First Reviews For HALLOWEEN KILLS Show Mixed Emotions
Horror fans are a fickle bunch. We like what we like and there usually isn’t the person who can change our minds once they are made up. That being said, when any studio mentions the phrase “remake” or “re-vamp” we collectively cringe. This fact wasn’t lost on the folks at Blumhouse or Universal when they brought us 2018’s Halloween. The film generally gets a pass by the horror community. Now it’s time to continue the tale they spun in Halloween Kills.
Halloween Kills premiered at the Venice film festival in Italy today and the reviews have been flowing in.
“Three years ago, David Gordon Green successfully breathed new life into the mythology of Michael Myers by building a story about the legacy of trauma and pitting three generations of women from the same family against the psycho-slasher introduced by John Carpenter in the influential 1978 horror classic," THR writes. "...But in this second part of a trilogy spun out of the rebooted property... Green has made exactly the kind of witless, worthless sequel that bled the franchise dry in the 1980s and '90s."
Discussing Film disagrees entirely, stating that "Halloween Kills is a non-stop, blood-rushing blast. David Gordon Green takes the brutality of his 2018 film and amps it up, breaking the dial in the process... no character, big or small, is ever safe. There are some absolutely gnarly kills that will become ingrained in spectator's minds. It's shocking to the highest degree. In terms of the film's scare factor, audiences will be undoubtedly biting their nails in anxiety. Green successfully keeps the viewer on edge as one anticipates the sudden arrival of Michael's cold knife piercing through his next victim."
Falling somewhere in the middle, The Guardian feels that Halloween Kills does the job that it needs to: "There's not a massive amount of innovation, but the significant new element is that the citizens of Haddonfield decide to hunt Myers down vigilante-style... which is where the film gestures at a parable about everyday Americans going rogue under the spell of collective hatred. No one actually dons a horned helmet, but we get the message."
It seems as though the element of the Haddonfield townsfolk turning into a mob and taking on Michael Myers might not be the Horror Home Run, Blumhouse was aiming for. It didn’t work too well in Halloween 5 but who knows, we have yet to see the film ourselves and will provide a review when that does happen.
