Michael Myers Does Michael Myers Things in ‘Halloween Kills’

In what feels like the 199th sequel to the 1978 original film, things get a bit convoluted at first until you remember that Halloween Kills is now really the third film in Halloween’s rebooted timeline, with the original and 2018 follow-up being the only films needed to keep up with the revamped Michael Myers saga.

This film picks up mere minutes after that aforementioned 2018 film which saw Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis ) who is now a grandma and being rushed to a hospital while her house is being burnt to the ground with a masked murderer Michael trapped in the basement.

But as has been seen time and again, he is indestructible and soon lays waste to the attending firemen in no time flat. The imagery used here with seeing Michael persevere through the fire and rise from the ashes like a Phoenix (…or from Hell) was a little too blatant and obvious but really made the scene pop. Also, who knew that Michael had a little John Wick in him?

This becomes a running gag or theme of sorts, how in this film Michael Myers keeps getting trapped and seems like he could or should be taken out by at least dozens of people, with him only coming out on top because of plot and because some, if not all, of these characters, are downright idiots.

But that’s what drives these types of films so it’s to be expected, but the contrast is hilarious.

Michael wastes no time in making sure that when you cross his path, you’d die. He goes overboard with it in making sure you die. There was a scene where one of the characters was almost left for dead and their head nearly decapitated, but he made the mistake of breathing as Michael was walking away and Mike returned and made sure that he breathed no more.

Yet, these characters when surrounding Mike and finally receiving the upper hand with Myers even being on the ground and being pummeled, they never do more than what basically amounts to a pat on the back, for him. They literally saw Myers hang people on poles by their jaws but they grab bats and knives while never going for his face.

But that’s all a part of the allure.

Halloween Kills does a great job tying in the original film with flashbacks that includes an extremely convincing Donald Pleasance look alike as Dr. Loomis and I like how the tones between this film and the original stay pretty consistent. The way they still keep this film to resember the 70s/80s style of cinema is definitely noticeable and a nice touch. I also like how the film introduces the survivors of Mike’s original knife fest.

They are led by Tommy, the child that Laurie was babysitting, and now at a bar celebrating Halloween as well as commemorating those who didn’t make it along with the survivors who are also present.

Anthony Michael Hall plays Tommy and is now unrecognizable from his Weird Science teenage days, which was a bit unsettling but only because of my own nostalgic reasons.

News soon reaches the survivors of Michael Myers’ escape and Tommy leads a mob in pursuit of stopping him who in turn become monsters themselves when they falsely accuse the wrong man and wind up chasing him for the majority of the film, which was odd and strange, to say the least. How they can mistake a muscular 6 foot plus man for a morbidly obese dwarf is anyone’s guess but I guess the filmmakers were trying to throw some social commentary in there regarding our own bloodlusts and how we become blind when we have our minds set on something that extreme, that we shouldn’t be focusing on.

Or maybe I’m reading too much into this. But this whole series of events of them chasing this dwarf could have actually been erased from the film in all honesty and the film would have been a better film because of it.

I have to mention again how you have to keep in mind that all of those Halloween sequels where he keeps returning every Halloween are not a part of this universe anymore. I was confused at first as to why they would be celebrating in a bar on Halloween knowing that this is Myers’ MO which is to kill on Halloween but for all intent and purpose, Myers was locked up for the past 40 years and just now returning to Haddonfield wreaking his havoc on the community for the first time since the original film. I really wish the film did a better job of reminding us of this at the beginning of the film because after seeing so many of these sequels it does get lost on translation.

All in all, Halloween Kills is not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but it isn’t supposed to be or does it try to be. It gives us exactly what we want to see in Halloween slasher flick and that is bodies, bodies, and more dead bodies. The different ways that Myers kills his victims are definitely the highliuht of this film and that’s all that ultimately matters.