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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe film picks up where 2018\u2019s reboot of \u201cHalloween\u201d left off. Series protagonist Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is on her way to the hospital along with her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak). Michael is trapped in Laurie\u2019s house, set ablaze from a trap that frankly I never found that convincing. Unkillable monster that he is, Michael is soon attacking firefighters with their own axes and chainsaws. He\u2019s on a mission, most likely to continue his longstanding feud with Laurie. She\u2019s being treated for a stab wound, but it\u2019s her ego that takes the biggest bruising in this movie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Standing in Michael\u2019s way is a mob of residents of Haddonfield, IL, many of whom have dealt with Michael before. Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) was one of the children being babysat by Laurie back in 1978, as was Lindsay (Kyle Richards). Lonnie (Robert Longstreet) encountered Michael briefly, but even a glimpse of Michael is enough to scar anyone for life. Marion (Nancy Stephens) was a nurse from Michael\u2019s psychiatric hospital, meaning that she\u2019s possibly known him longer than anyone. Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cyphers) lost his daughter to Michael\u2019s killing spree. Officer Hawkins (Will Patton) lost his partner, not so much to Michael. I\u2019m not sure anyone cares about the non-Michael-and-Laurie characters from \u201cHalloween\u201d the way the filmmakers did, but they\u2019re here for you if you want them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s hard to care about any of the characters, old or new, because so many of them are stupid. The film is filled with groups of characters blowing huge advantages over Michael. Have you ever seen the GEICO ad that pokes fun at the poor decisions characters make in horror movies? The villain in that ad has the best \u201cthis isn\u2019t as sporting as I thought it would be\u201d look on his face. Michael of course wears a mask, but I imagine he\u2019s making the same face under it, especially when he tilts his head a certain way. The most embarrassing sequence is actually a non-Michael one, where the angry mob pursues a scared mental patient that they think is a maskless Michael. Because if there are two things Michael is known for, it\u2019s masklessness and a tendency to flee. Come to think of it, the poor guy is one of the few characters in the movie smart enough to even try fleeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHalloween Kills\u201d does offer some good gory horror violence, if you\u2019re into that sort of thing. But the movie can\u2019t be scary or compelling to save its life. Even Michael\u2019s mask has lost its luster, probably having turned grimy from the fire. This film is the second in a planned trilogy, and it really plays like it was a chore that needed to be completed before the filmmakers could get to the grand finale that they really wanted to make. I will be looking forward to that movie considerably less after this lousy installment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHalloween Kills\u201d is playing in theaters and streaming on Peacock. The film is rated R for strong bloody violence throughout, grisly images, language and some drug use. Its running time is 105 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver To me, there is no scarier villain in all of horror cinema than Michael Myers. The killer from 1978\u2019s \u201cHalloween\u201d is the epitome of soullessness, and… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":50949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50950,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50948\/revisions\/50950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}