Halloween Kills (2018 - spoilers brah)

[Jigsaw]

This was originally posted on Jiggy's Horror Corner, reposted here with permission of myself.


Perhaps one of the most-hyped horror films in the last couple of years, I have to say that I wasn’t one of those excited all that excited for this. I think I was probably correct in that stance, because while parts of Halloween Kills are fun, a lot of it just feels like filler.

The 2018 Halloween was a movie I thought was okay. Sure, I have it rated an 8/10 on here, but if I’m being honest, that’s probably too high. I’ve only seen the 2018 movie once, and I thought it was good, but it’s one of those films that, having seen once, I was in no real desire to see it again anytime soon.

I considered refreshing my memory before getting into Halloween Kills by revisiting the 2018 movie, but I opted out. I doubt that made much of an impact – most of the characters introduced in the 2018 movie came back to me without too much difficulty. Even so, I just don’t know if the story in this film was really all that interesting.

Aimless isn’t really the word I’d use to describe the film, though I suspect some people would. To me, it just felt primarily like filler for the upcoming Halloween Ends. That’s not to say there weren’t some good scenes, because of course there were, but for a movie that’s an hour and 45 minutes, it’s oddly difficult to list what actually happened in the film, because the status quo didn’t change much from the end of the 2018 movie to the end of this one. In fact, I don’t think anything changed, aside from more people in Haddonfield being deceased.

I appreciated the flashbacks they gave that took place in 1978, especially the ones that had Loomis (played by Tom Jones Jr.), as they got a guy who looked pretty much just like him. Those flashbacks, at least the ones focused around the Myers house, were sort of fun, but I can’t say any of the Lonnie stuff interested me.

For performances, I don’t even know what to say. Most of the central cast (Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, and Anthony Michael Hall) were fine, but as for their characters, I feel like a lot of foolish mistakes were made, and those foolish mistakes sometimes made it quite difficult for me to really care about their characters.

Far more noteworthy to me are Kyle Richards, Nancy Stephens, and especially Charles Cyphers, all three of whom are returning characters from the 1978 classic (and seeing Cyphers back really brought a smile to my face). Two other characters were brought back (Lonnie and Tommy), but the original actors, Brent Le Page and Brian Andrews, were replaced by Robert Longstreet and Anthony Michael Hall. Well, I guess three out of five ain’t bad.

Oh, and though these characters weren’t even close to important, I liked Scott MacArthur and Michael McDonald in their roles as a gay couple living in what used to be the Myers house. They were at least somewhat fun.

I don’t mind that they brought back the characters they did – Marion (the nurse that Myers stole a car from) was sort of random, but the fact they brought back three old faces was nice, especially Charles Cyphers as Brackett (and I liked him a lot in this movie). At the same time, I don’t know if any of these characters were really utilized that well, and aside from bringing back familiar faces, I don’t know if it really made a difference whatsoever.

One of my main complaints about the 2018 movie was the gore. I don’t have a problem with gore, of course – H.G. Lewis and Nathan Schiff are, as the kids say, the shit. It’s just that the 2018 movie had a retro thing going for it, and I was hoping they’d focus more on suspense and creepy scenes (as the original Halloween did) as opposed to violence, but of course they didn’t.

This movie is much the same. I love the slaughtering that takes place here, but I also can’t help but wish they had gone for a classier aesthetic. I loved the opening to this film, which maintained a retro aura, but when you go from that to slaughtering a group of firefighters, it sort of loses me. Trying to please both crowds isn’t going to work, because it doesn’t feel genuine, at least not to me.

Look, I had a good time watching Myers go berserk on the firefighters – it was a lot of fun. And there’s a scene toward the end where a similar situation occurs, and I enjoyed that too. A lot of the violence here, such as the fluorescent light in the throat, or the guy who had his head banged against the stairwell until he was likely paralyzed (not that it mattered for long), was fun. The violence looked great, but I still personally would have preferred a different approach.

There’s a large portion of the film that deals with the horrors of a mob mentality. It’s like Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers on steroids, because instead of a group of drunk guys with shotguns in trucks (which made pretty good sense to me), you have pretty much the whole town bloodthirsty, and chasing down people who may or may not be Myers because of a couple of speeches. I’m not saying those scenes in the hospital didn’t have their moments, but the whole situation personally felt a little ridiculous.

Also, I’ve got to mention a small scene that bothered me. Toward the finale of the film, three individuals are under the impression that Myers went back to his old house, and go there after him. Despite being in contact with other characters who expressed interest in hunting Myers down, they didn’t tell anyone they were going to the house. I can’t say just how stupid I thought that set-up was – why wouldn’t they just call or text other people? They really thought three people – two of whom were quite young – could take on Myers after he destroyed the Haddonfield fire department? It was so fucking stupid, and it didn’t make a lick of sense to me.

