REVIEW: ‘Halloween Kills’ Is A Worthy Sequel

Halloween Kills, the direct sequel to Halloween (2018) directed by David Gordon Green, has officially hit theaters and is streaming on Peacock. The film follows Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) as they deal with Michael Meyers (James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle) once again. Having survived his encounter with the Strode women, Michael continues to terrorize the people of Haddonfield. However, the people of Haddonfield aren’t willing to relive the events of Michael’s original murders again. Several citizens of the small town, including survivors of the original murders, come together to take the fight to Michael. With the Strode women joining the fight, Michael suddenly finds himself being hunted.

One of the major differences with this new Halloween trilogy has been the level of violence and gore that it’s been able to pull off successfully. Just by the first official trailer, it’s clear that Halloween Kills immensely increased the gore and violence that audiences would see. However, what’s shown in the trailer only teases just how gruesome the film gets for all of Michael’s victims. It never takes away from how truly terrifying the film can get, especially with how creative Michael gets with his kills. Gone are the days of practical effects and using a simple kitchen knife to terrorize the people of Haddonfield. One kill specifically will surely leave audiences gasping with how clever yet random it is. Courtney is able to show how violent and menacing Michael can truly get. It’s hard to imagine how the third and final film of this trilogy will be able to top the violence and gore of Halloween Kills, but it’ll be exciting to see if it can be done.

Throughout Halloween Kills, the Strode women continue to be the focal point of the overall story in this new trilogy. Even though this new trilogy is still focusing on Laurie’s fight against Michael, there’s a possibility that Allyson is being set up to be the central character of the series. Her character takes a full 180-degree turn and fully embraces hunting down Michael. Her wanting to liberate her family from all this trauma serves as proper motivation for this major character transition.  Laurie spends much of her time in the hospital, which is a major let-down. Most of her time is spent talking about Michael rather than going after him. It makes sense that she’s in the hospital, but fans expecting yet another confrontation between two iconic characters will be disappointed. Hopefully, the film will give fans the final confrontation between Laurie and Michael in the final film next year.

A rather interesting approach that Halloween Kills included in its plot is how the Michael Meyers murders have affected the town all these years. Even with the non-canonical sequels in the franchise, the Halloween franchise is more often associated with Michael and Laurie. Still, the town of Haddonfield and its people are rarely thought of. It makes sense that the film decided to also put the focus on the town since they also lived through the events shown in the original film. It also emphasizes the mob mentality that can build up with situations that affect an entire town. The townspeople rise up to protect the Strode women and finally get rid of the menace that has haunted them for so long. This allowed for Michael to suddenly become the hunted and create an interesting approach for the film to take that managed to establish incredible moments.  However, the trauma that certain survivors still have to deal with could have gotten more focus. While many townspeople do join the hunt for Michael, the trauma from certain returning characters would have been a way for audience members to connect with them more.

As with Halloween (2018), it takes a bit of time before audiences are fully immersed in the main plot of Halloween Kills. The first few minutes are reserved for introducing new characters and giving backstory to a relatively new character that wasn’t given enough spotlight in the previous film. Understandably, new characters who would inevitably be Michael’s victims would need to be introduced. Given the level of violence and gore that Halloween Kills includes, it makes sense that the film would require enough time to have audiences get to know the characters that would die. However, it isn’t for at least 15 minutes that audiences will finally see what happened to the Strode women after their fight with Michael. Some of the characters introduced, specifically the survivors of Michael’s original murders deserved the time that they were given. It not only re-establishes their importance within the overall story but also acts as a great easter egg for long-time fans of the franchise. However, other characters’ appearances seem to have only been included to add to Michael’s body count. While most kills in Halloween Kills were incredibly unique, including characters for the sole purpose of having them be killed off takes away from further plot or character development that could have added so much more to the film.

Ultimately, Halloween Kills is a worthy sequel and continuation to the original story as it ups the violence and gore. The Strode women continue to be prominent in the story. The town and its people are given a much more notable role which gives a closer look at the larger effect of Michael’s murders and acts as easter eggs for long-time fans of the original film.

Halloween Kills is now playing in theaters and streaming exclusively on Peacock.