Halloween Kills is a dark delight; A continuation of the night he came home… again, that is reminiscent of 1981’s Halloween 2. This is Michael Myers at his most brutal and unforgiving. He spares no one in this chilling sequel that feeds off of and gains momentum with the kill count. As Laurie Strode all knowingly states, “The more he kills, the more he transcends into something else impossible to defeat.” This is the real Michael, the real Boogeyman we have all grown to fear- and to love. There’s a reason we all keep coming back for more, when we know evil will continue rising from the dead, just as our own fears and patterns continue to arise. Maybe it’s the hope that we will one day transcend it all, or maybe it’s the addiction to the continued pain and fear.
This film doesn’t shy away from a deeper message, though it will undoubtedly go over many heads, the ones who just want horror to be horror for horror’s sake, and not for what most of us know it to be- catharsis. As Micheal slashes his way once more through Haddonfield, it’s met with open arms to us horror fans who for some reason get off on the blood and gore, but the real horror comes in the form of real life, human induced suffering; The angry mob, formed at first with the right intentions, but riled up to become a force worse than the original reason for fighting, which gets lost and muddied up in the process. Humans pushed to do unspeakable things in the name of justice, losing themselves in their fight by blind anger and cognitive dissonance. I only wish the people who need to see this message weren’t the ones who will be blind to it or call it an agenda. After all, Haddonfield may be a fictional town, but evil is real, and we have to be open to sometimes being wrong as to who the real monster is behind the mask. Because as Laurie continues, it’s not monsters who destroy us, it’s “Fear. People are afraid. That is the true curse of Michael… It is the essence of evil, the anchor that divides us.”
Be ready for twists and turns. You should know by now that death isn’t always certain, and no one’s life is off limits in a Halloween film. While serving as a bridge between Halloween and Halloween Ends, Halloween Kills still delivers over 90 minutes of seat clutching terror and fun, honoring what’s come before while carrying the slasher genre into the modern world.
Til next time,
🔪 Madame of Horror
Madame of Horror 
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