Perhaps the most unusual film to grace the Lido in years, a late-in-the-game adrenaline shot into Venice’s now winding down programme, is David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills. I guess I never had Michael Myers pegged to be the ‘enjoying an Aperol Spritz in his birthday suit on the beach’ type but even serial killers need to unwind in the Italian sun – how postmodern of him!
Of course, 2018’s Halloween – a sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 game-changing classic (canonically undoing the carnage of those many follow-ups) – was a surprise on all accounts; commercially and critically, no one expected it to be the success it was. Although, most notably, it took a has-been franchise (arguably a one-trick pony with many dismissing the sequels entirely) and made it fresh and exciting in the cultural zeitgeist once again. And Gordon Green still has surprises up his sleeve with Kills it seems, debuting the sequel at Venezia 78. It’s certainly not the usual play for a mainstream blockbuster, let alone a horror one at that, but it’s a chess move that continues to distinguish this new Halloween legacy from the rest of the pack.
Immediately picking up where we left off, the Strode household is aflame with Michael Myers buried at the bottom of it. For once, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) has beaten the boogeyman that has haunted her all these decades… Or so she thinks. But the un-killable Myers isn’t ready to die yet, rising from the fire when a group of firefighters are sent in to tend to the blaze and setting out to continue wreaking havoc upon Haddonfield. As Laurie recovers from a near-fatal knife wound, the town comes together to stop Myers’ reign of terror once and for all. And so the game is afoot once more. It certainly leaves one pondering the leash of life on this series; after all, can we realistically keep recycling “the immortal monster” narrative this much?
Gordon Green is certainly adamant we can. While Halloween Kills doesn’t reinvent the saga nor the genre, it does – to Green’s credit – find a lot of innovation within its limited wheelhouse thanks to buckets of bloodshed. This is easily the goriest of the Halloween films – and that’s saying something. It feels like a return to form too, once again finding the playfulness in the murders. In 1978, Halloween became so iconic for the sadistic attachment to the kills – cheesy, practical, and unique – which is something that has been lacking from the subsequent movies. Even in 2018, Myers’ felt ‘generic serial killer-esque’ and not like the infamous antagonist that has terrified audiences for years. Here though, every death is distinct. Every death lingers in the psyche, each so different from the next. You’ll be remembering these kills for some time after.
And that’s all you want from a Halloween film. It’s naturally full of the jump-scares and silly character decisions (use your gun, not an axe!) that have become emblematic of this franchise. And you can see where it’s going from a mile away. One could even argue that the franchise has become self-aware now with Green leaning into the inane decisions, cartoonish kills, and Myers’ immortality. The occasional one-liner and trope still feels a little misplaced but Kills is having fun with the concept and it makes for entertaining, albeit paper-thin, viewing. However, it’s the commitment to the carnage that makes thisso much fun; Halloween started as a slasher movie in 1978 and, somewhere along the way, it forgot that so it’s refreshing to see this series – and this character – truly return to that on such a large scale. There’s fun to be had with how it all unfolds and how the stage is set for what’s to come. If Halloween Ends can maintain the momentum of Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills, it’s going to be a good footnote in this revitalised trilogy.
Halloween Kills
Summary
Easily the goriest of all of the movies, and a lot of fun.
