Halloween Kills

For Halloween yesterday I watched the new Candyman and Halloween Kills. Both movies have been done repeatedly and to be honest at one point enough should be enough. Candyman wasn't bad though but it's nothing like the first movie when it was all a surprise. Halloween Kills on the other hand is just another movie too much. Nothing new, Michael Myers can't be killed, it doesn't matter if you stab him, shoot him, set him on fire, he just can't be killed nor injured. It's getting lame to be honest. Jamie Lee Curtis hasn't a huge role and that was maybe best like that. I hope this one was finally the last one because there's no milk to be milked anymore here.

The latest saga in the world of Halloween, what an absolute mix of good and bad this was. It has the same feel as Halloween 2, the first time I saw that, a slightly patchy follow up.

The previous film I really rather enjoyed, I was hoping for this to follow the trend, where the had the vibe of a horror thriller, this ventures more into the horror fantasy genre, Michael is transformed into some unearthly killing machine.

The opening few minutes were awesome, I loved what they did, and how they did it, creative, well realised, and somehow respectful, it was incredible, it really did work. The core of the film was as you would expect, lots of gore, lots of violence, and the ending was again a mix of good and bad. It didn't have much in the way of suspense.

The only upsetting death here for me, was the suicide, that was about the only time the screen went silent, it was a very upsetting moment.

My favourite characters were Big and Little John, those guys were really good fun.

It'll have its fans and its haters, for the season it's a thrill ride, does it enhance The Halloween catalogue, sadly not, it lacked structure, it lacked a cohesive narrative, it was just a killing spree slasher.

6/10.

'Halloween Kills' is the definition of a sequel for the sake of making a sequel (or more accurately the sake of making money). It not only adds nothing to the story, it destroys some of the good things from the 2018 version. I've been looking forward to this movie for a long time with the COVID delays, and I sadly have to say it was not worth the wait at all.

The characters in this movie were atrocious. Firstly, they destroyed 'Laurie Strode'. Not only does she do absolutely nothing in this movie, she is rude to kind nurses and assaults a doctor. Yup, that'll get us on her side. But that wasn't even the worst of it. The side characters they created for this film were embarrassing. There is a scene where a character just stares at 'Michael Myers', says something to the effect of, "Michael, you've come home", and then just stands there and waits to be killed. That's the worst example of it, but this is very much a rinse and repeat thing throughout the film.

The pacing of the film is all over the place too. There's a very strange and uninteresting opening scene. Then we get a couple of admittedly great scenes with the firefighters and in a house with a couple. At this point I was having a good time. 'Michael' was ferocious and in no mood to mess around. Then we hit a wall and frankly never recovered. Even at the end when the film should be building up to the big conclusion, it feels like it's stuck in first gear.

Also there's a subplot involving a mental patient that is just unpleasant. It's not scary, it's not clever, it's just depressing and unnecessary (and quite insulting to the audience that we are expected to buy it). I didn't find much to enjoy about this film sadly. It looks great and the start was decent. Otherwise though it's not one I can recommend. 4/10.

Never been so frustrated watching a movie. Every last character just made stupid decision after stupid decision right the way throughout. They all deserve to die. #TeamMyers.

God bless these actors...they're all trying so hard with what they have. And there are so many good ideas on display here: a town going mad with bloodthirsty revenge because of what Michael has done, violently coming together to hunt him down? So good on paper.

But I swear...this script was written in two hours...by a group of aliens who have never actually interacted with human beings before or heard real human beings speak. Not a single thing here is believable or genuine in any way.

These characters are all so stupid. 80% of the deaths in this movie would have been avoided if they had just acted like real people. I have no sympathy for anyone who dies. I feel no fear for them. I feel nothing.

The only reason I don't give this a lower rating is because one of the deaths made me laugh so hard I forgot how underwhelming the rest of the movie was.