Mulliga's Monstrous Halloween: Halloween Kills

Not even the pandemic can stop spooky spirits and ghastly ghouls forever! Halloween is back, and I'm celebrating with a set of monstrous posts. Tonight I watched Halloween Kills, a sequel to the reimagined sequel to John Carpenter's original Halloween (it's confusing).

Never has a movie done exactly what it says on the tin like Halloween Kills. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by telling you that Michael Myers didn't die in the last movie...heck, he kills 11 people in the first scene:

Following immediately after the events of the sequel-cum-reboot Halloween (2018), the film once again pits Laurie Strode and her progeny against Haddonfield, Illinois's resident boogeyman.  This time, they are joined by a mob of irate townsfolk who are finally fed up with Michael's murderous antics. Will the hunter become the hunted?  Is this the night evil dies?

If you know anything about horror flicks, you already know the answer (they are releasing Halloween Ends next year) - that's par for the course, and so excusable. What I can't overlook is that the story is as messy as one of Michael's massacres.  There's a boring subplot about a mental patient who is mistaken for Michael, and the movie introduces side characters (including survivors from the '78 killing spree) only to unceremoniously kill them off minutes later.

Jamie Lee Curtis has very little to do, which is a big problem for a franchise that has always worked best when it focuses on its iconic final girl. I give the movie some credit for upping the brutality, gore, and body count from the relatively tame last outing, but those are calling cards of a Friday the 13th, not a Halloween film.  Let's hope Laurie is back in action in the third movie.

Rating: 5/10