Halloween Kills Reviewed.

I’ve always found Micheal Myers to be the lamest of the famous movie killers. When your competition is Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruegger, Pinhead and Ghostface, it really takes something special to stand out. I’ve never felt that Micheal Myers had that…and Halloween Kills reinforces that.

Despite my personal feelings for him, it seems that Hollywood doesn’t want him to die. Ironically, out of all the old school killers, Micheal Myers seems to be enjoying a renaissance of sorts. He’s been in multiple movies, more than any of the old school slasher killers (barring Ghostface, who’s returning in the new Scream movie).

That’s no mean feat considering he’s just a killer wearing an Captain Kirk mask. There must be something about Myers that’s enduring him to audiences (or at the very least, Hollywood execs).

What is Halloween Kills?

Halloween Kills is the latest movie in the Halloween horror/slasher series. Directed by David Gordon Green (who was a producer on 2018’s Halloween), it also stars series veteran Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, who’s been surviving Micheal Myers since the 80s! Halloween Kills is a direct continuation of 2018’s Halloween.

The movie will be in cinemas on 28 October 2021 locally, or you could stream it right now if you use a VPN to sign up for Peacock.

Here’s the rest of the cast, courtesy of IMDB.

As the sequel to Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills picks up literally minutes after the ending of the previous film. Laurie Strode’s house is burning down, with Micheal Myers trapped in the sealed basement. Laurie and her family think they’ve finally dealt with their nightmare once and for all but they’re in for a big surprise…

Needless to say, Halloween Kills wouldn’t exist if Micheal Myers didn’t survive being trapped in the burning basement.

True to typical movie slasher pattern, Myers not only survived the deathtrap, he emerges from it pissed as hell. In fact, in all of the Halloween movies, I’ve never seen Myers this hellbent on killing people. He kills a ton of people in the movie; from firefighters to a kid to vigilantes. He murders murders murders and murders some more.

The plot of the movie is literally the townspeople going around hunting Micheal Myers because they’re sick of his going around and killing innocent folks.

If you’re into the movie for the murders, it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

While Myers does kill a ton of people, the kills themselves are a bit tame. I was honestly expecting for a more visceral finishers. In the movie, only the solo kills are fleshed out, with the group kills being a blink and you miss it affair.

Watching the movie is also damn infuriating.

It’s not because of the acting (which is fine) but because of the illogical ways people in the movie act! In a country where school shootings with assault rifles happen with frightening regularity, the people in the movie are only armed with pistols and shotguns.

Seriously?

On top of that, nobody apparently thinks that shooting at the head of Myers is a good idea. Why the hell not?!

Myers on the other hand, has no qualms about killing.

The solo kills (particularly when he murders Big John) are especially gruesome and some of the best effects work I’ve seen in a slasher film. Myers is brutal in killing anybody who stands in his way and it’s lovely watching him finish people off one by one. None of the kills are particular imaginative, but the solo kills are gloriously violent that you won’t mind.

What you will mind are the group kills.

There are multiple points in the movie where Myers takes on groups of people. Here’s where the movie falters. Instead of the gruesome (and cool) kills that we’re treated to for the solo deaths, the group kills are over at the snap of a finger. A victim rarely gets more than a few seconds of screen time before being finished off.

It’s honestly pretty lame and I think more should’ve been done to make those kills more entertaining for the viewer. Being over so fast cheapens it all to the point that Myers seems more like the Terminator than whatever he is.

In fact, that’s the biggest question I have of Micheal Myers.

What the hell is he really?

He’s dealt a boatload of punishment in Halloween Kills and still keeps on ticking. He’s beaten, stabbed, shot, slashed but he still keeps getting up. It’s unnatural as the combination of injuries he’s suffered throughout the night (remember, Halloween and Halloween Kills are all set in the same night) should’ve killed him many times over.

Not only does it seem he’s not affected (other than his mask being burnt and some facial scarring from the heat), Myers keeps on killing without being noticeably injured whatsoever. In fact, he seems to be able to teleport seeing he manages to appear behind his victims multiple times.

While Myers has shown a noticeable durability in a past movies, Halloween Kills has him on Jason Voorhees unkillable level, which might really piss off hardcore fans.

The Bottom Line.

As a brainless slasher film, Halloween Kills is a pretty decent one. There are a ton of murders and quite a few of them’s quite grisly. That’s excellent. However, the movie is also infuriatingly illogical with how the people in it act. Nobody is competant enough to take on Myers, and the plot is wafer thin.

Yes, there’s going to be one more film in the proposed trilogy (the ending all but ensures it), but Halloween Kills doesn’t even advance the plot from Halloween in any meaningful way in the least.

TLDR:

Watch for the kills, not for the plot.