In a follow-up to the surprise Halloween reboot in 2018 that revived a franchise that was nearly on its death bed due to the horrendous sequels that came before it, Halloween Kills comes moments after Laurie Strode, her daughter Karen, and granddaughter Allyson have finally defeated the monster known as Michael Myers. Unfortunately, Myers is no ordinary man, so he escapes the burning building again and goes out on a murderous rampage; however, the town of Haddonfield has had enough of the unstoppable monster and they set out to kill the evil bastard once and for all. The buzz was extremely high for the second chapter of the trilogy; however, Halloween Kills failed to reach the positive critical reception of the 2018 reboot. Obviously, terrible reviews don’t guarantee a movie’s downfall, and the sequel ended up scoring nearly 50 million on its first weekend. Of course, its day-to-day release on Peacock and the coronavirus pandemic are viable reasons why the film opened nearly $30 million less than its predecessor; however, there’s clearly more to the disappointing numbers of Halloween Kills. The film is far from a financial failure, but we’re going to explore why this movie has failed to maintain the high buzz that it had before opening weekend. Be warned, this article does contain several spoilers from the film. Please do not continue reading if you still want to watch Halloween Kills.
Halloween Kills Was Only The Second Chapter
Here’s the core issue with the rebooted Halloween franchise, audiences knew that Michael Myers wasn’t dying in the second chapter. This whole franchise is about the unstoppable monster and Laurie Strode, so there was no way that David Gordon Green was going to axe off the murderous brute here. The premise of the whole town forming a mob to kill Michael Myers is actually a strong one, but since a third film has been greenlighted then that arc feels pointless and the intriguing elements lack any tension. Universal made the mistake by announcing two sequels following the success of Halloween. The sequel doesn’t have an overall impact on the final story, nor does it present any new ideas that demand the audience to shell out money for a movie ticket. The film does live up to its name, as they’re a huge amount of kills, but there’s not much exploration in the world of Halloween. With Laurie Strode being out of commission, the film follows a group of people who have no ties to the central plot, which is Michael Myers vs. Laurie Strode. What’s the point of watching the second chapter when it’s such a small significance to the overall arc? Many fans likely opted to skip the current chapter of the franchise and wait until the final installment set for October 2022.
The Halloween Formula Has Gotten Repetitive
The mystery surrounding Michael’s superhuman strength continues to be the crutch of the big bad. In the overall mythology of Halloween, Michael Myers is human, like Laurie Strode, yet it’s never explained why he’s so invincible. I get it, Michael Myers is the star so they can’t exactly kill him off like John Kramer, but it eventually becomes frustrating that the same cycle repeats itself. Michael goes on a murderous rampage. A protagonist (or Laurie Strode) finally takes down the big bad, seemingly killing the mysterious man. A sequel pops up and Michael is fine and well, murdering a fresh batch of victims. All the suspense goes out the window when Universal keeps repeating this tiring process. Hopefully, Halloween will truly end in 2022 because it’s finally time to put this series to rest. Halloween doesn’t have much to say because its plot is fairly simple-minded. The rebirth of the 2018 Halloween breathed some new life into the franchise because it introduced a new exciting element, Michael Myers vs. Laurie Strode.
The film was generally a fun romp between the brother and sister that delivered some sweet kills; however, it managed to mask the tired plot of Michael Myers kills until the protagonist gets the better of him. At least until the sequel. The finale of Halloween Ends will be a telling sign of the future of the overall franchise. If Michael finally dies (and I mean really dies) then it’ll likely be the end of the long franchise; however, if Strode dies then expect Halloween to continue despite it supposedly being the end. It should be mentioned that a copout method might be used, meaning that Strode will “defeat” Michael, but he’ll show signs of life seconds before the film fades to black. Universal and Green have to be extremely careful about how Halloween finishes off. Hopefully, the company doesn’t get greedy and prevent Green from killing off Michael in order to profit from the infamous villain in another reboot.
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