Anyone who's followed this countdown for the 14 years I've done it knows by now that the original Halloween is my favorite Halloween movie, and I re-watch it every year. So I figured, what better way to end this year's countdown than with the latest sequel in that neverending franchise?
Mind you, just because I love the first Halloween movie does not mean I love all the films. In fact, I've limited my viewing of the sequels/reboots to those that Jamie Lee Curtis has appeared in (well, those and Halloween III: Season of the Witch). And I acknowledge those have been hit and miss. Halloween II is pretty disappointing, but it does have a nostalgia factor going for it at this point.
And in many ways, Halloween Kills owes much to Halloween II. Both relegate Jamie Lee Curtis to a hospital for the majority of the film, and both bring more townspeople into the mix than the previous film had, although in Halloween Kills, it's a lot more townspeople. Like, angry mob levels of townspeople. (Also, do not try to convince me that little Tommy Doyle grew up to look like Anthony Michael Hall, especially when he's standing next to the real Lindsay Wallace, Kyle Richards.)
Both films also amp up the gore and body counts, and both films share the fact that they are disappointing follow-ups. 2018's Halloween wasn't perfect, but it had Jamie Lee Curtis giving a strong performance at the center of it, and chose to take its themes seriously, focusing on how surviving a mass murderer could probably fuck you up for life, and how that trauma may affect that survivor's family for generations.
I supposed Halloween Kills thinks its addressing some equally heady topics, like mass hysteria, and mob mentality, and how that very rarely results in any good. But it also sidelines Jamie Lee Curtis, and spends most of its running time showing murder after murder after murder. Director David Gordon Green intends to make these sequels a trilogy, but at this point I'm really hoping he follows the original trilogy's trend and makes a third Halloween that's actually a story about a druid worshiping media mogul who wants to melt screen-addicted kids' heads on Halloween night.
Halloween Kills is streaming on Peacock, albeit the paid version of the service. But at $4.99 a month you can sign up, watch the movie, cancel, and still spend less than going to see it in a theater.
1 comment:
I do feel like the editing could have made it tighter. But I wonder if it will play better post-Halloween Ends. Regardless, I will watch and watch again. And to you a Happy Halloween!
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