Halloween Kills (2021)

2018’s Halloween was considered a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s classic 1978 movie of the same name. With one fell swoop, it retconned all of the previous sequels — from 1981’s Halloween II to 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection — out of existence. While that made the series’ timeline easier to follow, it didn’t make every fan of the franchise happy. Some didn’t like the changes made by new script writers Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green. Others didn’t like the fact that Michael Myers essentially became a killer senior citizen. And still others thought it wasn’t brutal enough. I guess you can’t please everyone.

For the record, I quite liked the 2018 Halloween. I am personally of the view that the original movie didn’t need or warrant any sequels. But I thought that the 2018 film was as good a sequel as we were likely to ever get. I thought it put the evil back into Michael Myers while previous sequels either humanized him or turned him into a cartoon. Unfortunately, 2021’s Halloween Kills, the second in a new Halloween trilogy, completely abandons the elements that made the 2018 movie so good.

Picking up immediately after the events of Halloween, the film begins with Michael Myers emerging from the burning remains of Laurie Strode’s fortified compound. He immediately slaughters the firefighters dispatched to the scene. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer,) and granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), arrive at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital for treatment. They’re unaware that Michael has survived.

We’re then introduced to a number of characters who were survivors of Michael’s original 1978 murder spree: Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall,) Lonnie Elam (Robert Longstreet,) Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards) and Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens.) They’ve gathered at a bar to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that fateful night — also unaware that Michael is back on the prowl in the present day. As news reports come in about Michael’s new rampage, the bar crowd morphs into a full-blown mob bent on ending his reign of terror. Soon the mob descends on the hospital; convinced that they’re pursuing Michael. (They’re not.) Meanwhile, Michael continues murdering townsfolk as he makes his way to his childhood home.

What follows is a complete mess of a movie. Using flashbacks to 1978 to create new scenarios for no good reason, Halloween Kills tries to be a direct sequel to both of the previous movies. As a result, there’s an unnecessary need to introduce a new set of old characters and shoehorn their relevance into this timeline. If the script planned something interesting to do with them, it might be worth the effort. It doesn’t. They’re relegated to otherwise useless roles and most simply become fodder for Michael Myers.

For those that rate slasher movies solely by the kills, Halloween Kills features some brutally violent murders. I can’t recall Michael Myers being this savage in any of his other movie appearances (even in Rob Zombie’s version.) If that’s your barometer of quality, you’ll probably enjoy this. Unfortunately, for the rest of us, the kills don’t salvage this directionless effort.

By essentially sidelining Laurie Strode to a supporting role, the script doesn’t replace her character with anyone that the audience can care about. Having Haddonfield rise up as a mob, chanting “evil dies tonight,” doesn’t work as a substitute. It is kind of funny, though, because it’s so ridiculous. While the movie could have used some levity, these laughs are unintentional.

Halloween Kills simply treads water until next year’s final entry in the series, Halloween Ends, makes its way into theaters. This movie is proof that — like the 1978 original — the 2018 Halloween needed no sequel.