"Halloween Kills" a little shapeless but an ambitious and vicious slasher sequel

Halloween Kills (2021)

It goes without saying that this twelfth “Halloween” will matter most to the most forgiving fans (even if we're supposed to pretend this is only the third "Halloween"). You know who you are if you’ve stuck with the horror series through every phase of the white William Shatner mask, all of the off-the-rails developments, and even the Rob Zombie-ization of Michael Myers. “Halloween Kills,” a direct sequel to 2018’s David Gordon Green-directed “Halloween” (itself a retconned sequel to 1978’s John Carpenter-directed “Halloween”), is very much a middle chapter. Having to bridge the first and the forthcoming “Halloween Ends,” not every creative choice feels absolutely motivated and carefully thought-out to keep its boogeyman alive for the trilogy capper.

It’s still Halloween night, and minutes after the three generations of Strode women—matriarch Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), daughter Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak)—thought they trapped Michael Myers forever in a fiery bunker, a team of first responders arrives to put out the inferno. His mask a little crispier for wear, Michael does manage to escape the fire in Laurie’s compound and resumes his rampage on his way back to his childhood home (even though he should know that you should never go home again). Meanwhile, on his way home from the school’s Halloween dance and unaware of what has happened, Allyson’s cheating boyfriend Cameron (Dylan Arnold) finds Officer Frank Hawkins (Will Patton), stabbed (and supposedly run over) by Michael's insane doctor ("the new Loomis") but still alive. Once the Strodes make it to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, Karen believes Michael will make his way to the hospital to kill them. While being treated in hospital beds, Laurie and Frank both blame themselves for the damage Michael has done to their town, until Laurie sees all of the fear and chaos playing into exactly what Michael wants.

If one was wondering what Laurie's former charge Tommy Doyle, Annie Brackett's former charge Lindsey Wallace, Nurse Marion Chambers, Tommy's childhood bully Lonnie Elam, and former sheriff Leigh Brackett were all up to during Michael’s 2018 reign of terror—or if they were even still living in Haddonfield—all of them return. At the local watering hole commemorating the victims and survivors of Michael’s 1978 killing spree, the townsfolk see the news and come together to hunt the monster. Tommy (a scenery-chewing Anthony Michael Hall) leads the mob, while Lindsey (Kyle Richards) and Dr. Sam Loomis’ former nurse Marion (Nancy Stephens) pair up with a nurse and doctor-dressed husband (Michael Smallwood) and wife (Carmela McNeal), briefly seen during the previous film's neighborhood oner. This leaves Allyson to go off with Cameron and Cameron's father Lonnie (Robert Longstreet) to make sure evil dies not tomorrow but tonight. 

Whereas “Halloween”—no, not the 1978 one, and no, not the 2007 remake—was more refined, “Halloween Kills” is messier, even shapeless, but it’s still fully engaging, as vicious as it needs to be, and more narratively ambitious than a standard slasher. Writer-director Green and co-writers Danny McBride and Scott Teems go nastier and widen the canvas with a roving narrative to see how all of Haddonfield has been affected. In trying to get their arms around a lot and Say Something about mob violence and groupthink, the makers do bite off more than they can chew (and they cheat with somehow unflattening Officer Frank Hawkins). A heavy hand is put on the dangerous senselessness of a mob mentality, as Brackett (Charles Cyphers) literally says that Michael is turning them all into the real monsters. It also becomes a bit of a joke how many times “40 years ago” and “evil dies tonight” are spoken and chanted ad nauseam. A more interesting idea is how Michael doesn't seem to actually be targeting Laurie (they are no longer siblings, remember): it's not about her and maybe it never was. How this idea pays off, though, will just have to wait.

“Halloween Kills” is pretty audacious anyhow. The 1978 flashbacks that open the film are actually seamlessly crafted, ending with a frozen tableau of adult Michael standing outside his house that’s evocative of Carpenter’s opening with Mr. and Mrs. Myers pulling off their young son’s clown mask. The film then lives up to the “Kills” in the title with a body count north of a baker’s dozen, proving Michael is like a relentless killer shark and not picky but quite inclusive. The murder set-pieces are both suspenseful and savagely brutal (and still somehow less fetishistic than a certain shock-rocker’s re-imaginings). Once again, unexpected casting choices for even the most minor characters pay off, like locals we get to see just living their lives on Halloween night before the Shape pounces. Most memorable of all, Scott MacArthur and “that guy” Michael McDonald play Big John and Little John, a realtor gay couple living in the renovated Myers house. What’s refreshing about the Johns is how they’re not presented as stereotypes; they just want to get high, dance, and enjoy their charcuterie board without being bothered by annoying trick-or-treaters or their home's former resident.

Jamie Lee Curtis is unfortunately underutilized, never leaving the hospital à la “Halloween II” (which, remember, is on a timeline that no longer exists), but her headstrong yet vulnerable presence is always felt. Besides, we know the real final showdown between Laurie and her white whale is being saved for last. Reprising her role as Karen Strode, Judy Greer gets to be an even more proactive participant, showing a small gesture of kindness toward one of the other escaped mental patients and rivaling her already-badass “gotcha” moment from before. Of the returning “legacy characters,” Kyle Richards’ Lindsey Wallace easily comes off the best. Richards even owns one of the film’s tense highlights, a child “rescue” in a playground before Michael attacks her SUV and dispatches its passengers. 

Green and his co-writers should be credited for following through on the little things, like having a beside-herself mother looking for her son Oscar, Allyson and Cameron’s friend, who was stabbed and impaled on Mr. Elrod’s gate, and a much-needed moment for Karen to grieve the unceremonious death of her husband from the last film. Technically assured as ever, the film is atmospherically shot by returning DP Michael Simmonds and unassailably scored again by Cody Carpenter, John Carpenter, and Daniel Davies. In spite of some clunky writing and over-reliance on nudge-nudge callbacks that'll break our ribs, “Halloween Kills” manages to still remain an above-average “Halloween” slasher. As soon as this one ends, all bets seem to be off on how David Gordon Green’s vision will even play out.

Grade: B -

Universal Pictures is releasing “Halloween Kills” (106 min.) in theaters and on Peacock on October 15, 2021.