Any time a new "Halloween" flick is announced, there is the chill of anticipation, the hope someone achieves more than a third of what made the original 1978 film a classic in its disreputable genre. Of all the run-of-the-mill sequels and reboots that have come and gone, "Halloween: H20" was the best and moderately entertaining if for no reason other than the return of reliable Jamie Lee Curtis. I am not excluding the bloody "Halloween II" from 1981 but "H20" had more psychological depth. The 2018 sequel, simply called "Halloween," was mediocre though what made it rise above the others was, again, the return of Jamie Lee Curtis as the tormented Laurie Strode who actually becomes the hunter, the one that wants to vanquish Michael Myers from existence. She's back in "Halloween Kills" though it is largely an extended cameo. Boo! Still I think "Halloween Kills" is a marked improvement over the 2018 flick, quite entertaining with a few surprises yet the gory killings are more over-the-top than usual.
Starting right from where we last left off, Michael Myers has survived an inferno started by Laurie Strode (who has a bad stab wound in her gut). So Laurie is off to the Haddonfield hospital to be operated on and, before you can say "oh, shades of 'Halloween II' here", the movie shifts to Michael Myers killing unsuspecting people left and right. The victims include an interracial couple in their late 60's and a gay couple with an affinity for John Cassavetes films who are residing in the old Mike Myers residence, you know Halloween fans, where Mikey used to live and stabbed his older sister! Mikey at the start of the film doesn't waste time as he kills firefighters in what may or may not be an homage to the opening of "The Bride of Frankenstein." Speaking of Universal Horror by way of Frankenstein, the local townsfolk are sick of Michael Myers and so is Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) who rouses their killer instincts and forms a mob to hunt and kill Mikey! They don't come out with torches but they are ready to shoot, kill and destroy the boogeyman.
Some of the kills linger too lovingly on the bloody viscera, including that interracial couple whom Mikey kills - he stabs the husband over and over shown from the point of the wife who has a fluorescent bulb in her throat. This killing makes little sense - why did Mike come after them? The gay couple (*SPOILERS*) is killed by Mikey and the fact that they live in the former Myers residence makes some sort of sense - that is his turf after all. Yet these killings are far too grisly, far grislier than any of the sequels ever showed (and that includes the 1981 sequel). One mental patient is ridiculously mistaken for Mike Myers by the Haddonfield mob and the scared patient jumps to his death from one of the upper floors of the hospital - we see what a bloody splatter mess it is including a nearly severed arm and brain detail. Was that really necessary? I know these horror directors have to up the ante on gore yet none of these sequels, well to some degree this one excepted, ever matched what the original did - the power of atmosphere and the power of suggestion.
Despite these gory moments that made my heart sink a little, I actually enjoyed this movie more than I expected. Some of "Halloween Kills" does have the effectiveness of the first two "Halloweens" in terms of atmospheric night shots where we never know what lurks around the street corner or alleyways. There is a neat flashback to the 1978 era that looks like lost footage shot by John Carpenter and it includes the return of Dr. Loomis (there is also flashback footage from "Halloween II," odd because the filmmakers have stated they were ignoring everything after 1978). Judy Greer is terrific as Laurie's daughter, especially as she taunts Michael Myers towards the powerful finale. I liked seeing the return of Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace and the wonderful Charles Cyphers who played the Sheriff in the first two Halloweens. Anthony Michael Hall gives the most intense performance of his career as Tommy, armed with his Huckleberry bat. I'd never thought I'd say this but I look forward to the next installment.
Footnote: Nancy Stephens is back as former nurse Marion Chambers. Her character returned in 1981's "Halloween II" and in the opening sequence of "Halloween: H20" where she was killed by Mikey. In this film, she returns and is still living in Haddonfield and hanging out with Lindsey and Tommy at a bar. Why would this woman still live in this town and hang out with these two when she presumably never knew them as kids in the 1978 original?
