Halloween Kills

Director: David Gordon Green
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, James Jude Courtney, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Anthony Michael Hall, Dylan Arnold, Thomas Mann, Charles Cyphers, Kyle Richards, Nancy Stephens, Omar Dorsey, Jim Cummings, Scott MacArthur, Michael McDonald
Running Time: 105 min.
Rating: R 

**The Following 'Halloween Kills' Review Contains Some Plot Spoilers**

★★★ (out of ★★★★) 

Even by Halloween franchise standards, David Gordon Green's sequel to his well-received 2018 reboot is insane in ways both thrilling and infuriating. If his initial installment took great pains to move as far away from the series' mythology as possible, retconning everything that came after John Carpenter's 1978 original, Halloween Kills does a complete 180, agressively engaging in call backs and fan service to the point that it nearly feels like a horror convention reunion. It even features one of sorts, as a major plot point revolves around the gathering of legacy survivors and flashbacks that frame past events in a new context. It's also overflowing with about as many characters as a horror film can contain, opening up its world while shifting some focus away from the three main heroines.

With Blumhouse delivering something that feels more akin to a Friday The 13th installment, complete with a Rob Zombie-like zest for brutality and gore, the envelope's pushed in terms of how much enjoyment that can be creatively derived from within the confines of this property, or even the genre itself. We've been kidding ourselves for a while now with Halloween as it's continued to ride the goodwill of a 40-year-old classic, all while fans cling to potentially getting a new film worthy of sharing its title with the groundbreaking original. 

2018 gave us the return of Jamie Lee Curtis to her most famous role and a respectable writing and directing team at the helm promising a return to basics. Bolstered by Carpenter's credit as a producer, that film may have been a minor triumph, but a certain ceiling and stigma have remained from the sequel silliness endured by fans through the years. As messy as it is, Halloween Kills doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is, never dragging despite a number of elements that could have been excised without consequence. But no matter where this lands in the rankings, it still strangely fits in with the rest, while also managing to stand on its own as a major outlier.  

Immediately following the events that occurred on Halloween night, 2018, a seriously injured Laurie Strode (Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and grandaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) rush to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital as the Strode residence burns to the ground with Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) still trapped in the basement. When the firefighters arrive, they're systematically picked off one-by-one by the The Shape, who survived the blaze and now has his sights set on terrorizing Haddonfield before going "home" once again. Meanwhile, Allyson's ex-boyfriend Cameron (Dylan Arnold) discovers deputy Frank Hawkins (Will Patton) bleeding and clinging to life after having been stabbed and run over by Dr. Sartain. He'll soon be joining Laurie in the ICU, even as he's still haunted by the results of an encounter he had with Michael on Halloween night 1978 that led to a fellow officer's death. 

At a local bar, another Michael survivor, Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) has gathered with friends Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens), Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards) and Cameron's dad, Lonnie Elam (Robert Longstreet) to mark the 40th anniversary of Michael's imprisonment. Unbeknownst to them, he's already returned to Haddonfield and is still on the loose, continuing his murderous rampage. After hearing the news, a determined Tommy begins organizing a mob of other furious Haddonfield townsfolk intent on capturing and killing Michael, whose body count is sure to increase as he lurks in the shadows, stalking his next victims.

Green doesn't exactly pick up where he left off, opting instead for flashbacks to previously unseen events involving a young officer Hawkins (Thomas Mann) the night of Laurie's ordeal in '78, as well as a backstory of a young, bullied Lonnie (Tristian Eggerling) and his close encounter with Michael (Airon Armstrong). This is a hard, sharp turn considering the 2018 reboot was built on the promise of a fresh start, free from the baggage that followed the original. For an opening, it's fine, aesthetically recreating the atmosphere of the late 70's Haddonfield well enough with a believable performance from Mann, but when Green breaks into the already loaded present-day action to revisit this throughout, it does become a bit much.

While those scenes work, they certainly don't simplify things, and there may be a 50/50 split among fans about being visually treated to a new scene at the Myers house that would have only otherwise existed in our imaginations. The Star Wars-like digitized audio sampling of Donald Pleasence's voice as Dr. Loomis (played by Tom Jones Jr. in the flashback), comes off far better than it should, only leaving the question of whether any of this is entirely neccessary. Still, it gives the picture an unusually old school start that segues into the franchise's classic pumpkin title sequence, complete with John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies' hypnotizing score, arguably the most valuable element in both Green films.   

