Movie Review: HALLOWEEN KILLS (2022): THE EXTENDED CUT ** and a 1\2 out of *****

(c) Universal/Blumhouse.

With Halloween (2018), co-writer/director David Gordon Green made his intentions clear. He basically took the template and prestige of John Carpenter's original masterpiece and used them to create something of an abomination: a soulless and mostly artless horror movie that basically inverts everything Carpenter did in his original. Carpenter's movie was elegant, restrained, and full of atmosphere. Green's was crass, sloppy, and virtually devoid of any flavor. Carpenter's ending was haunting and subdued. Green's ending was preachy and over-the-top.

And now we come to Green's sequel, Halloween Kills (2022). There isn't much to add, really. It's a tad less crass, but it's even more meat-headed than Halloween (2018), and Green amps up the violence to sickening levels, throwing everything but the kitchen sink in a cynical attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator. While Green's Halloween script's left something to be desired, the writing in Halloween Kills is, for the most part, abysmal, with characters speaking stiff dialogue and acting in ways that defy all logic. Add to that Green and company's including a "message" about the madness of crowds in a film that is already politically-corrected to within an inch of its life, and you get something that is simultaneously bland, offensive, and forgettable.

Although Halloween Kills has its moments, they are few and far between, and one can only guess why Carpenter would add his name and blessing to such a mess of a sequel to his beloved classic.

Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2022.

Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. He is also the host of The Dark Fantastic Podcast. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @DFantasticPodcast