In 2018, David Gordon Green genuinely impressed audiences and revived the Halloween franchise, but the same man who rose it from the ashes of one laughably lousy sequel after the other has killed it in an instant. Unfortunately, Halloween Kills goes back to make the same mistakes, ending up as a ridiculous, futile, and mind-numbingly dull sequel.
Set minutes after the 2018 film, the unstoppable killer, Michael Myers, has escaped from Laurie Strode’s (Jamie Lee Curtis) burning house and continues his Halloween night massacre. Laurie is severely injured and is taken to the hospital, but she fights the pain to inspire the people of Haddonfield, Illinois, to battle against the killer. The Strodes form a mob of angry civilians to hunt down the hunter and ensure that the “evil dies tonight”. Many of us anticipated the sequel to the 2018 reboot, which changed the Halloween franchise’s look, making it more than just another slasher flick. Instead, it combined that sense of lurking horror with post-traumatic assertions that something grave was coming.
David Gordon Green actually managed to save a dying franchise, and it impressed us all. Unfortunately, it only took him three years to revive and kill the horror icon. With Halloween Kills, we are back again in the same territory as before with yet another barbarically dull slasher horror outing. It does indeed have its heap of kills and gore, yet nothing else to be found. There are many issues with this film, with no positive aspects attached. There are two main problems: The first one is the structure, which is non-existent. Gordon Green wants to blend what he did before with some new topics like social consciousness and mob mentality, albeit its plot is all over the place.
It tries to do too much while not knowing what to do, and it ends up achieving absolutely nothing; not even spooks or frights are to be seen. It is very dull to the point where it almost made me fall asleep once or twice. John Carpenter managed to deliver one of the most memorable horror films of all time with so few resources. You ask yourself: where did it all go wrong? The answer is simple: doing more sequels to an already soulless franchise. The second main issue is regarding Michael Myers as a character. Of course, we know that he is difficult to kill, but this film does put it to the test. It makes us ask yet another question: what’s the purpose? He’s indestructible; it beats the reason of what comes next.
The “trilogy” concludes with Halloween Ends, but we all know that won’t be the last we see of Michael Myers. After “burning him alive,” multiple gunshots to the chest, stabbings, and other harms, he still walks without hesitation and continues to go along with his day. Halloween Kills is more insipid and banal than it is disappointing. It has the idea that “fear is what eats us alive” and blasé blasé, but how can you try to say that without any scares? It is just gore without substance, and the gore is just plainly unentertaining. This was a fluke, a one-hit-and-goodbye scenario. This reminds us once again that horror reboots are a terrible decision and that the Halloween franchise should have ended for good with the 2018 iteration of the masked killer.
2/10
Hector Gonzalez is a Puerto Rican chemical engineering student and film critic with a great passion for cinema, award shows, 1960s music, and the horror genre. Some of his favorite films are RAW, Eyes Without a Face, and The Green Ray.
