Halloween Kills

The Halloween film saga has held a special place in our hearts since John Carpenter's first cult film in 1978. The first film in 1978 not only revolutionized the cinema of the time but also showed that John Carpenter was a true master of horror by creating the iconic character of Michael Myers who will have marked several generations of spectators. This third cycle marking the return to the cinema of the Halloween saga is a direct continuation of the second film directed by Rick Rosenthal and released in 1981. After the first eight films (1978-2002), the two-film reboot by Rob Zombie and this cycle started in 2018 with director and co-writer David Gordon Green, the Halloween saga regains all its luster and shows that the character of Michael joins the iconic characters that are Chucky (excellent new series started last Tuesday in the United States), Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. 

This new episode is even more successful as it allows us to find the excellent actor Jim Cummings in an important secondary role as a policeman. Halloween Kills also allows us to find the same writers, producers, actors, director of photography and editor which gives the film a real continuity with the previous film. The writers Scott Teems, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green seem to take a malicious pleasure in revisiting the first two films of the Halloween saga, in particular by placing, as in the second film directed by Rick Rosenthal, the setting of the action mainly in a hospital but also by considerably increasing the number of deaths that Michael Myers leaves behind. While the previous film set the scene and gave an important role to the actress Jamie Lee Curtis, she appears here as a simple second role and will not even have a confrontation with Michael Myers. We suspect that this confrontation will be at the center of the next installment, Halloween Ends, scheduled for October 14, 2022 in the United States. 

The undeniable respect for John Carpenter's first film is felt here by an introductory scene taking place on October 31, 1978 and which tells us about the arrest of Michael Myers by psychiatrist Sam Loomis and shows us how deputy Frank Hawkins accidentally killed his partner (played by Jim Cummings) while trying to put Michael Myers out of action. The action then picks up a few minutes after Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) leave the Michael Myers in Laurie's burning basement. Injured, she is rushed to the hospital. Left for dead, Michael Myers manages to free himself from Laurie's trap and leaves a trail of dead in his wake. The inhabitants of Haddonfield on their side revolt and launch a fight to kill this monster who seems invulnerable and whose humanity has totally disappeared.

While the pace of the previous film was voluntarily slow and allowed to place the strong elements of this cycle, Halloween Kills turns out to be an excellent slasher film benefiting from an inspired direction and a great care taken to stage the killings of Michael Myers. Of course, this is the second film of a trilogy and we suspect that the final denouement will give an important place to Laurie Strode, who is only playing a second role here. The objective is to show that Michael Myers is a monster as invincible as Jason or Freddy Krueger. It would have been interesting to explain where Michael Myers' superhuman strength comes from and what his ultimate goal is because, as we learn here, it does not stop with Laurie Strode but seems to be linked to his arrest in 1978. 

In the same way, whereas the first film of this cult saga only had four victims on the screen, here we see an impressive number of people killed, massacred, which easily makes Michael Myers the greatest serial killer of the cinema with a total of one hundred and sixty victims in all films. We also find here in one of the main roles of the film the young boy Tommy who had Laurie Strode as a babysitter, become a man (played on screen by Anthony Michael Hall) this one becomes here the main character and gathers around him many people to launch an expeditious fight against Michael Myers. One suspects that the confrontation between Tommy and Michael Myers leaves little surprise as to its outcome. 

Finally, the script of Scott Teems, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green leaves a strong place on the definition of the evil and the words of Laurie Strode testify well that Michael Myers is a true monster that nothing will be able to stop so much his will to survive and to kill like a rabid animal makes him a person out of the ordinary. The emphasis here is clearly to respect John Carpenter's first film as much as to celebrate Halloween in a frightening atmosphere where the character of Michael Myers can strike at any moment. Far from being a simple slasher film, Halloween Kills is certainly one of the most successful parts of this cult saga and we are waiting with a rare impatience for Halloween Ends which will be released on October 14, 2022.

Halloween Kills
Directed by David Gordon Green
Written by Scott Teems, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green
Based on Characters by John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Produced by Malek Akkad, Jason Blum, Bill Block
Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Anthony Michael Hall, Jim Cummings
Cinematography : Michael Simmonds
Edited by Tim Alverson
Music by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, Daniel Davies
Production companies : Miramax, Blumhouse Productions, Trancas International Pictures, Rough House Productions
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date : September 8, 2021 (Venice), October 15, 2021 (United States), October 20,2021 (France)
Running time : 105 minutes

Seen on October 15, 2021 (Peacock)

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