Oh boy. The opening was pretty good and there are also some really strong parts, and that is what makes it so frustrating. To have some really great aspects, only to mix them with what feels like a lack of understanding for the basic lore for this setup world.
I’m new to the franchise, I watched H20 as a kid and I think perhaps also its followup but my brain forgot it and I hear that is a good thing. Certain characters returned that didn’t make sense to me, like Marion Chambers. If I recall right, she was working at a sanitarium far away from Haddonfield. You are telling me she just decided to move to visit the town and join with pitch forks? Nothing in the characters prior portrayal painted this person as someone to do this. I don’t buy her at all as part of the support group, and it feels forced and unnatural.
There is an escalation of Michael’s violence here but I am okay with that. It could tie into this idea this new reboot takes of Michael growing in power as he escalates in violence. I think that could build onto the idea that Loomis’ put forth that Michael is a purely evil force. What doesn’t work for this is that Michael is drawn to his childhood home. It gives a characterization that goes against the spirit of the original and that is a shame for a reboot that wanted to be more true to its roots.
The movie just has trouble with its legacy character treatment. While I thought 2018 did some cool things in that regard, this is not the case for Halloween Kills. Sheriff Brackett’s return as a security guard feels like a wild minor introduction that only clouds the movie. I think in this case, less would have been more and having him play a much smaller role, maybe even something on the phone (but seen) and out of town, could have worked a lot better.
I like Anthony Michael Hall. I think mostly because I feel bad that they didn’t get to do more with him in the Dark Knight trilogy as was supposedly planned. Here though, I think there needed to be more nuance to his portrayal. For getting so much screen time as the man to rally the town, he only ever has one mode. It starts to become a deep-sigh-endeavor each time he comes on screen.
I get that bringing people back, adding more subplot to existing characters backstories, and so on were all to serve the idea that this is a real place being affected by all of this. I just don’t think it works though, and I think it is the hand that crafted this project. There is a disconnect in appreciation for the original intent. I learned that Halloween was meant to be an entirely new story each film. Michael would have just wandered off into the dark, Evil at large and always present. I think there was room to build more on this with the side characters, but I think they should have just used Laurie’s family and cooked up some new characters for this. As is, it is stretched very thin.