“Halloween Kills”

8.4

Did they just nail a Michael Myers movie? Yes. Yes they did.

The perfect balance of psychological thriller and brutal slasher, this film picks up right where we left off in Halloween (2018) and didn’t let off the gas until the credits roll. I was hoping they would get more creative with the kills in this installment. They did, and then some. This is one of the most beautifully brutal slashers this side of the ’80s.

The story does lean pretty heavily on nostalgia on the character side, but that’s to be expected when your main characters are this legendary. Michael develops more depth than I ever thought possible while being matched up against the entire town of Haddonfield this time. Laurie feels like she completes her arc in the series, finally passing the baton to the younger generation. The ending was off the charts but in the best way possible. They get into the psychology of the town as mob justice prevails in the face of perilous fear, which was a very timely subject and angle to attack this from. The score, as always, was terrific. If I had to summarize, it would be, “just enough nostalgia, just enough surprise.” Highly recommend for your Halloween viewing pleasure. It is streaming on Peacock but plays so much better on a big screen.