REVIEW: HALLOWEEN KILLS

3.5/5

Halloween Overkills.

105 Mins. Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Scott MacArthur, Michael McDonald, Anthony Michael Hall, James Jude Courtney & Nick Castle. Director: David Gordon Green. 

Happy Halloween, you filthy animals! Ahh, dammit! Wrong reference. "Yeah baby, yeah"! How about that?! Nope! Wrong again, like whoever got those Mike Myers 'Austin Powers' masks for Edgar Wright's 'Baby Driver' as we wait here in Japan for a 'Last Night In Soho'. Tonight here in Tokyo, Shibuya is scrambling with 'Squid Game' contestants and an army of 'Money Heist' thieves like a V for Vendetta as the costumes of choice in Tokyo. But hats off (or should we say, "Reindeer Games crowns off"?) to the guy that came as the Vote Loki variant. That mischievous man for President. Now why do I tell you this? Well it's because just leaving the world famous Shinjuku Cinema on Godzilla Road (what an address...especially when people running across the road literally look like they are running away from the life-size kaiju above the theatre), in the one place that always masks up, I just brought in the holiday with the one horror icon who never loses face. Staying safe at a socially slashing distance, even if he is killing everybody in sight. Michael Myers. Smashing pumpkins like Billy Corgan in a boiler suit like he was going to pull off his own 'Casa Da Papel'. Although it's not red...yet. Dead for redemption after the 40 year anniversary of 1978's 'Halloween', with the exact same name, true sequel 'Halloween', disregarding all the rest like the water of 'H20' (forget 20 years later. Although nothing beats Busta Rhymes reflection of Myers). As Jamie Lee Curtis came back to drop the Mike with a blunderbuss. Riding shotgun for the 'Me Too' movement against stalking, predatory males with three generations of family (Judy Greer and Andi Matichak, characters that matter) in this back to bone brushing basics horror classic. Getting its teeth into its legend whilst dropping everyone else's like mints out of a bathroom stall. Now in a scarlet soaked love letter marked for death and fan service. This buffer of a slasher sequel in the age of a returning 'Scream' resurrections for this genre matrix is the perfect middle ground and story segue with old school gore. All before 'Halloween Ends' like no more pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks. 

Fire-starting like The Prodigy, Myers returns in a blaze of glory like Bon Jovi told one too many fans to light a candle near all that 80's hairspray for a 'Bed Of Roses'. But firefighters have called for his opening axe to grind, chainsaw massacre scene to be cut. As incendiary as the brimstone that surrounds a boiling and wet Myers, we believe this scene is in no way meant to be of disrespect or disservice to first responders. This is just hallmark horror. Besides Myers lays waste to many more men and boys in blue, not to mention all the innocent people they are meant to protect and serve. This is just the genre. It's gruesome and its great, so long as you leave your brain, stomach and conscience behind the couch. I have to tread carefully up these haunted house stairs like the fact that I'm giving this a 3.5 when one of my friends literally had the 'Halloween' logo tattooed to his calf (what up Stephen! "I like this movie. My friends likes this movie".) with this one, especially in this day and age of censorship and cancel culture. And some of this bloodlust taking this horror back to its sockets is just too much to look at...if you even still have your eyes. Especially after the new, original 2018 'Halloween' that could stick with 'Us' and 'Midsommar' new age genre 'Get Out' crowd like it was all 'Hereditary'. And from Ari Aster to Jordan Peele's produced 'Candyman' remake, saying even more with director Nia DaCosta, this brute force belongs like his weapon of choice in a kitchen knife holder. Especially with its hallmark homage, opening act to that 70's film that really is the blood red love letter you take it as, as Thomas Mann really ups this game with heart and soul. Like Yahya's 'Candy' (and we aren't talking about 'The Matrix' of his "time to fly" red pill offering, new Morpheus for your 'Resurrection'), this horror is truly saying something too, burning more than the house down. 

Evil doesn't die tonight though. Despite the all in Anthony Michael Hall, slugger leading a little bit trumped up, avenging Haddonsfield (even more legendary than the eerie 'Stranger Things' of Hawkins...and how about that college tee Easter Egg?) townsfolk who are literally Simpson pitchfork mob mentality ready to bang down anyone's door when the real Michael Myers is standing up back in the rear window of his childhood home. Their rally-cry chants to stop evil with a raised fist is even punctuated by what ironically looks like a stabbing motion as they storm a staircase as long as that airport runway in the 'Fast and Furious 6' to go round and round again on that same point. That's just the shape of things making monsters out of us all in the James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle immovable force that is returning director David Gordon Green's different, but still definite sequel. What more could you expect from a talent that directed both the Jake Gyllenhaal 'Stronger' Boston bombing survivor story and the legendary 'Pineapple Express' and that classic kick the windscreen scene? There's so much to this movie. Like the love of a scene stealing Scott MacArthur and Michael McDonald (no, I can't forget...but not that one) playing Little John, Big John, Marco Polo at home. Not to mention "this is my knife", "that's not a knife." Or the Stroud coming of age of a great Greer and magnificent Matichak. So much so that a bed bound, but still brilliant Jamie Lee Curtis (but how about her showing up at the premiere dressed as her late mother's 'Psycho' character, where it all began?) is almost a sideshow next to 'Armageddon' veteran Will Patton. Setting up the showdown of a formidable finale that just might be something for the ages as the candle in the pumpkin goes out. 'Halloween' is almost over, but thanks to the tricks of this treat, it's going to be scary hours for just a little longer. In the end John Carpenter's iconic piano is going to be the ground that lays a path for this carriage before it turns to you know what at midnight. Because this isn't a man. That was the boogeyman. And we're still very much afraid of this big bad, coming home for his Halloween holiday. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Halloween (2018)', 'Halloween (1978)', and yeah almost all the other films in the series they don't like to acknowledge anymore. What is there like, 20?