It might sound as though I had a bad time with Halloween Kills, but that’s not accurate. I was entertained throughout, despite feeling that much of the film just felt like filler. I didn’t love a lot of it, but it was an entertaining time. Maybe once I watch this again, I can re-evaluate some of it, but for now, I’ll just say the film is somewhere pretty close to average.
7/10

[Tiggnutz]

First off what I need to get off my chest the thing that bothered me the most. This script is garbage, I mean trash. Have these writers never heard people talk before? Its like shit you hear when foreign films are dubbed in English. It's plain hokey and goofy. These characters are some of the dumbest characters I've seen in a serious film in awhile. Everyone is an idiot doing the most idiotic things imaginable. When people do dumb shit in a horror comedy slasher its funny , here its just stupid. " Lets find Myers and kick his ass!" "Hey there he is the 5ft pudgy guy with a limp begging for help!" " Get him!" " Hey Michael is in that house wait here children i brought along while I go inside alone" I hated all these characters so much. There is literally an hour of people saying remember that time we did this remember that time we did this. The call backs and flashbacks were just overkilled to the point of being annoying. Even the music was subpar. That Guiding Light/Days of our lives piano shit playing all the time while people were reminiscing was awful. I cant say Jaime Lee was bad she really doesn't do anything in this film but scream crazy shit and oh reminisce of course. She's just there to keep people interested in the next film.
I did appreciate the kills and gore but I see that same stuff in every episode of American Horror Story ever made. It's not enough. Jiggy gave a 7/10 score but my score would be 5/10. I liked the 2018 film so much more it seemed fresh and new but this was a real letdown for me.

[Jigsaw]

It's important to note, and you may know this, that my 7/10 is an average rating, so I'm not trying to praise the film when I give it a 7 - it just hit the bare minimum to be considered okay.

[Tiggnutz]

It's important to note, and you may know this, that my 7/10 is an average rating, so I'm not trying to praise the film when I give it a 7 - it just hit the bare minimum to be considered okay.

This is why I prefer the letter grades for myself easier to articulate my friend

[Jigsaw]

It's important to note, and you may know this, that my 7/10 is an average rating, so I'm not trying to praise the film when I give it a 7 - it just hit the bare minimum to be considered okay.

This is why I prefer the letter grades for myself easier to articulate my friend

That's fair. I suspect, based on your rating, that we're pretty close in our opinion on this one. Only difference is that it wasn't a let-down for me, because I wasn't really expecting much

[Tiggnutz]

It's important to note, and you may know this, that my 7/10 is an average rating, so I'm not trying to praise the film when I give it a 7 - it just hit the bare minimum to be considered okay.

This is why I prefer the letter grades for myself easier to articulate my friend

That's fair. I suspect, based on your rating, that we're pretty close in our opinion on this one. Only difference is that it wasn't a let-down for me, because I wasn't really expecting much

Just for my knowledge what would your letter grade be?

[Slaughterhouserock]

Just watched it, so here are my random thoughts. I'm not sure who the first nineteen minutes were made for. It's a flashback that adds nothing, followed by a guy literally telling a bar about the plot of the first film. The firefighter scene, while cool, was more akin to something Jason would do, not Mikey. The nurse getting hit by the car door was fucking hilarious. The whole "evil dies tonight" thing is corny as fuck, but the mob mentality is spot on. A funny thing to think about, is that Michael apparently went downstairs to unlock the front door after killing the guys in his house. Then went back upstairs and put on a record before deciding to hang out in the closet. Seems an odd thing to do, but movie's gotta movie. Also, the ending was Michael saying "that's my window, bitch!", which I thought was funny. Not the worst Halloween film, but not great.

[Tiggnutz]

Just watched it, so here are my random thoughts. I'm not sure who the first nineteen minutes were made for. It's a flashback that adds nothing, followed by a guy literally telling a bar about the plot of the first film. The firefighter scene, while cool, was more akin to something Jason would do, not Mikey. The nurse getting hit by the car door was fucking hilarious. The whole "evil dies tonight" thing is corny as fuck, but the mob mentality is spot on. A funny thing to think about, is that Michael apparently went downstairs to unlock the front door after killing the guys in his house. Then went back upstairs and put on a record before deciding to hang out in the closet. Seems an odd thing to do, but movie's gotta movie. Also, the ending was Michael saying "that's my window, bitch!", which I thought was funny. Not the worst Halloween film, but not great.

The point was nothing but Michael wants his window time? Self reflection?

[Slaughterhouserock]

The point was nothing but Michael wants his window time? Self reflection?

Honestly, with what this film put forward, it's my understanding that Michael killed his sister because her room had a better view. All other murders are him just trying to get back to that room to look out the window. It's not a great motivation, but it's what they gave us.

