After the success of 2018’s “Halloween,” the kinda sequel, kinda reboot of the iconic horror series, two back-to-back sequels were greenlit and the first of those is “Halloween Kills.” With lots of hype, a massive increase in the body count and the return of Jamie Lee Curtis as final girl Laurie Strode, does this sequel live up to the previous entry?
Picking up immediately after the first film’s conclusion, Laurie, her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) have seemingly outwitted and escaped Michael Meyers, the famed serial killer who murdered dozens that night, including Allyson’s father. But of course, Michael’s bloodbath is far from over and he rises from the ashes, as it were, to start killing again. To what end? That’s the question that this film posits, but doesn’t quite answer.
Horror fans are no doubt going to flock to this film, mostly because it’s one of the only horror films releasing this Halloween, besides “Antlers” and “Last Night in Soho,” and they’re definitely going to get their money’s worth. The gore and blood factor is taken up to fifteen out of ten and few are safe from Michael’s rampage. Innocent firefighters, senior citizens, and even a gay couple end up on the bad end of Michael’s knife and unlike the 2018 “Halloween,” which had most of the deaths occur offscreen, this one isn’t afraid to show off every last drop of blood, which sometimes goes too far into overkill territory. One moment has Michael stab an already dead man about five more times for no apparent reason other than he can.
There’s nothing wrong with lots of gore, especially in a horror film. But the problem with “Halloween Kills” is that most of the relatively short 1 hour 45-minute runtime is focused on characters we don’t care about. If you’re waiting for Laurie Strode to kick some ass and face-off with Michael again, you will leave severely disappointed- Curtis spends the entire film in a hospital bed. Allyson gets some time to shine and Matichak is great once again, and the always reliable Judy Greer has a beefed-up role this time, but they’re not the primary heroes of the movie as the marketing would have you believe.
Instead, most of the focus is on either Michael’s victims, similar to the slow burn babysitter kill in the previous film, or returning survivors from previous “Halloween” entries, namely Anthony Michael Hall as Tommy Doyle and Robert Longstreet as Lonnie Elam, who turns out to be the father of Allyson’s douche boyfriend from the previous film. These characters have the genius idea that they need to mobilize the citizens of Haddonfield to fight back and kill (?) Michael, which makes sense for certain people, namely Allyson, but not for random bargoers who have never heard of Michael, much less survived his terror.
Director David Gordon Green tries to add substance to this otherwise grim film, by crowbarring in a message about how fear of monsters can cause us to become monsters ourselves, but it’s severely underutilized and feels like pandering. It’s a shame because all this makes “Halloween Kills” feel less like a complete film and more like a trip down memory lane for longtime fans. Maybe next year’s “Halloween Ends” will tie up the series in a neat little bow, but this entry needed much more focus.
“Halloween Kills” is unfortunately yet another addition to the disappointing horror sequels bonfire. Without a clear focus on the heroes we know, it becomes violence for violence’s sake and more of a build-up for next year’s finale than a satisfying story.
“Halloween Kills” is now playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock.