Halloween Kills picks up right where 2018's Halloween ended. Michael Myers is seemingly dead, burned alive in a basement. Just kidding, he's alive because Michael Myers is the 2001 Shaq of horror movie menaces. He cannot be stopped. In this go-round, director David Gordon Green places more emphasis on Michael Myers, however, it doesn’t amount to being much more than a 100-minute murder highlight reel with an identity problem.
The film struggles with what it wants to be. Kills features its fair share of one-liners and attempts at being self-aware, which makes sense with Danny McBride as a co-writer, but it doesn’t translate. The film's tone doesn't align with Michael's murders - the kills are pretty fucking brutal. Kills ramps up the violence from the 2018 film, with Michael at least doubling his body count. At certain points, it feels pointless, like we’re just watching Michael stab an old woman in the neck with a broken lightbulb for the hell of it.
That’s Kills’ problem: it ditches a fluid plot in exchange for gory freak-out moments. Kills doesn’t feature much Laurie Strode (Jaime Lee Curtis), rather focusing on her daughter (Judy Greer), granddaughter (Andi Matichak), and the residents of Haddonfield, Illinois who decide to take Michael on. The film follows a basic formula: Michael kills someone, everyone plans on how to kill Michael, Michael kills someone, repeat. The stakes never feel that high, mostly because Michael can’t be stopped. Each time he approaches a hopeless teenager you know how it’s going to end. Michael should have a weak point, like puppies or menthol cigarettes.
I watched Kills on the good ol’ Cock, so perhaps a full theater experience would do the film a bit more justice. If you’ve seen every sequel, spinoff, and reboot of the Halloween franchise and must continue your journey, give Kills a watch. If you’re not big on the slasher genre, this isn’t a necessary entry in your 2021 watchlist.
Comments