Rating of
2/4
More like everyone dies tonight
Matthew Brady - wrote on 10/24/21
‘Halloween Kills’ - the body count has been heighten in brutal fashion. From start till finish it’s a bloody carnage, and if you want to watch a movie that’s all about the kills, then this is for you, but don't go into this expecting anything else, because even though I liked the 2018 version, this unfortunately felt like a step down in quality.
Firstly, the writing in this movie is terrible and the people of Haddonfield have got more brain cells than oranges have pips! The number of times a character will remind you how evil Michael Myers is, as if showing him brutally killing people at random wasn’t enough. Even when this mob finally catches up to Myers, they only beat him up a little bit and then let him have a breather. There should be a drinking game of the amount of times "evil dies tonight" is said, but I fear that might cause the statistics for alcohol poisoning to go up.
I was honestly rooting for Michael Myers the whole time. There were only two death scenes where I felt sorry for the characters, but the rest kind of deserved it for being so stupid. One of the funniest death scenes is when a woman starts opening fire on Myers while he’s in the vehicle, somehow missing every shot despite her bragging earlier about firing one before, Myers kicks the car door open causing the door to strike the gun she’s aiming at, discharging it, and accidentally shooting herself in the head. Or how about the amount of times characters are in perilous situations from which they could easily run away, but never do. It’s bizarre choices like this that makes me wonder what the filmmakers were thinking. Hammy dialogue and a disjointed narrative structure.
I can easily see people getting bored watching this movie because there’s nothing there on the surface besides the kills. I mean, say what you want about the 2018 version, but what surprised me is how the movie showed the aftermath of most of the kills instead of the kill itself. While in this movie, despite being a gory guilty pleasure, it felt like mindless gore.
Although I appreciate that the movie is trying to go for a social message about mob mentality, jumping to conclusions, and how far it can escalate. I mean if you’ve been on Twitter for six years, you will get the gist. The idea of fear and rage and rumor spreading through a mob which sets out to hunt Michael is very interesting, but it was executed so poorly. It’s also about finding the right balance of social message and a dumb slasher movie, and unfortunately, I got dumber slasher movie with extra dumb.
Other than that, some familiar faces (or character names) make a return, for better or worse. Although it made me question, 40 years after a traumatic event why would you stay in one place. The worst example of this has to be an older Tommy Doyle played by Anthony Michael Hall, who delivers an embarrassing performance. I thought he was incredibly one-note and after a while he got on my nerves. They should’ve brought back Paul Rudd as Tommy Doyle, just saying. Other returned characters are there for call back references without the respect they deserve.
On the other hand, it’s not to say the movie doesn’t have its merits.
I like the fact that Michael “Groovy Baby!” Myers has gone back to being not motivated for his actions and is just the embodiment of evil, who may or may not be supernatural. He's brutal and intimidating in this movie that every time he’s on screen there’s a deep feeling of dread. He is an immortal killing machine.
The score was great, of course with it being from John Carpenter himself, but also his collaborators Cody Carpenter (his son) and Daniel A. Davies. There were a couple of moments where the score became the icing on the cake.
The 1978 flashback scene was so well done that I’m curious to know how they did it, in terms of recapturing the bluish look, the cameras they used, and how they manage to perfectly re-make the original mask that Michael Myers wore in 78, where the other sequels failed to replicate.
Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode is still great as always, but this time takes a backseat and misses most of the action, but for good reasons, as in the last movie she received serious injuries when confronting Myers and I thought based on the marketing of the movie that she will get out of the hospital bed and face off against Myers for a second round, which I’m glad they didn’t do and they are self-aware enough to know that would be too ridiculous.
Judy Greer was also great as Karen, the warmest and caring character in the whole movie.
The biggest praise I have for this movie is how they manage to find someone who had the same appearance and voice of Donald Pleasence, as Dr Loomis returns briefly in the 78' flashback scene, played by Tom Jones Jr., and dubbed over by Colin Mahan. People thought it was CGI or deep fake, which couldn’t be further than the truth. This movie and ‘Doctor Sleep’ stepped away from that technical side and instead used an actor. I wish more movies would do that.
Overall rating: My biggest issue with this movie and its sequels and tired reboots, is that the original Halloween was more about the mundane and subtlety. The studios need to remember that.
