Halloween Kills (2021) / First thoughts

 

If I were to look at this film as the Friday the 13th of the Halloween series, I think this is more tolerable. But as a companion tied to Halloween (1978), besides some fun flashbacks to 1978, I wouldn't say it feels right. EVIL DIES TONIGHT. Jesus Christ, this dialogue. Anthony Michael Hall's Tommy is stuck with a brunt of it, but Laurie has some doozies. Curtis has the chops to make it work, but Hall is really stuck trying to sell cringe sandwiches that few will be able to swallow. And the idea teenagers, like Cameron and Allyson would think they could combat Michael Myers is fucking laughable...and Cameron learns that firsthand. And the entirety of the hospital mob scene with the other escaped mental patient they believe is Michael, with the poor guy leaping out of the window, with Sheriff Brackett saying that he is turning them all into monsters...like a lot of the dialogue, very heav y-handed. The point of Haddonfield looking to get their pound of flesh and Michael seemingly impervious to anything they throw at him, with a closing monologue from Laurie about how he transcends and becomes something all too powerful to stop is literally proven. Whereas there was nuance to The Shape in Carpenter's film from 1978, David Gordon Green's Michael is this metaphysical Other that seems to die and then "power up" like some sort of video game Boss. The Friday the 13th fan in me did love the mayhem, the carnage, the litany of absurd wackamole that happens similarly to "A New Beginning" (1985), where it would appear Halloween Kills (2021) was under their own edict to kill people every few minutes until the body count would take a person keeping up having to pause the Peacock stream for breaks just to catch a breath. Michael kills a lot of fucking people. Jason Voorhees, eat your heart out! The gloves are off and the Halloween series was like, "Hold my beer". So now that the lawsuit is over, the ball is in your court, Friday the 13th. 

I will have plenty more to say about this one.