What's funny is the reviews Kills is getting are what I originally expected for 2018. I'm still surprised at how much the critics loved that one, thus, I'm not surprised Kills is not getting great reviews because there was no way it could live up to the original and reviewers automatically hate a movie if it doesn't outdo its predecessor. I'm still looking forward to it and will still look foward to Ends next year, but I don't go into these movies expecting masterpieces, I go in expecting Halloween sequels. The fact that 2018 was as good as it was impresses me and no matter how lackluster Kills and Ends are, nothing will change 2018 from being the third best movie in the franchise. Lastly, I doubt Kills or Ends will ever end up as bad as Resurrection, 6, and the two Rob Zombie jokes.
The 3 masks that was in Halloween lll appears in Kills. But l wish Rob Zombie made his version from the 1981 novel. Micheal's origins goes back 2,000 years during the time of Druids in Ireland. From what l remember it begins with a young boy in the village fell in love with this girl whose father was a Druid priest. She rejected him and then he kills her. I do not remember how the story goes after that. But the novel also tells about Michael's grandfather murdered two people and he was captured and executed. But before Michael murdered his sister, he kept telling his parents and his grandmother that he heard voices. His grandmother knew there was something wrong with him, but his parents ignored it. Also before he murdered his sister, he snuck out of the house and he and few other trick or treaters came to the front door of his house and his sister answered the door and started teases the kids saying she has no candy and Michael who was wearing a mask threaten her. She was surprised and she asked Michael is that you. The novel also tells stories of micheal while at Smith Grove pushed a nurse down the stairs. Micheal was possessed by the spirits of the Druids and that is why he could be killed.
It’s okay. I don’t love it as much as Halloween 18. I love how the tone and vibes feel spot on to 18. There is a good amount of people who show up just to get killed. No character development just someone to die. I’m not the biggest fan of that. Flash backs were nice. But it has some big issues. Like the dumb ass decisions. Spoiler I was happy to see the Dick head boyfriend die. The Hospital plot sucked big time. I hated the chase the random dude who escaped the sanatorium plot line. The dudes death was to generically gruesome. Laurie doesn’t do shit. The focus on Karen and Allyson was fine but the other towns people got annoying after a certain point.
They FINALLY arrived: As for Kills: It was good, but I didn't like it as much as 2018. The biggest issue is that it's nothing but one string of death scenes after another. Like characters were there just to die. It felt like filler, honestly. Still, it was enjoyable, had a lot of good twists and turns in it, especially a nice bait and switch moment, and Michael look great. I'd probably rank it fifth in the franchise. Spoiler I loved how it turns out that Laurie actually means absolutely nothing to Michael. He never even had an interest in chasing after her, he just wanted to go home. The characters (most actors) from the original movie are back just to die. So pointless. The recreated Myers home was amazing. The stuff in 78 was well done, especially the guy they got to play Loomis. Keeping him hidden in the dark most of the time made him very believable as being Pleasance. The death scene with the drone couple was utterly pointless and could have been cut. The movie should have ended with Michael getting back up after being beaten down rather than where it did end. The flaming pumpkin during the opening credits was incredible. [/spoilers] That's all my thoughts for now on Kills as I'm still gathering theme.
Kermode just blasted the hell out of Halloween Kills. Said it was boring and made it sound like the worst thing ever. And he loved the last one.
He's the reviewer for the BBC. I'm surprised you haven't come across him, even if only accidentally. He's a huge Carpenter fan, and horror is his favorite genre. He's usually overly-forgiving (imo) in his horror movie reviews, but he hated Kills. He hated the Zombie movies worse, though. No spoiler review:
Jeremy Jahns said the same thing, and it's one of those times I disagree with him but I can see where he is coming from. A movie that is full of one thing can over stay its welcome. Like a Godzilla movie that was nothing but 90 minute of non-stop monster action would get quite tiresome after 15 minutes. Take Quantum of Solace, for James Bond for example. That movie is an utter borefest to sit through because it's non-stop action with little breathing room for any plot or character development. Hell, I even have trouble paying attention to those Death Battle videos if the thing lasts more than a few minutes. Now for Kills, I wasn't bored, but it did not need to be 105 minutes. They could have easily trimmed the movie down to 90 minutes because most of the movie felt like padding to justify having a trilogy.
I saw it today. I enjoyed it as much as I did the previous film. It's definitely the perfect movie to get me back to the cinema after COVID has thrown so many monkey wrenches at those plans for well over a year. Spoiler: My reaction to a MAJOR SPOILER Karen's death had me absolutely shocked. She and Allison are two characters that I would assume would never bite the ax. Well with Karen, Kills proved me wrong. I would've expected Laurie to die, not her. When Michael first appeared behind Karen, my initial thought was that it was going to be like the deleted scene from the 2018 film where Michael appeared in one of Laurie's closets before disappearing in a following scene, as he wasn't actually there. Spoiler: Reaction to another SPOILER When that Ford truck showed up at the end, I originally expected them to run Michael over. Considering how he got back up, I bet they regretted not mowing him down like how Hawkins did in the previous one, but considering how that played out, probably would not have made a difference. When they stopped beating him, I sorta saw it coming that Michael was going to get back up and pull the whole Uno reverse card on them. I actually wonder if they would've actually killed Michael had they not stopped and kept on beating him up. I'm still very curious to know how they're going to defeat Michael. One thing I think 18 and Kills have in common, is that they both had perfect opportunities to kill Michael off. 2018 had the burning house, Kills had Spoiler: SPOILERS Haddonfield residents beating the crap out of him , so how will Ends top both of those?
To call this an inferior sequel doesn’t begin to cover it. I waited through a pandemic for this stinker? The only surprise, or anything interesting, was the final kill. Didn’t see that one coming. All the rest of them… Stevie Wonder saw it all a mile away. Any way to contact Universal for a refund? Not even sure I’m interested in the next one.
I don't think it was anywhere near that bad, especially for a franchise that has the likes of Rob Zombie's garbage and Resurrection. The problem is that it's obviously fluff just so there could be three movies. I figure Ends will make everything in Kills worth it.
It was a waste of time. I would flat out recommend people to NOT see it. This film joins the family of Halloween sequel mediocrity. It’s actually worse because the filmmakers revived the franchise to do away with the garbage movies and create a trilogy that respected the original film. Halloween 2018 did just that. It embraced murder porn but was smart about it. This film, while murder porn, was pretty stupid. I didn’t care about anything, anyone, or what happened to them. As a matter of fact, I was going “you’re gonna die... you need to die... and you do... and you do too. Oh, you didn’t die? Hopefully you’ll die later. Oh good you died”. The film was one giant And it projected the end of the trilogy.
