‘Halloween Kills’ all hope of a decent, satisfying sequel
After the successful relaunch of the franchise with “Halloween” in 2018, it seemed natural for cowriter and director David Gordon Green and co-writer Danny McBride to continue and fashion a trilogy.
That “Halloween” (which was actually the third time that title has been used in the franchise that now marks its 12th installment) worked was because it went back to that primal feeling of evil unloosed while reminding everyone how effective Jamie Lee Curtis could be as a middle-aged Laurie Strode.
“Kills” begins immediately after the 2018 “Halloween” ended and it’s a stinker.
It’s almost as if Green knew the hit reboot could lead to a trilogy but apparently had absolutely no clue about where it would or could go.
The final film, “Halloween Ends,” has been announced for next year.
How bad is “Halloween Kills”? Very.
First, Curtis is sidelined, plopped in a hospital bed and rarely seen. Instead we get the far less compelling Karen, Laurie’s daughter (Judy Greer), and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak).
Myers was not burned alive in the basement as Laurie intended at the end of “Halloween.” Now as Haddonfield teems with cops on Halloween night, Myers simply … walks around. And around and around — not only unkillable but seemingly an alien force, slowly making his homicidal way anywhere and everywhere because, hey! why not?
Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) was one of the two kids Laurie was babysitting in the 1978 original. Hall went on to become a John Hughes star in the ’80s and is best known for “The Dead Zone.” He’s now 53 and here he shows up to toast those long-ago victims and then wave a baseball bat and rouse a bar crowd into an avenging mob.
As if this were a 1931 Boris Karloff “Frankenstein” film and not a Mel Brooks “Young Frankenstein” parody.
Anyway, the mob hits the hospital — what better place to disturb life-saving efforts while pursuing a criminal who is clearly not Michael Myers!
Mob violence gets its comeuppance when these idiots propel him to a rooftop where there’s no escape. It’s pretty preachy in a film that sees it as some kind of serious comment.
Then there’s the embarrassing gay stereotypes, a fashionable couple who now live — and have renovated — Michael Myers’ house.
All Big John (Scott MacArthur) and Little John (Michael McDonald) want to do on this merry night is watch a classic movie and have delicious hors d’oeuvres. Wouldn’t you know, Myers is the kind of deranged killer who can’t let that kind of happiness continue.
A viewer’s happiness? That’s when this dismal effort ends.