The first reviews for Halloween Kills are rolling in from its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival and critics are divided on Michael Myers' return. The iconic horror franchise found new life in 2018 when David Gordon Green and Danny McBride brought their vision for a direct sequel to the original to Blumhouse Productions and franchise co-creator John Carpenter, both of whom fell in love with their concept. Halloween became a smash hit upon its release, setting the record for the highest-grossing slasher film previously set by Wes Craven's Scream and scoring rave reviews from critics and audiences alike.
This success assured Blumhouse of McBride and Green's vision for not just one, but two follow-ups, the first of which comes in Halloween Kills. The film will pick up exactly where its predecessor left off as Michael Myers survives the trap set by Laurie Strode and her daughter Karen and goes back on a rampage in Haddonfield, only this time the heroine has the help of the whole community to put a stop to his reign of terror. Jamie Lee Curtis returns to lead the cast alongside Nick Castle as Myers, Judy Greer as Karen, Andi Matichak as Allyson Nelson and Will Patton as Deputy Frank Hawkins. The cast also includes Anthony Michael Hall joins as recurring character Tommy Doyle, taking over the role from Brian Andrews and Paul Rudd, Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace from the 1978 original film, Nancy Stephens reprising her role of Marion Chambers from three previous films and Robert Longstreet taking over the role of Lonnie Elam from Brent Le Page.
With the film having premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, the first reviews to Halloween Kills have begun rolling in. Critics are seemingly divided on the latest installment in the horror franchise, with some calling it better than most other sequels and a competent follow-up while others find it to be lacking any major substance and too reliant upon the finale threequel, Halloween Ends. See what critics are saying below:
Ben Croll, IndieWire:
If Scott Teems, Danny McBride, and David Gordon Green’s script tries to engage with these questions of generational trauma, recognizing that Myers’s rampage affected more than one family, it undercuts any stab at earnestness in the very same moment. Speeches about community healing just don’t land the same when Michael is making mincemeat of the town’s fire brigade with a chainsaw. Of course that is the slasher film’s remit, with whatever release we get from the genre coming from seeing violence enacted not overcome, so you can’t exactly blame the filmmakers for doing their job.
Owen Gleiberman, Variety:
Halloween night may be Michael Myers’ masterpiece, but Halloween Kills is no masterpiece. It’s a mess — a slasher movie that‘s almost never scary, slathered with “topical” pablum and with too many parallel plot strands that don’t go anywhere. Green, as clever a job as he did on the first film, wastes no time cutting back to where the Halloween series ultimately landed: in a swamp of luridly repetitive and empty sequels, with Michael turned into such an omnipresent icon that his image gets drained of any nightmare quality. He’s more like someone who belongs on a lunchbox. Curtis, so good in the last one, is mostly wasted this time (you can feel the film trying to think up things for her to do), as Laurie’s daughter (Judy Greer) and granddaughter (Andi Matichak) do most of the heavy lifting.
Jonathan Romney, The Guardian:
Forty years after John Carpenter made the defining slasher movie, director David Gordon Green has made a creditable stab, as it were, at reanimating the title.
Asher Luberto, The Wrap:
For all the deep and troubling psychoanalysis of this film, it’s also a textbook Halloween movie. Curtis remains the perfect Final Girl, showcasing a range of emotions in a single frame: tired, resilient, resourceful and terrified. The film is expertly shot by returning cinematographer Michael Simmonds, who crafts some memorably chilling images, highly stylized and dimly lit. Carpenter’s score (composed in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter) offers some of the franchise’s Greatest Hits with a couple remixes thrown in to catch you off guard.
David Rooney, THR:
I felt a genuine jolt of excitement as the first gut-churning electronic rumble is heard here over the Universal logo. But as in everything else, restraint has been abandoned. Carpenter’s son Cody and Daniel Davies share composing credit with the master, going big and bombastic, and layering in vocal elements. But instead of getting under your skin, the music hammers you over the head. Call it Halloween Overkills.
Rafael Montamayor, IGN:
As far as horror sequels go, especially sequels to reboots, Halloween Kills does a lot right. For one, it honors the original in a way that feels not like empty fan service, but as a compelling companion to the material. The film's darker tone instantly sets itself apart from its predecessors, diving more deeply into the themes of trauma and how it affects a community while delivering some truly gruesome kills. Sadly, it doesn't really stand on its own, being too dependent on a conclusion that is still a year away, one that could either fix some of the holes in this movie, or expose even greater flaws. Because of this, it's hard to recommend Halloween Kills as a standalone experience, but rest assured that when Michael is out on the hunt, Halloween certainly Kills.
Wendy Ide, Screen International:
The key to defeating lumbering death machine Michael Myers, explains one man, a veteran of the earlier stages of old rubber-face’s reign of terror, is to play him at his own game, to weaponise the element of surprise. It’s advice that director David Gordon Green, who returns to the franchise after his warmly-received sequel/reboot Halloween (2018), would have done well to listen to. Whatever else could be said about this competent and generally pretty entertaining latest addition to the series, surprising it is not. The law of diminishing sequel returns applies here, not least for the fact that another film, Halloween Ends, is slated for release in October 2022, rather taking an axe to any hopes of closure in this instalment.
Adam Solomons, HeyUGuys:
Yet, also like Myers, the Halloween movies just won’t die. For slasher fans and everyday moviegoers alike, Kills is a long-awaited entry to a franchise like no other. But if it was just a bit more like the others, perversely, it might be better one.
Ben Rolph, DiscussingFilm:
[Halloween Kills] takes the slash in "slasher" up to a thousand and it's all the better for it.
Given the entertaining heights and return to form Green's first Halloween was, it does come as a disappointment that the reviews are so split down the middle on the latest installment in the franchise. Green and McBride's original vision was only a two-part story rather than a full trilogy and the first reviews for the film certainly seem to point towards an unnecessary expansion to meet the latter. The trailers and marketing thus far may have many genre and franchise fans excited for the return of Myers alongside countless legacy characters, but there has been some concern over the film's intent on hyping up "evil dies tonight."
With Halloween Ends not only in the works but set to begin filming in January, many were already left pondering what Halloween Kills' plot could deliver that would leave them eager to return for the finale. Much like fellow Venice premiere Dune, the early reviews for the latest horror sequel certainly point to another film too reliant upon its follow-up rather than stand on its own, though it's too early to tell whether critics will ultimately land on the positive side of the Rotten Tomatoes and MetaCritic scales as with Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic. Only time will tell when Halloween Kills arrives in theaters on October 15.
Sources: Various [see links above]
