gets around, he kills a lot of people, and its all pretty bloody. But the focus – or lack of focus – on his killing spree just makes the movie even more disjointed. He seems to mostly be randomly killing folk and that’d be ok if it weren’t for the rest of the movie’s mob and main characters often sitting out huge portions of the flick.
Jamie Lee Curtis is, for the most part, laid up in the hospital. And we get her daughter and granddaughter as part of the action… sometimes. And other characters get to shine… sometimes. This movie can’t stay focused on anyone in particular. And then we get Laurie Strode making the usual Dr. Loomis proclamations as to the nature of evil and whatnot. At least that’s on brand, I suppose.
I ultimately got frustrated, bummed, and a little bored by the movie. It’s got some merit but it’s a big step down from the previous movie. But I give them a lot of credit for at least trying something different. I just think they needed a couple more passes at the script to tighten up the rambling plot and its moralizing.
Score: 74