[Jmac Attack]

I'm still watching....but paused for a pee break. I just told Amber that Anthony Michael Hall now looks like one of those guys that beats up gay dudes after Rugby matches. Lmao

[Tiggnutz]

I'm still watching....but paused for a pee break. I just told Amber that Anthony Michael Hall now looks like one of those guys that beats up gay dudes after Rugby matches. Lmao

His character could not be any more ridiculous just a poorly executed stereotype

[Slaughterhouserock]

Just read that the next film takes place four years later. And deals with the pandemic for some fucking reason. Seems dumb to skip ahead four years, but I guess Laurie needs to heal up from surgery or some shit.

[Tiggnutz]

Just read that the next film takes place four years later. And deals with the pandemic for some fucking reason. Seems dumb to skip ahead four years, but I guess Laurie needs to heal up from surgery or some shit.

Makes sense Michael will be in his 60's protecting his window

[Jmac Attack]

We really liked it. I'd give it a B+.

[DancesWithWerewolves]

Going with A- for now. I really liked it, had no issues with dialogue. The rash decisions were part of the point (panic makes people act horribly), I actually thought this movie handled mob mentality far better than Halloween 4 and even Silver Bullet (I actually had more of Silver Bullet vibes). The only issue I had was that many of the separate storylines didn't feel like they were edited together that well, I think it should've taken another pass in the editing room. I mean, they had a year to sit on it.

Amazing setups and kills, great vignettes of stalk/kill scenes.

The quality deepfake on Loomis in the flashback was excellent, best I've seen on film yet, definitely better than the usual CGI recreations that age poorly. I don't see the issue with the flashback, as I saw it was dealing with Hawkins guilt of handling the situation. Hopefully, he does have more importance in Halloween Ends for them to put the effort so far.

My auditorium's audio was pretty crap though, which was weird because I usually don't have issues with my local theatre, the sound is often good and loud. I'll just know in the future if it says Auditorium 2, I'm just gonna avoid that showing.

[Jigsaw]

It's important to note, and you may know this, that my 7/10 is an average rating, so I'm not trying to praise the film when I give it a 7 - it just hit the bare minimum to be considered okay.

This is why I prefer the letter grades for myself easier to articulate my friend

That's fair. I suspect, based on your rating, that we're pretty close in our opinion on this one. Only difference is that it wasn't a let-down for me, because I wasn't really expecting much

Just for my knowledge what would your letter grade be?

I didn't see this yesterday, so sorry about that.

It'd be a straight C or so, I'd think.

[Jmac Attack]

Going with A- for now. I really liked it, had no issues with dialogue. The rash decisions were part of the point (panic makes people act horribly), I actually thought this movie handled mob mentality far better than Halloween 4 and even Silver Bullet (I actually had more of Silver Bullet vibes). The only issue I had was that many of the separate storylines didn't feel like they were edited together that well, I think it should've taken another pass in the editing room. I mean, they had a year to sit on it.

Amazing setups and kills, great vignettes of stalk/kill scenes.

The quality deepfake on Loomis in the flashback was excellent, best I've seen on film yet, definitely better than the usual CGI recreations that age poorly. I don't see the issue with the flashback, as I saw it was dealing with Hawkins guilt of handling the situation. Hopefully, he does have more importance in Halloween Ends for them to put the effort so far.

My auditorium's audio was pretty crap though, which was weird because I usually don't have issues with my local theatre, the sound is often good and loud. I'll just know in the future if it says Auditorium 2, I'm just gonna avoid that showing.

Your review is pretty spot on with how Amber feels. She said she would have given it an A+ if it was edited better. I gave it a B+, but the more her and I talk about it, the more I like it, lol. I thought the mob scenes were an excellent commentary on what is happening in America (all people). I also loved Anthony Michael Hall as the over the top Tommy. I felt this movie had a different feel to it than I had expected. I thought it was gonna be more like the last one. I must admit.....I need to rewatch that one again. I was hammered drunk when I watched it. I remember some things and remember really liking it. Sigh. Fucking brain damage from alcohol is real.

[Tiggnutz]

After sleeping on it I've decided to bump Halloween Kills up to C+. The script was laughable and all the characters were agonizing to watch but Michael did brutally slay most of them so it's justified.

[Jmac Attack]

After sleeping on it I've decided to bump Halloween Kills up to C+. The script was laughable and all the characters were agonizing to watch but Michael did brutally slay most of them so it's justified.

I thought the kills were quality and what we horror fans look for. *wipes away tear*

[Jigsaw]

I did enjoy seeing Myers take those firefighters to task. Strode specifically didn't want the fire put out, so Michael was only obeying her wishes.