Bringing back original characters was logical given Haddonfield's history, and having them rally a vigilante mob to stop Michael Myers' reign of terror once and for all is a worthy direction to take the narrative. But the chaos that evolves from their hearty cries of "EVIL DIES TONIGHT!" is somewhat unconvincing. It all feels rushed and shallow and lacking palpable emotion to drive it onwards.
The flashbacks failed to justify their existence, particularly as they revolved around an unimportant side character and served to highlight the common mistake of letting Myers live when the chance is there to kill him. The structure was unusual, especially at the beginning, and incorporating these scenes from the past with a fake Donald Pleasance didn't add anything of value to the present story.
This brings us to the legendary villain himself... Michael Myers has always been ruthless, stalking with precision and murdering with chilling apathy. But here he displays an appetite for sadistic slaughter and creating gruesome tableaus from corpses that don't fit his character. In a trashy slasher sequel from the 80s, these kills would be gloriously brutal and most welcome, but in the middle chapter of a Halloween revival they just feel bloodthirsty for the sake of it when story and character should be taking priority. The idea that Michael is "transcending" with each kill he commits and is gaining some kind of immortal power is an interesting one, but we'll have to wait and see if this is followed up on - and pays off - in Halloween Ends.
Overall, Halloween Kills is a mixed bag of good and poor. A better execution of the ideas and less of the dumb decision-making from characters in danger or in advantageous positions might have made it a good horror film, but, as typically befalls a modern slasher, there's too many eye-rolling moments and not enough satisfying ones. The revamped/upgraded score from John Carpenter and co. Was probably the best part of this gory sequel.
5.8/10.
The flashbacks failed to justify their existence, particularly as they revolved around an unimportant side character and served to highlight the common mistake of letting Myers live when the chance is there to kill him. The structure was unusual, especially at the beginning, and incorporating these scenes from the past with a fake Donald Pleasance didn't add anything of value to the present story.
This brings us to the legendary villain himself... Michael Myers has always been ruthless, stalking with precision and murdering with chilling apathy. But here he displays an appetite for sadistic slaughter and creating gruesome tableaus from corpses that don't fit his character. In a trashy slasher sequel from the 80s, these kills would be gloriously brutal and most welcome, but in the middle chapter of a Halloween revival they just feel bloodthirsty for the sake of it when story and character should be taking priority. The idea that Michael is "transcending" with each kill he commits and is gaining some kind of immortal power is an interesting one, but we'll have to wait and see if this is followed up on - and pays off - in Halloween Ends.
Overall, Halloween Kills is a mixed bag of good and poor. A better execution of the ideas and less of the dumb decision-making from characters in danger or in advantageous positions might have made it a good horror film, but, as typically befalls a modern slasher, there's too many eye-rolling moments and not enough satisfying ones. The revamped/upgraded score from John Carpenter and co. Was probably the best part of this gory sequel.
5.8/10.