Halloween Kills

A worthy effort, if nothing all that memorable.

I found 'Halloween Kills' to be a touch below 2018's 'Halloween' in terms of entertainment and general interest, but like that one it does what it needs to do and produces something that is (narrowly, in this case) worth watching. I would've liked a bit more progression in the story, as this very much feels like the middle entry in a three-parter.

This flick gives more screen time to those around Jamie Lee Curtis, which isn't necessarily a positive (given Curtis is as good as she is) but the actors all do find jobs - even if no-one particularly stands out, at least to me. Away from the cast, the deaths are solid and the use of the iconic theme is spot on.

I didn't love this, almost nonplussed by it in truth but overall I think it just does enough to merit being filed under 'good'.

The movie takes place immediately after the events from 2018's Halloween. I imagine that if you liked that movie, you'll probably like this one as well. I'm sure you're familiar with the drill. Michael Myers kills a bunch of people, the end.

Here is my problem with this movie. For things to happen as they do, every single character in this movie must do the dumbest thing possible. People are literally throwing themselves into Michael Myers' path to be murdered when they could easily avoid it. People go off, alone, in a house to go looking for him. They never have a chance. When they have the opportunity to call for backup, they don't. When they have a gun that they can use to shoot him, they don't even try to get a good shot and just shoot wildly. Even when they are like two feet away, they can't hit him. They are worse shots than the stormtroopers from Star Wars. Even when they do have an opportunity to take him out, they totally blunder it by letting up and by getting in close to fight, one by one. This movie even goes back in time to come up with new scenes showing people making the dumbest choices possible. Michael Myers just keeps going about his business, and all of these people go out of their way to get murdered by him. Everyone in this town is a moron. So, if you're looking for a movie that isn't remotely scary involving Michael Myers walking around slaughtering people dumber than livestock with occasional scenes of Jamie Lee Curtis screaming wildly for no real reason, you will probably like this.

'Halloween Kills' is the definition of a sequel for the sake of making a sequel (or more accurately the sake of making money). It not only adds nothing to the story, it destroys some of the good things from the 2018 version. I've been looking forward to this movie for a long time with the COVID delays, and I sadly have to say it was not worth the wait at all.

The characters in this movie were atrocious. Firstly, they destroyed 'Laurie Strode'. Not only does she do absolutely nothing in this movie, she is rude to kind nurses and assaults a doctor. Yup, that'll get us on her side. But that wasn't even the worst of it. The side characters they created for this film were embarrassing. There is a scene where a character just stares at 'Michael Myers', says something to the effect of, "Michael, you've come home", and then just stands there and waits to be killed. That's the worst example of it, but this is very much a rinse and repeat thing throughout the film.

The pacing of the film is all over the place too. There's a very strange and uninteresting opening scene. Then we get a couple of admittedly great scenes with the firefighters and in a house with a couple. At this point I was having a good time. 'Michael' was ferocious and in no mood to mess around. Then we hit a wall and frankly never recovered. Even at the end when the film should be building up to the big conclusion, it feels like it's stuck in first gear.

Also there's a subplot involving a mental patient that is just unpleasant. It's not scary, it's not clever, it's just depressing and unnecessary (and quite insulting to the audience that we are expected to buy it). I didn't find much to enjoy about this film sadly. It looks great and the start was decent. Otherwise though it's not one I can recommend. 4/10.

I cannot even wrap my head around how bad this movie was. I loved the last one and had been looking forward to this movie for 2 years. I was so disappointed.

Never been so frustrated watching a movie. Every last character just made stupid decision after stupid decision right the way throughout. They all deserve to die. #TeamMyers.