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after being delayed by a year due to the
pandemic halloween kills a long-awaited
sequel is finally here hitting cinemas
and streaming services costing an
original 20 million dollars to make it
has already made a profit but reviews
have been very mixed which is nothing
new to the halloween franchise outside
of the original 1978 film the franchise
has never been loved by the critics the
reviews for this new sequel very much
lean on the negative side with critics
criticizing its screenplay its lack of
innovation and scares empire magazine
for example awarded it two stars out of
five saying halloween kills ben's
conventions to breaking point making it
impossible to root for any of the
dumbass characters and is mostly tied
tedious and an insult to everything john
carpenter got right first time round but
the film has been praised for its
creative kills and performances from the
cast the original idea was to shoot
halloween and the sequel back to back
but they decided against it wanting to
figure out what worked and what didn't
work with audiences if they had made a
creative mistake it would have
potentially screwed up both films but
also blumhouse productions made it clear
they would make the sequel if the first
one was profitable the idea was thrown
around again with the 2018 film doing
very well financially making over 250
million dollars at the box office with
halloween kills and halloween ends being
shot simultaneously but the schedule
made it very difficult so again that
idea was scrapped and the third entry
has a release date set for late next
year it was announced in august of 2019
that the film would have some returning
characters with carly richards reprising
her role as lindsay wallace from the
original film anthony michael hall would
play tommy doyle paul rudd was
apparently approached but couldn't
commit due to ghostbusters afterlife
paul had played the part of tommy in the
curse of michael myers i suppose if he
did return it would mess up continuity
and only be there as a nod for the fans
charles cipher's would return as sheriff
bracket from the original 1978 film and
its sequel charles was a familiar face
of carpenter's earlier films nancy
stevens who betrayed nurse marion
chambers in the original film and its
sequel and halloween h2o would also come
back
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this review will contain some minor
spoilers so if you want to avoid any
come back to the video once you've seen
the film set on the same night we find
the firefighters attempting to put out
the fire at lorry's house they are
unaware michael is trapped in the
basement and he escapes and hacks his
way through the firemen he makes his way
back into the town and finds some other
victims along the way deputy frank
hawkins is found by cameron after being
attacked in the first film and taken to
hospital where he meets up with lori who
is there with a stab wound believing she
has finally got rid of michael myers the
film flashes back to 1978 with hawkins
recalling the events of michael killing
the teenagers and eventually being
caught by the police he regrets not
killing michael on the night and has
been haunted by his mistake ever since
across town tommy doll celebrates the
40th anniversary of michael's arrest and
imprisonment with longtime friends
marion chambers lindsey wallace and
cameron's father lonnie news spreads
that michael has escaped and killed a
group of firefighters and is still at
large tommy forms a mob full of vengeful
haddonfield citizens to hunt down and
kill michael before he can kill anyone
else
i was quite excited to see halloween
kills after enjoying the soft reboot
from a few years ago the film from 2018
i felt was a major improvement over the
endless sequels we had been given over
the years since the original 1978
classic this new film made the right
decision to ignore those sequels and
just act as a follow-up to the original
classic picking up 40 years later
halloween kills like the original
halloween 2 from 1981 takes place on the
same night so it's wise to perhaps watch
the previous film to keep yourself up to
date especially with these supporting
characters as it doesn't throw in a
recap as for those going in completely
fresh will be very lost the trailer for
the film did somewhat reveal too much of
the plot but also was a bit crafty
making you think this could follow the
same plot as the original sequel with
lori in hospital with michael working
his way through it hunting her down but
that is not the case as we see the
people of the town come together to get
revenge on michael there's a shift to
more of a focus on the supporting
characters as the series has always
focused on lori for the most part this
makes an attempt to demonstrate that
others have been affected by michael's
actions and they want revenge which
helps expand the narrative and not have
everything revolve around the strode
family but this becomes an issue for the
film affecting its pacing having this
saggy middle act and ultimately makes
its runtime outstay its welcome the
angry mob gets way too much screen time
they confuse someone else for michael
they refuse to let the police deal with
the situation and it just goes on for
too long
one of the main problems with the film
is that it's not scary there isn't any
simple jump scares that worked which is
an issue considering this is a horror
film of course it lays on the gore nice
and thick with many gruesome death
scenes with quite a few moments of eye
gouging which does make you wince
michael is probably the cruelest he has
ever been in the series appearing to
take more enjoyment out of it showing
him inflict more damage on his victims
even when they are already dead so it
does offer the violence that comes with
the slasher genre but what it's missing
are those moments that leave you creeped
out making you jump or give you a sense
of suspense now of course this is all
subjective what doesn't scare me might
scare you but i've been laughed at by my
friends and family for scaring too
easily and for this film to fail to do
that to me means there is something
definitely wrong again halloween kills
is produced by the same team with david
gordon green behind the camera so the
photography and production values are to
a high standard with some fantastic
shots of michael myers especially when
he emerges from the fire then takes out
the fireman the film deploys quite a few
flashbacks to 1978 often feeling a bit
shoved into the scenes as the entire
film takes place at night you can often
forget it's suddenly gone back in time
when it jumps back to the past it really
captures the look of the original film
and john carpenter's style of direction
so the movie despite its relatively low
budget does look very slick
the score by john carpenter his son and
daniel davis does a great job again of
bringing back the original themes and
jazzing them up for a modern audience it
does nicely make use of the original
1978 score for the flashback sequences
but i didn't recall any new themes for
this sequel that made me take notice
there are some added softer musical cues
for lori and frank while in hospital but
for the most part it sounded very much
like the previous score which is not a
bad thing but felt a bit copy and paster
would have been already produced but
nonetheless serves the scenes well and
creates a great atmosphere to the film
the first movie of this intended trilogy
felt like a smart way to reintroduce the
character of michael myers and bring
back lori this sequel falls into
familiar territory sadly resulting in a
film that follows the old formula of the
sequels we had during the 80s and into
the 90s having michael go on a rampage
killing more victims it felt very by the
numbers by the end but then again that
may not bother you seeing michael aka
the shape killing his victims in a
variety of gruesome ways is perhaps what
you want from the franchise and a good
way to kill 100 minutes of your time but
for me i wanted more from the sequel and
not something they have done time and
time again there didn't seem to be much
progression in its story apart from the
fact of introducing some new characters
or older ones and seeing them get killed
off one by one what we learn is that
laurie theorises that michael can't be
killed and gets stronger with each
person he kills which seems like the
perfect formula for more sequels but
that also boils down to the fact of why
should i care in these characters if he
is invincible
bringing back horror franchises and
trying to add more to them can be
challenging because the core of them is
that they are simple tales with familiar
traits with the victims running away and
doing stupid things resulting in them
getting killed in a violent way
halloween kills is full of idiotic
characters failing hilariously in their
attempts to hurt michael which granted
is quite entertaining but you shouldn't
be laughing at the film when it's
playing it straight and wants you to
take it seriously
halloween kills is an unfortunate
generic sequel that is entertaining in
parts i wasn't really that disappointed
by it as i'm not a super fan of the
franchise i consider them throwaway
entertainment easy to watch but nothing
special but there is nothing wrong with
that you get what you kind of expect
from this franchise but with the talent
involved i was expecting more from it
the sequel is certainly not unwatchable
but it fails to match the previous film
it has a lack of decent scares and
follows a similar path to the old tide
sequels it's a three out of five movie
great production values good
performances and some nasty kills but
it's a slasher horror that lacks the
horror
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