Halloween Kills | October 15, 2021 | Uni/Blumhouse | Releases day-and-date in theaters and Peacock | 35% on RT

[Eastwood47]

2 hours ago, ViktorLosAngeles said:

You said it as it is. These are exactly the problems with both filma. Let’s not forget the dialogues in this one, especially that “Evil dies tonight” moment. And correct me if I’m wrong, but was Green actually trying to give this film a deeper meaning, yet again, by comparing the situation in the film with the way Trump’s presidency was presented through the US media? (not just the mob mentality, but the overall unrest) 

The formula is pretty simple. They market the film one way and then make the movie they always intended to make, which is nothing like what they said. Green just recently stated Myers is not literally supernatural so much as viewed to be supernatural by the town out of fear. Sorry. That's pure horsesh*t. 

In the last installment, the murders of '78 were treated as an event generations removed that people today did not even relate with. One character even goes as far as to say, " Okay so this guy escapes an asylum, kills three people, and is caught again. By today's standards that's really not so bad." So there's a concerted effort to show the town is completely unaware and unprepared for Myers to come back to their town. Loud, clear, and specific to those events. 

So it's a complete error in continuity to change the dynamic of a town not knowing or understanding what Myers is to suddenly having the same scope of understanding Laurie Strode has in a few short hours that creates a panic-turned mob? Utterly ridiculous and unbelievable. Hell even the TV news spot in KILLS says nothing about Myers specifically. But one guy is going to rally the town based on something even news reports can not contextualize? 

The truth is nobody does anything based on any rationale that makes sense. The whole film are just moments strung together with next to no connective tissue that reasonably explains why. Characters just suddenly become aware of things and do things without the slightest path of logic to justify them. Allot of times things are overstated to try and cram that reason in. Why does Tommy Doyle call Michael super-human based on the events of 1978? Where does he drudge that up from? They hid in a closet and then ran away. They have zero context. They were never even touched but tells the attendees in a bar they were brutally attacked. Even the bar owner thinks they're looney. 

So the movie tries to change the rules of engagement from the last film and thinks it can cover itself by simply having characters say things to sell those new rules, without any fundamental explanation as to why they would say them. And then you have Green doing the same thing by essentially telling everyone, " Well, this is actually what that means." I'm sorry. Do we need footnotes from the director or can't the movie stand on it's own? Its just a mess and the director trying to stand up like Tommy Doyle in a bar to "rally the troops" is just not going to work in real life. LOL

[Krissykins]

4 hours ago, Napoleon said:

I really liked this, and for me it improves the 2018 film, which I thought was underwhelming at the time. I had two big issues with that film that get solved with this sequel. I hope fans enjoy it.

 

3 hours ago, ddddeeee said:

I'll get into my thoughts a bit later (lots of good undone by unbelievably clunky dialogue), but my audience ate it up. Lots of wincing and laughing throughout. 

Yeh I need time to think on it too. I enjoyed it, but lots of stuff going on that I have to let sink in. 
 

I agree, some things that irked me from the 2018 film were resolved here. 

[ViktorLosAngeles]

I still think Deadline is overestimating the OW - 47.5 million $. 

 

I think it will, somehow, end up in 30’s by Sunday. 

 

I’m fine with 70-75 million $ US total and I guess 40-45 million $ overseas. 

[SnokesLegs]

I enjoyed it (despite the boomer couple behind me thinking they were on Gogglebox until I asked them to stop talking…), but I admit it’s kind of messy and definitely a step down from the 2018 film which I really loved. The first time they said “evil dies tonight” I cringed a bit, but once I got what they were going for, I didn’t mind it so much. Michael is in full on beast mode here though, which is very entertaining, there’s some gloriously gory kills.

 

Spoiler

The scene where he keeps calmly taking knives out of the knife rack and stabbing them into that guys back is creepy as hell.
 

Jamie Lee Curtis is wasted in a relatively small role though, I know they couldn’t realistically have had her back out hunting Michael after the wounds she sustained a few hours earlier, but she didn’t have much to do here aside from monologue. Although the end of the film definitely sets it up for her to have more to do in Halloween Ends, and I’m totally okay with what happens in the final scene. It sets up quite a showdown.
 

I’m also glad that the next one will take place a year or so later, the main issue with this film is that it takes place on the same night as the 2018 film which means sidelining Laurie was an unavoidable side effect.

 

I did enjoy it overall though, it’s a fun slasher despite a few issues.

 

[WittyUsername]

Well, this movie definitely ramped up the scale by having all the townsfolk rallying to kill Michael. 
 

Spoiler

That ending also seemed to desperately want to be the Infinity War moment for slasher movies, which is whatever to me. I’m not really sure where you can plausibly with the next one. This movie really leaned heavily on the idea that Michael is immortal, which sure seemed at odds with what the director said they were going for. They might as well go full ridiculous and bring back the cult idea from Halloween 6. 

 

[TheDude391]

David Gordon Green is a massive liar and hypocrite. He retcons all the sequels to bring Halloween back to it's roots more (which he mostly succeeded at in 2018)...only to do all the same shit again from the later films. Mob violence against Michael (done in 4) and Michael is Jason-lite again. They even used footage from Halloween II as a flashback for one of the characters because it's convenient now. It had some fun kills, the Carpenter score was good and Michael looked bad ass but this was so sloppily made and written, it's bizarre that this was the same team. The townsfolk share exactly one brain that's been divvied up amongst them, I don't normally mind dumb characters in slashers but this was ridiculous. Also, the humour added was just as annoying as it was in 2018, the only good gag was the car door kick which had myself and the audience howling with laughter.

