Finally my favorite season of the year is here! I love Fall and Winter so so much. I love the weather, the changing of the leaves, and most importantly, the movies. I love horror movies so very much. Among my favorite horror movies is the original Halloween from 1978. I love Michael Myers as a character and I think Jamie Lee Curtis is a goddess. It’s one of my favorite scary movies of all time. So, in 2018, when I heard they were doing yet another Halloween movie, I was skeptical at best. But, that movie ended up blowing me away. It is honestly probably the best Halloween movie besides the original, of course. Which was quite a feat considering it had been 40 years since the original was released. Now, three years later, we get a sequel to that sequel. Did Halloween Kills keep up with the positive trajectory? Let’s check it out!

First and foremost, this movie is a direct sequel to the 2018 film. It takes place minutes after that movie. I feel that this might be another situation where watching both movies as if they were one film would really help Halloween Kills. Similarly to Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale. Because, very much like Quantum of Solace, Halloween Kills sort of feels disappointing? I mean it’s a fine movie. But it just feels like it focuses too much on how brutal Michael can be. He goes from house to house relentlessly killing everyone he comes across. All so he can head back to his childhood home. The movie explains this many times. Almost as if they do not trust the audience to figure out this extremely simple premise. And… that’s it! That’s really the whole movie. They truly unleash Michael on the town and he has an extremely high body count in this movie. He kills and he kills a lot. The brutality was fun, but it also grows old after a little bit. I can only watch a group of people get dismembered so many times before I start to lose interest. That’s basically what happens here. Michael kills huge groups of people and it sort of just desensitizes you to the horror that this town must be feeling.

The side plot is much more interesting in my opinion. The stuff that takes place outside of what Michael is doing. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is taken to the hospital after her last altercation with Michael Myers. Luckily, she pulls through her life-saving surgery. When she wakes up, the nightmare is over. She finally believes that she killed Michael Myers. She reminisces with her daughter about how she finally got rid of him. Only to find out that he lived. She is thrust right back into her nightmare. Meanwhile, the town takes matters into their own hands and decides to have a public lynching of Michael Myers. They start a witch hunt that ends up creating a new horror for the town. This stuff is all really interesting. I liked this direction in the movie. I liked learning about the past of these characters that have also been plagued by Michael. To hear about the impression he has left on this town. That was all wonderful and really interesting. Unfortunately, these scenes comprise only about 30% of the movie. The rest is just Michael Myer’s rampage across the town. Even more unfortunate, is the severe underuse of Jamie Lee Curtis. She is in a hospital bed for 90% of her scenes. When she does get up to fight, she gets pushed over on her injuries. Only to never be seen again in the movie. It’s such a poor use of such a wonderful actor. She is my favorite part of this series and she is severely underutilized.

Other than that, it’s still fun! It’s certainly not the best Halloween movie, but it is nowhere near the worst. I think the title Halloween Kills is perfect. If you’re looking for some brutal deaths and a lot of killing, this is the one for you. If you’re looking for lore and a story, maybe watch 2018’s Halloween before this one. I honestly feel that the two movies played back to back might be the way to watch this one. Because on its own, it just feels a little flat. I still enjoyed it though. This is the 12th Halloween movie and there is a 13th coming next year. I hope that Halloween Ends can really nail the ending for this trilogy. And, more importantly, actually end the franchise before it finds itself off the rails once more. I give Halloween Kills a 2 out of 4. It was fun watching Michael rip his way through the town, but that can only carry a movie so much. There is one thing this movie does perfectly though; it made me want to revisit the original 1978 Halloween for the millionth time. Hopefully it inspires some people that have never seen the original to go find it. Because it is one of the greatest scary movies ever made.