"Halloween Kills" Review: Bleeding the Character's Legacy

Platform: Peacock, In Theaters

Release Date: October 15, 2021

Directly following the events of the 2018 installment, "Halloween Kills" is Michael Myers' revenge tour following the Strode family's valiant effort to set the boogeyman ablaze. As Michael frees himself from Laurie's (Jamie Lee Curtis) burning complex, he continues his assault upon Haddonfield with an attitude and brutality the killer has never shown before. On the other side of town, survivors of the first night Michael Myers descended on the town, including Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) and Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards), are meeting in celebration of their surival as another Halloween anniversary passes. As they learn of Michael's resurgence, they rally the townspeople together to hunt and put an end to Michael Myers. As the local militia interferes with local law enforcement's and Michael makes a bloody trek towards his childhood home, all hell breaks loose in Haddonfield. With Laurie, along with Officer Hawkins (Will Patton), sidelined by their injuries, Karen (Judy Greer), Allyson (Andi Matichak), and other Myers survivors attend to their own brand of protection, leading to a confrontation meant to end Michael's time in Haddonfield.

Despite the barrage of negative reactions towards this Michael Myers story, as a horror film, it was not that bad at all. Perhaps the most notable horror element of this movie is the brutality of the kills. None of them were particularly creative or innovative in any sense, but most had a significantly brute and ruthless approach to them. In addition to the ways the kills are carried out is the sheer extent of kills that Michael carries out, far more than the two previous movies existing in this storyline, hitting a body count of around thirteen before the film's halfway point. The really was no shortage of exciting kill sequences, especially in the opening scene during which Michael slaughters an entire crew of firefighters with fun shifts in cinematography. After that, the movie slugs on for a bit as it drags out the establishing of its protagonists and their hunting of the town monster.

To lend a more creative twist to the protagonist/antagonist relationship, the antagonist was hunted by the protagonists, whereas the majority of horror films take the vice-versa. While I do think the details of this change were one of the movie's narrative detriments, it is not hard to commend the film for trying to offer a different perspective. This detail of the movie also removes the "helpless" label from the townspeople and positions the audience's perspective of Michael to be much more defensive. While all of the aforementioned elements are cool ideas on their own, when incorporated into a Michael Myers film, the final product presents as quite the let down.

For all intents and purposes, there was very little Michael Myers in this film and for a creative team that praises the work of the original, they ignored its best features. Each of the most recognizable faces in horror carry with them a particular movie DNA: Freddy lives for the theatrics, Jason emphasizes his brute force, and Michael carries a shadowy ambience in his approach. Tying this in with earlier descriptions of the film, Michael is presented in a much more Jason-like manner with an "in your face" kill style that abandons Michael's typical MO. He even carries a bit of Freddy Krueger's showmanship in how some of the bodies are left for others to find, such as the victims being hung at the playground, where as the most we had seen of that from this character was a victim being stabbed to the door. Many times throughout the film I felt like this was a bit of a parody and that the antagonist was a poor attempt at a Michael Myers' copycat.

Firstly, Michael kills with purpose, namely obstacles in his way towards his target (Laurie Strode and in the case of this film, his childhood home) and is pretty quick with it. But the way he attacked a lot of characters in this movie brought a level of suffering that humanized Michael as someone leading a charge of revenge killings and came off as too emotional for the evil entity, or boogeyman, he represents. His breaking into the old couples home and continuously grabbing knives to stab into the old man felt like a sheer lack of understanding for this series. Secondly, as the boogeyman, Michael is a character who plays best when using a lot of shadow work and the "he's there, now he's not" approach to add to the mysticism and tension. Here, Michael is strolling down the street and taking nice walks in the park where he becomes much too visible and, in turn, less scary. Nothing was worse than seeing old man Michael slowly walk into the trap of townspeople without his mask and his male-pattern baldness on display.

The plot was a bit of a mess and barely any of it felt earned. The movie is positioned as the town of Haddonfield versus Michael Myers, all brought together by those who survived the original attacks, wherein the problem lies. Horror films do not have to make the most sense as they typically do not rely on their plots so much and, slashers especially, do not need much plot at all. But if you are going to use your plot to establish the main conflict of the movie, at least have it make more sense than a bunch of townspeople willing to risk their lives to hunt a serial killer who has suvived so much more than just their conventional methods, just because 40 years ago he killed a handful of people and then happened to kill more people on the same night they decide to join the crusade. It made sense to try and contradict the typical horror trope of groups splitting up, but there were too many dumb decisions to justify the decision to stick together. This was, unfortunately, tied to a socio-political commentary on the "defund the police" movement which served no place in a movie like this. The chaos that was caused by the townspeople was less an exhilarating plot point and more a messy use of background characters, especially in the ever pointless chase of the escaped inmate.

For a series that these creators continued on the premise of Michael's hunting of Laurie Strode, there was surprisingly no direction towards Laurie's whereabouts. Not having a lengthy explanation for the trek to his childhood home was fine, and much more in line with the killer's characterization, but it was strange to continue the same story from the 2018 movie with no Laurie/Michael stand-off. Instead, Laurie's daughter Karen seemingly takes her place as the final girl for this movie, although the surprise ending clearly established that Laurie herself or, more likely her granddaughter, is positioned to be the real final girl when the series meets its end next year. There was decent fan service throughout the movie, most obviously with the returning characters from the original film and the flashbacks that bridged the original film with the 2018 sequel. Which, by the way, I have to say I was highly impressed with how these scenes and how they digitally incorporated Dr. Loomis (the late Donald Pleasence) into them. The use of the three Silver Shamrock masks on the victims at the playground were also a nice homage to "Halloween III: Season of the Witch". Unforuntely, the movie as a whole did not feel like much of an homage to Michael Myer's legacy and will end up low on many lists for Michael Myers' fans and not leave much substance for slasher fans in general.

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Michael Myers Film Rankings

1. Halloween (1978)

2. H20

3. Halloween (2018)

4. Halloween (2007)

5. Halloween II

6. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

7. Halloween Kills

8. Halloween II (2009)

9. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

10. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

11. Halloween: Resurrection

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RATING: 🎃 🎃.75 / 5

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