There is a feeling you get around October. I can’t really explain it. It’s when that first bit of chill hits the air — a much welcome reprieve for anyone in the South who’ve been heat blasted for the past four months. It’s when you see the sad shells of now closed down establishments be converted into Halloween stores. It’s when you see the bags of mixed fun sized candy on sale, (as you wonder to yourself: “I’m an adult dammit, what’s stopping me from buying it and eating it myself?”) Finally, combined with all this, it’s the feeling I personally get after watching a good slasher film. It’s a feeling of a simpler time, a type of nostalgia that cannot be described. One of the series that best represents the very essence of this feeling is Halloween, and I always feel it’s going to be an especially great Halloween any year another entry in the series is released.
Halloween Kills starts almost as soon as it’s predecessor ended, but not quite. It starts at a closer look at Deputy Hawkins (Will Patton) attempted murder near the end of the 2018 film which then takes us on a great extended look at Haddonfield in 1978 that we didn’t see in the original film. After the main credits, we progress. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is suffering from a stab wound in the stomach from Michael Myers and needs medical attention. Her daughter and granddaughter (Judy Greer and Andi Matichak, respectively) are mourning the death of Ray from the previous film. Tommy Doyle (portrayed by Anthony Michael Hall in this film) tells the town how he’s grown up after being babysat by Laurie in the original film and surviving a Michael Myers attack because of her. All of this is setting up for a massively large bloodbath (the largest one in franchise history) and an almost bigger puddle of regret.
Like the 2018 film, Halloween Kills was directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Your Highness) and written by the director and Danny McBride with Scott Teems (Rectify) replacing Jeff Fradley as co-writer from the previous film. Save for Jeff Fradley, almost everyone from the first sequel came back for the second.
With the inclusion of adult Tommy Doyle; which as much as I love Anthony Michael Hall, I kinda wish they got Paul Rudd who played him in The Curse of Michael Myers to continue references; they definitely wanted to connect the fine character details of the 1978 Haddonfield while reminding audiences that this is a small town where most people don’t leave. Even after a murderous rampage from a superhuman Shape. We also got some connections to Halloween II even though it was decanonized, and Halloween III which was never canon since it didn’t have Michael Myers in it.
In comparison to it’s most recent predecessor? I’d say Halloween (2018) is a better film in general, as it has decent character development for a slasher and some lovely sincerity. But as a Halloween movie, Halloween Kills felt much more on point. Despite this film having some rough dialogue and canned acting, it struck that nerve. It sent me back to my adolescent years, watching creature features on “Movie Macabre” hosted by Elvira or “MonsterVision” hosted by Joe Bob Briggs. I’m riding that halloween high while writing this. While the 2018 film had more heart and was probably a better film on the whole, this film felt more like a Halloween film. I don’t necessarily mean that in connection with the Halloween franchise, I mean that it feels like that holiday.
I can really understand with this movie why people go in hoards every year to see horror film after horror film, despite most of them being really nothing new. Like me, they are chasing that special feeling that only October, and some good ol’ fashioned scares can bring. Thankfully, Halloween Kills is exactly what we need.
