The sequel to the recent, parallel Halloween 2, aka Halloween '18, is entitled Halloween Kills, the second chapter in a developing slasher trilogy. Thanks to accursed COVID, this follow-up was delayed by a year, which isn't as disagreeable as what other flicks have endured, like No Time to Die and Black Widow, but still anticipation has been shooting through the roof due to the restraint.
Halloween Kills is directed by the prior film's David Gordon Green, who co-scripted with Danny McBride and Scott Teems, and is as violent as word of mouth proclaims. It holds a raw-edged, '78 epilogue that explains how Michael Myers was caught way-back-when, and when it resumes in the "present", it continues to be absent of any goofy nonsense to slow it down under the pretense that such padding builds suspense. This Myers chapter is a nonstop monster-on-the-loose love affair (even when he's not on screen), where even obligatory interludes tingle with reflective chill.
The film ultimately picks up where Halloween '18 left off, with Myers (James Jude Courtney) flanked by flames in Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis)'s house, but of course, the damn Shape doesn't perish. An unknowing fireman lends the escaped madman a hand, and Myers' trail of carnage marches on as Deputy Hawkins (Will Patton), Sheriff Barker (Omar Dorsey), former Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cyphers) and Strode's old, babysitting pals, Tommy Doyle (now played by Anthony Michael Hall) and Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Nichols of John Carpenter/Debra Hill's original and looking quite Demi Moore-esque) help Strode swallow the unabated maelstrom.
For those who suspect this one will buck tradition, fret not. The story's structure features mounds of barometric heritage, with the Haddonfield Memorial Hospital once more flavoring the autumnal bracketing. However, the formula takes an initiating but satisfying turn when Strode and friends form a vigilante group to snuff Myers' resumed reign of terror. The anxiety and fear among the ensemble ride the crest of Rod Serling's "Monsters are Due on Maple Street" and to some degree George Romero/John Russo's Night of the Living Dead, exposing a divergence of select quirks to deter the menace, but it never goes much beyond that appreciated but curtailed mob mentality: a bummer, since a broadened, communal case may have placed Halloween Kills on a behavioral platform.
On the other hand, more than enough contentious tension rises from Laurie's daughter, Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Madichak) to keep viewers ensnared. And yes, the former plays an important part in the publicized-to-a-fault, unfocused unmasking of the senior Myers. (Though let's face it folks, this isn't the first time Myers has lost his refurbished Kirk guise to tease his adult features, if one recalls Halloween '78's television cut. Also his appearances as a child, in the latter movie and Rob Zombie's remake/quasi-prequel make it reasonable to extrapolate.)
Even with the drum-rolling unveiling, Myers stands propelled and dogged throughout this implacable chapter. Some have compared his new, hellbent behavior to that of Leatherface and/or Jason Voorhees, since he skirts the shadows to slash right out in the audacious open, taking the statutory, is-he-dead-yet bow every now and then. (Pardon the tangent, but I've long discerned a significant sum of Yul Brynner's Westworld Gunslinger in Myers, in the way the Shape keeps springing up after being knocked down, and I dare say, Myers and the Gunslinger are explicit precursors to the Terminator 800's resiliency, but that's a comparative discussion for another time down the super-stalker line.)
On the evident, allegorical side, Halloween Kills makes Myers a symbolic force of reckoning, who adheres to Nietchze's "That which does not kill us makes us stronger", and the more he kills, the more impregnable he grows (and in so doing, spares no one, including the elderly and {pre}adolescent kids). But as with any irrevocable force in life, one can't just sit back and let one's aggressor have his way. One must conjure the courage to strike back, no matter the boogeyman involved. Halloween Kills is this premise's apex exemplar.
Strap on a pair of it's-fun-to-be-scared balls and give this seasonal offering a stab. It ought to keep one restlessly content until Halloween Ends gains its revenge this time next year.
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