Halloween Kills is the fourth Halloween 2, and like every other Halloween 2, it is a disappointment. Blumhouse’s 2018 sequel/reboot
of the famed slasher franchise tried to simplify things by shedding all of the
mythology of the series save the 1978 original (and did so with the involvement
of John Carpenter himself for the first time in almost three decades) -resulting
in a relatively even, bare bones approach that generally worked. It ended in a
satisfying way too, with Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode, together with
daughter and granddaughter, subduing Michael Myers and trapping him in a
burning house. A closure to a lifelong trauma, and a fitting end for that
shape.
But it never ends of
course, Michael Myers will always find a way back in spite of how badly beaten
he is. But if 2018’s Halloween maintained a certain grounded sensibility
on par with the original film, it’s done away with pretty quickly and with
frequency in Halloween Kills, which follows up that film to the minute
-taking place entirely over that same Halloween night in 2018 (surely it’s
November 1st by movies’ end).
As the Strodes are
taken to hospital and emergency crews unwittingly save Michael by dealing with
the fire, we see an awkward memorial take place at a bar in town for the
survivors of that original massacre in 1978. Anthony Michael Hall plays Tommy,
the kid Laurie was babysitting, but each of the others are cast with the same
actors from the original movie, regardless of how young they were or how long
it’s been since they performed. Additionally, the original films’ sheriff
reappears and Michael himself on the few occasions he’s unmasked, is once again
played by his inaugural performer Nick Castle. This film is very concerned with
nods and references to the first Halloween, even more-so than its’
predecessor. In fact, it is wholly indebted to that film, bringing back these
old characters proves so. And it really shows the hand of director David Gordon
Green and writers Danny McBride and Scott Teems.
The Halloween
franchise has had its’ share of very low points but it never quite went the way
of counterparts Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th
into being full-on self-parody. Michael Myers never went to space, he never
broke the fourth wall for a killing spree, and he was never involved in a silly
crossover. Because Halloween was arguably the genesis of the slasher
horror genre, it and Michael have been afforded a degree of status and respect
that these others haven’t enjoyed. Halloween Kills though demonstrates
that this has had a limiting effect, that the series is restrained in its’
ability to try new things and embark on interesting directions with how it
represents Michael. And so instead the film can only double down on ideas laid
by that first movie -particularly with regards to Michael as an embodiment of
pure evil, which in spite of a more realist approach set by the 2018 film,
appears to be taken as literal fact. Everyone builds him up that way and the
filmmakers here strive to make some definitive statement out of it.
The way in which
Michael is cast as some kind of supernatural personification of the worst
impulses of the people of Haddonfield is puzzling to say the least, perhaps the
most puzzling of the many explanations given over the years for what his
purpose is, when he’s much scarier without one. The film ties his kills and his
persistence to the towns’ fury. As soon as they learn that he is back, a
vigilante mob is formed to hunt him down. And of course the mob is unruly and
violent, terrorizing a mentally ill man they mistake for Michael. It very much
feels like Green insinuating these people are the “real monsters”, or at the
very least as bad as Michael, chanting “evil dies tonight” in a manner not
unlike that chilling “Jews will not replace us.” It would almost vindicate
Michael. A Halloween movie though is not the place for such complex
discussions of morality as it relates to mob justice -this is not a piece
capable of being a twenty-first century equivalent to Fritz Lang’s M,
especially given the brutality of Michael must be substantially more
pronounced. And so it is a commentary without any direction: the mob is bad,
but their target Michael also is bad and should probably die. Asserting that
they in some way fuel him, and their anger itself for Michael’s murders is the
problem, just make the ethics even more messy. It also feels a touch
disrespectful and macabre to bring back those who managed to survive Michael
the first time as children, have endured decades of trauma because of it, only
to then be gruesomely murdered by him in their old age -like making a JurassicPark sequel that gleefully feeds the kids from the first movie to the
dinosaurs.
Jamie Lee Curtis is
shockingly absent for a lot of this, Laurie being indisposed as she heals from
her injuries sustained in the previous encounter. Mostly she stands to espouse
the severity of Michael’s evil, to judge the people around her, and to
reminisce with and comfort Will Patton’s Deputy Hawkins, also in recovery. Judy
Greer and Andi Matichak, both so significant to the last film, are likewise
reduced in lieu of a greater focus on the people of Haddonfield themselves, and
Michael. Indeed, this truly is Michael’s film, he appears for longer stretches
with more kills -some among the most graphic the series has ever done. They’re
a bit crueler too, including children and the elderly; and also a weird
stereotypical gay couple. And for this film it wasn’t only Michael who was
brought back from the dead, as in keeping with its’ obsession with the
original, it flashes back to the immediate aftermath of Halloween 1978 to come
up with its’ own independent resolution to that story, and features Donald
Pleasence as Dr. Loomis in what appears to be a mix of carefully edited archive
footage and special effects. It’s not enough to be as uncomfortable as those Star
Wars films that have reconstituted dead actors, but it is a bit uncanny
nonetheless.
Where the film should be uncanny though it
isn’t. Halloween Kills has a more brutish edge to it and aspirations to
say something more meaningful than other films in this franchise (it doesn’t),
but it ultimately falls short of bringing anything new to the table. What’s
more, it suffers the same problem as A Quiet Place Part II in not being
its’ own movie -entirely reliant on the previous one and ending suddenly in the
middle of a third act to be carried over into an additional film. But unlike A
Quiet Place Part II, I’m not craving anything more at that point. After a
brief jolt of life in 2018, it seems the Halloween series has recovered
its’ mediocrity.
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