For the latest instalment in Michael Myers’ parade of violence across Haddonfield, no one could accuse Halloween Kills of being a misleading title. Murder is the name of the game here, and there sure is a lot of it, in almost every conceivable form. But director David Gordon Green’s sequel loses focus when it comes to furthering its predecessor’s examination of trauma and how that has affected three generations of the Strode family, spending the bulk of its time on carnage instead of character. The few ways that the narrative does inch forward pushes the franchise in new directions, but there just isn’t enough here to justify not skipping this and heading straight to the end of the planned trilogy.
Things are kicked off with a flashback to the pivotal Halloween night of 1978, as a young Officer Hawkins (played as a young man by Thomas Mann and in the present day by Will Patton) confronts Michael at the end of his night of terror. Cut to present day and events resume immediately following the prior film, as Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) flee Laurie’s burning home to seek shelter at the hospital, and first responder firemen race towards the blaze, unaware of the horror that awaits them.
Elsewhere in Haddonfield is original massacre survivor Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), determined to remind the townspeople of their history and to ensure they remain vigilant. When he learns of Michael’s resurgence, Tommy gathers fellow survivors Lonnie (Robert Longstreet), his son Cameron (Dylan Arnold) and Lyndsey (Kyle Richards) and scours the streets, determined to capture the Boogeyman and riling the town into a murderous mob in the process.
Gordon’s script is ambitious, shifting the focus from the Strode family to the entirety of Haddonfield and the effect Michael has had on the town’s collective past. Matichack and Greer find their roles largely scaled back here, as Anthony Michael Hall’s Tommy takes centre stage; a figurehead for the mob he has rallied to take down Myers. It’s an interesting character to fixate on, and one that does show Green’s interest in exploring the effects of trauma on different people – rather than just Laurie – and Hall is great as the enraged yet frightened Tommy. Where his character falls short is in the ill thought-out plan to incite a mob against Myers; emboldening the town with chants of “Evil dies tonight”. It’s a hokey phrase that is repeated so often that it quickly becomes irritating; a heavy handed metaphor for Michael that hints at a supernatural element (the physical embodiment of evil), and one which creates a jarring sense of campiness that clashes with the otherwise serious tone.
As a direct continuation of the last film, the threat of Michael still feels palpable, but as we track the killer on his path through victim after victim – unopposed as the rest of the town deals with red herrings and in-fighting – the novelty of these murders soon wears off. There are some great gore effects and a few stand-out scenes amongst them to be sure, but the film soon begins to feel like filler; an overly long bridging piece which serves as an epilogue to the last film and prologue to the next without ever really necessitating the need to exist as a standalone film. The plot is furthered in some major ways, but only in how things are set up to be paid off in the future, rather than individual character motivations.
Speaking of characters, the most divisive decision Green and company have made in the sequel is to completely shelve Laurie, confining her to a hospital bed and never having her come face to face with her tormentor. It’s a colossal waste of Jamie Lee Curtis’ talent but she still manages to have some nice emotional interactions with Will Patton’s Officer Hawkins, whose significance to the franchise is greatly expanded here through flashbacks. These flashbacks are some of the best scenes the franchise has delivered in decades, faithfully replicating everything about the 1978 film right down to the slight graininess of the image and expanding on the story rather than changing it. Thomas Mann is terrific as the terrified, traumatised young Hawkins and Jim Cummings (indie superstar behind The Wolf of Snow Hollow, check it out) shines as a jaded mid-western police officer on the hunt for Myers: a fun nod to his other police-centric roles.
Halloween Kills biggest problem might just be how unfocused and unnecessary it feels; a stopgap on the way to a far more interesting conclusion that could have just as easily been a few scenes tacked onto the start of the next instalment. Shelving Laurie and shifting the focus to the rest of Haddonfield does allow for some interesting expansion of the lore but doesn’t greatly shift the board from where things ended in the 2018 film. If you can look past these problems, however, and focus on the quality filmmaking on display – with wonderfully macabre kills and another fantastic Carpenter score – then you will very likely walk away entertained. A stumble on the way to what will hopefully be a very bloody conclusion.
Halloween Kills stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Anthony Michael Hall, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Dylan Arnold, Robert Longstreet, James Jude Courtney, Kyle Richards & Jim Cummings – In cinemas and streaming in the US on Peacock now.