Shin Michael Myers 2

I've been looking forward to the newest Halloween sequel since the last one. After it got delayed due to coivid, I was disappointed. We should all be talking about Halloween Ends right now, but now that'll be next year. The pandemic caused a lot of disruption, however, I can now watch most movies comfortably at home. Which is something I've been wanting for years. So I guess there's a little bit of a silver lining in this ongoing dark cloud. Which is how I watched the all new Halloween Kills this past weekend. In my home, eating sodium free tacos with a can of Arizona Green Tea. I'm going to try and be as spoiler free from here on out, but I am talking about a new movie, so if you're sensitive to such things. Take this as a fair warning.

I originally was thinking Halloween 2018 as a remake of the original part 2 and this would be a remake of part 4. I've now changed that opinion to 2018 being a resurgence of the original with this being a remake of part 2 and 4 while being a sequel to 2018. Hear me out. Part 2 was originally set a few years later with Michael stalking an older Laurie in her high rise apartment. Then it was changed to him returning the same night for more of the night he came home. Part 4 is Michael returning to Haddonfield later (10 years). The town had moved on for the most part, but still remembered, forming lynch mobs upon hearing of his return. 

So in 2018, they restart the franchise with the older Michael returning years later (ignoring all other sequels, even H20 which did the same) rebooting without remaking the original. Shin Halloween. Halloween Kills, is effectively a sequel to 2018 that takes place directly after 2018 with Laurie spending the movie at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. Sound familiar? The other half of the movie is the rest of the town who still remembers what happened in 1978 forming a lynch mob to hunt him down with a focus on Laurie's daughter. Sound familiar?

In theory this movie is a Halloween movie fan fiction come to life, and that's ultimately it's undoing. I've never been the type to poop on official sources delivering directly to the fans. I mean that as it lacks the polish a professional presentation should have. It's a bit of a mess, coming together like a bunch of ideas not seen all the way through. It's enjoyable, I had fun, but it's nowhere near perfect either. The movie is a combination of a lot of good ideas that don't gel together very well. It's just my opinion, so don't take it personally. 

My favorite characters in the movie was a couple named Big and Little John who now live in the old Myers house. I want a movie with them as the main characters that live in a haunted house. Their claims that the old house was haunted to the returning Silver Shamrock kids (love) was a moment of pure joy for me. Like other sequels, the producers really nail the spirit of Halloween night, Between Big and Little John, my other favorite part was the flashbacks to 1978. They really recaptured the original down to Dr. Loomis who was near perfect. That's another Halloween sequel I want, the adventures of the police tracking Michael down in 1978. Those two parts were great.

Unfortunately I didn't love this movie as much as I wanted too. It's nowhere near the worst Halloween movie (hello Rob Zombie movies) or even the biggest disappointment. That would be Halloween: Resurrection. Ironically the follow up to another much loved return of Jamie Lee Curtis that reset the movies on a noteworthy anniversary (H20).  Even more ironically, that movie also got delayed a year. I honestly did enjoy Halloween Kills even with it's flaws. I appreciate the similarity to The Dark Knight in which Michael turns the turns people into borderline villains out of fear. The producers clearly want these new Halloween moves to be better movies than the slasher genre the original inspired. It's a fun ride, just not a perfect ride. I'm excited for Halloween Ends. I love these movies, they're not perfect. But neither am I.