 

I read up on the original ending that got cut and is being put on the bluray and it's baffling they removed it because this film ends so abruptly and lacks a hook for Ends now. One of the weaker Halloween films (on par with 5/6 but less fun), very disappointing overall. I'll still see Ends but my expectations are real low, can't believe this team is doing an Exorcist trilogy next...

 

Spoiler

Michael rising up from the mob beating and killing them was done so poorly too. Him getting up has zero weight (i don't even think we got reaction shots) and then the massacre is slow-mo extreme close-ups where you can't tell what's going on over a bizarre voice over from Laurie that seemed like a reshoot. 

 

[andersonhoran]

Spoiler

Why they had to kill Judy Greer? finally my girl got a leading role in a big franchise...man fuck this .

She was the best thing in the movie tho so there's that.

 

[excel1]

28 minutes ago, andersonhoran said:

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Why they had to kill Judy Greer? finally my girl got a leading role in a big franchise...man fuck this .

She was the best thing in the movie tho so there's that.

 

 

Spoiler

don't rule out her surviving...its a halloween movie

 

[Krissykins]

4 hours ago, andersonhoran said:

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Why they had to kill Judy Greer? finally my girl got a leading role in a big franchise...man fuck this .

She was the best thing in the movie tho so there's that.

 

Spoiler

I was sad about that too, she was also the only character that displayed any common sense. 

The drop in Cinemascore is unsurprising. My least favourite aspect of the film was the mob mentality, all of that stuff made me cringe. 

[ddddeeee]

Michael wasn't Jason-lite at all. He was vicious, sure, but he was constantly pulling pranks and having fun with the bodies. This was definitely the creepiest he's been since the original, and it's maybe the only part of the movie that 100% works.

[Krissykins]

22 minutes ago, ddddeeee said:

Michael wasn't Jason-lite at all. He was vicious, sure, but he was constantly pulling pranks and having fun with the bodies. This was definitely the creepiest he's been since the original, and it's maybe the only part of the movie that 100% works.

That’s interesting! Unfortunately for me, Michael gave me Rob Zombie vibes in this one. But to be fair to the film, Michael’s usual slowness might not work, because the full town already knows that he’s there. 
 

I’ll be going to see it again to make my mind up. 

Edited October 16, 2021 by Krissykins

[excel1]

The mob mentality dynamic is an interesting and fair critique of what happens during a crisis but it just doesn't gel her. Myers didn't kill 500 children in 1978, he killed 3 babysitters. He wouldn't be THAT infamous. Someone should have realized how lame "evil dies tonight" would sound.

Edited October 16, 2021 by excel1

[SnokesLegs]

13 minutes ago, excel1 said:

The mob mentality dynamic is an interesting and fair critique of what happens during a crisis but it just doesn't gel her. Myers didn't kill 500 children in 1978, he killed 3 babysitters. He wouldn't be THAT infamous. Someone should have realized how lame "evil dies tonight" would sound.

I feel like it sounding lame was kind of the point, it’s basically Haddonfield’s version of “make America great again”. These mob chants are always relatively brainless.

[AJ2k]

23 hours ago, Eastwood47 said:

Even some of the esthetics fail, such as the flashback scenes. Myers house CLEARLY reads like a set piece (very much in the same vein as Resurrection). But of course they got his mask right, especially in the flashback scenes. So I imagine this will ultimately be what allot of fans grade this film on to forgive the rest. But from the directors chair, this reads like a fan made film with a Hollywood budget. Self aware, unoriginal, and full of winks to other entries to cover up the fact it can't move the needle on the story. This is a trilogy made as a cash grab, not because there were three films worth of story to tell. If the third film moves the needle at all, you can just skip right over this one and watch the last entry. 

 

 

The flashback scene had a continuity error that bugged me almost immediately because it was something so simple that shouldn't have been missed. .

 

Spoiler

Michael was supposedly shot 6 times by Loomis prior to when we see him in the flashback but his coveralls look like he just walked straight out of the cleaners. No bullet holes, no blood stains, nothing. He just looked too clean. A guy that's been shot 6 times should leave a blood trail. When the cops are in Michael's house looking for him one of them sees footprints on the floor. Instead of footprints he should have seen a pool of blood. It was a glaring error and a really dumb mistake unless they just retconned Loomis shooting Michael in the first place.

 

[excel1]

The flashback to 1978 was awesome, though, and makes me long for a period slasher flick without social media and modern technology.

[excel1]

2 hours ago, SnokesLegs said:

I feel like it sounding lame was kind of the point, it’s basically Haddonfield’s version of “make America great again”. These mob chants are always relatively brainless.

 

It was cringeworthy either way. The idea is good but the execution terrible. 

[TheDude391]

3 hours ago, excel1 said:

The mob mentality dynamic is an interesting and fair critique of what happens during a crisis but it just doesn't gel her. Myers didn't kill 500 children in 1978, he killed 3 babysitters. He wouldn't be THAT infamous. Someone should have realized how lame "evil dies tonight" would sound.

The 2018 film made that point really clear but they retconned it here.

[Nikostar]

WOM is not good and the last 10 minutes is so unrealistic. I we really supposed to believe that a 60+ year old man can survive everything he went through in the last 10 minutes of the film. 

[ddddeeee]

There are 100 legit gripes to have about this movie, so complaining that the guy who was shot six times and then got up and walked away is a weird one to fixate on.

[Nikostar]

6 minutes ago, ddddeeee said:

There are 100 legit gripes to have about this movie, so complaining that the guy who was shot six times and then got up and walked away is a weird one to fixate on.

Shot 6 times, stab 5 times and beat half to death but ok.