The idea of a horror sequel, or even specifically a Halloween, picking up minutes after the previous one concludes is tremendously smart because it keeps the narrative momentum going. That concept is somewhat blunted here, with not only the insertion of an opening flashback, but even a scene from 1981's Halloween II, which shouldn't technically exist if we're holding Green to his word about this trilogy. With Laurie bedridden at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital for much of the first hour, it's natural to assume we're being set up for another round of Laurie vs. Michael in the same vein and setting that closed the original sequel. Luckily, this doesn't happen, maybe partly because the script can only squeeze in so many callbacks, topping out long before that. Most of them involve the group of survivors led by a revenge-consumed Tommy. Their storyline is undoubtedly engrossing, even as it does temporarily push the three generations of Strode women to the sidelines at the hospital, grappling with the realization that they didn't finish off Michael after all.

The Boogeyman is definitely in top form, with James Jude Courtney again an imposing presence in kill scenes that carry more emotional weight than usual due his eventual victims getting more screen time and personality this go around. Green also lingers on the deaths in ways he didn't in his previous outing, both in registering their reaction to impending doom and as the life escapes their eyes in the final moments. It isn't gratuitous as much as disturbing, with the slaying of a bickering elderly couple (played by Diva Tyler and Lenny Clarke) standing out as especially bone-chilling and uncomfortable.

Costumed doctor and nurse couple Vanessa (Carmela McNeal) and Marcus (Michael Smallwood) return in larger supporting roles, providing surprisingly fun comic relief, as do new, noteworthy characters Big John (Scott MacArthur) and Little John (MADtv's great Michael McDonald) a same-sex couple currently occupying the Myers residence. Transitions between this kind of comedy and the slayings aren't as jarring or clumsily handled as they've been in previous outings, rarely resulting in the usual tonal whiplash associated with the series. There's also a great deal of suspense generated from a forest scene involving Kyle Richards' Lindsey, who, aside from Anthony Michael Hall, leaves the most lasting impression of the legacy cast.

Hall presents a jarring Tommy Doyle, who proves to be a far cry from Paul Rudd's version in Halloween 6. It turns out that kid Laurie babysat grew up to be a one-man vigilante machine with a shaved head and brutish obsession with revenge, while still remaining a decent enough guy to root for. Michael's return changes everything for him as he rallies the Haddonfield mob in what ends up being the most controversial aspect of an an already polarizing film. Green doesn't quite connect the dots with whatever socio-political statement he's trying to make about mob mentality, but when the angry residents descend upon the hospital with blood lust in their eyes, what unfolds is comparable to a car crash you can't turn away from, or more accurately, a modern day take on The Twilight Zone episode, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." 

The hospital riot provides Judy Greer with one of her two big showcase sequences, perhaps to make up for playing a somewhat smaller role opposite Curtis last time. If Andi Matichak stepped up to emerge as one of the stronger components of H18 as Allyson, now it's Greer's turn. Matichak impresses again, especially toward the final act, but it'll be Karen's literal face-to-face with a maskless Myers that's talked about. Recognizing the value that still remains in keeping Michael's features a mystery, Green is careful to show just enough, but not too much as to demystify him. Someone had to go, and it wasn't going to be Laurie, with key lynchpin Curtis still due for her final showdown with Michael. Matichak's Allyson is the next generation, so process of elimination leaves us with the only major death possible, done in a way that cleverly calls back to the '78 original, all while ensuring there's still hell to pay in Halloween Ends.    

More than most, this effort represents the idea that we've all reached a point where it's just not important whether some masterpiece Halloween movie ever comes down the pike again. And that might not be such a bad thing. So while it's possible a much better film could have emerged without the extra post-production time afforded to overthink certain decisions, that's not likely knowing the franchise's track record. Instead, we're left to be entertained by an installment that's sure to be argued about and rewatched for some time to come. And the first since Zombie's underrated 2009 Halloween II to take some real risks, both for better and worse. It's not hard to imagine this getting a similar reappraisal down the line, as its flaws possibly iron out with future viewings.  

Green getting a jump on some of these characters and ideas in 2018 probably would have led to a smoother, less busy result, but the craziness is a big part of its charm. That can't always be said for a lot of these. Some of the worst entries manage to be dull and poorly made, two categories under which Halloween Kills definitely wouldn't fall. While frequently overindulging, at least Green isn't phoning it in, clearly laying the groundwork for what's next. Everything points toward a more streamlined finale that's sure to focus almost entirely on Laurie and Michael. But this sure took us on a wild ride to get there.