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MrBS

"This guy are sick"
Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,261
I've been led to believe that evil may die this evening.
 

toadkarter

Member
Oct 2, 2020
2,014
I actually really liked this one but it has the problem of every single character constantly making stunningly stupid decisions literally all the time. I'm not usually bothered by this sort of thing but it felt super egregious here.

Otherwise, great atmosphere, brutal kills, basically everything I want out of a Halloween film. I feel like this one may be looked at more favourably once the whole trilogy is out and we don't have to wait a year to see the resolution to the cliffhanger at the end of this one.
 
Oct 30, 2017
5,495
Yeah, it's just mob mentality which is pretty poetic lmao. It's good.

People will come around eventually when the hate isn't in vogue.
No, it's a bad film. I loved 2018, I think it's a great movie, and my second favourite Halloween, and a perfect sequel to the first film. I watched it just prior to Kills for the third time.

Kills is a mess. It reeks of 2018 doing really well, being asked to do another film before the finale to make more money, and scrounging something up.

There are good ideas in there, but it's all poorly executed, and I know, you can say this about most horror films, but everyone is an idiot. I think the idea is that this is the town's film, this is a film about everyone other than Laurie Strode who has been effected by Michael, but it never comes together, and since this trilogy is actually about Laurie, we still have to cut back to her in the hospital, etc.

The whole thing feels like a waste of time, and while the first film felt Carpenteresque with some of Greene's own panache, this was just all over the place, terrible editing, terrible pacing, etc.

I can enjoy basically any horror film, and I enjoyed this, but it's bad.
 

jwk94

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,434
The whole town knows. Not to mention half the township turns out to have a past encounter with Michael. That's why they form the mob.
They don't though. The only people from the original who knows what he's capable of are Laurie, Hawkins, and Loomis. Everyone else has to go by stories told by those three or someone else. Then Allison and Karen get brought into things but that's it. Nobody else has survived to really know what to expect.
 

bonch00ski

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,813
Watched Kills probably 20+ times now and it has a firm seat as the 3rd best Halloween movie behind the original and 2018.

For what it was supposed to be, Michael Myers on a visceral killing spree it succeeded in spades. I think people expected basically a continuation of 2018 from tone and pace when it was supposed to all along be Michael as an unstoppable killing machine.

BTW, the sequence of the car lights coming on, mobs comes out and surrounds him. Then the music kicks in and he picks up his mask and puts it on…..Probably the best sequence in any Halloween movie.


Also anyone trying to say H4 or H20 is better than Kills is fooling themselves.
 

LakeEarth

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,193
Ontario
I actually really liked this one but it has the problem of every single character constantly making stunningly stupid decisions literally all the time. I'm not usually bothered by this sort of thing but it felt super egregious here.
Agreed. People do dumb things in horror movies, but in this one it's just one after the other after the other after the other.
 

DJChuy

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
5,254
I find it hard to believe that this movie is set in 2018, but no one uses cell phones or social media. Michael Myers would have been found quick if the town used them.

I'm hiding from Michael who is chasing me. Let me just wait here without texting anyone that I'm in danger and he's here at the park.

Someone entered our house, and there's blood on the door. Let me grab a kitchen knife and not call the cops.
 
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Smokey_Run

The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
4,631
I watched it earlier today, what a shitshow. There are some ideas that could've worked, but the execution is beyond terrible.

By the end, I just wanted Michael to straight up destroy everyone who showed up to murder him. I don't feel like there are any likeable characters to root for by the end and i just wanted to see Michael mop the floor with the entire town.
 

maigret

Member
Jun 28, 2018
3,205
Time to finally watch the Extended cut. It's pretty neat they were able to throw that up on HBO Max because I was kind of mild on the theatrical cut and was curious about watching the extended, which I hear was an improvement.
 
Oct 31, 2017
9,632
Watched Kills probably 20+ times now and it has a firm seat as the 3rd best Halloween movie behind the original and 2018.

For what it was supposed to be, Michael Myers on a visceral killing spree it succeeded in spades. I think people expected basically a continuation of 2018 from tone and pace when it was supposed to all along be Michael as an unstoppable killing machine.

BTW, the sequence of the car lights coming on, mobs comes out and surrounds him. Then the music kicks in and he picks up his mask and puts it on…..Probably the best sequence in any Halloween movie.


Also anyone trying to say H4 or H20 is better than Kills is fooling themselves.
To the last point, for real. The way people trash this makes me think they've never seen a truly bad horror/slasher film, and there's plenty of examples of them right within this exact franchise. And I can love me a legitimately terrible slasher; I enjoy basically all of the Friday the 13th films and I'd never call any of them really truly good.

And this movie IS about all phases of danger around Michael Myers exploding and does nail it.

But it (and 2018) are more than just stereotypical slashers about a masked man stalking and killing people with a final girl escaping and confronting them at the end, even if they do also contain elements of these tropes too.

They are allegories about white supremacy/authoritarianism/nascent fascism in the United States (and around the globe). Michael Myers symbolizes the danger and destruction of these movements and their multifaceted, complex effects on people.

2018 was about the cultural threat lurking, forgotten but re-emerging.

Kills was about the threat not being dealt with and exploding into the culture-at-large and the ensuing degradation of cultural institutions and mass panic/hysteria.

This movie was creatively made and filmed before the January 6th, 2020 Insurrection/Coup de Etat attempt on the United States government and the Coronavirus pandemic, the extent of both being tangible results of fascist forces in the US. Watching Halloween Kills was pretty surreal.
 

Saito

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,813
Halloween 2018 was a legitimately great continuation. What happened here? So disappointing.
 

Lemony1984

Member
Jul 7, 2020
6,739
Time to finally watch the Extended cut. It's pretty neat they were able to throw that up on HBO Max because I was kind of mild on the theatrical cut and was curious about watching the extended, which I hear was an improvement.
The extended cut is basically the same. There's one extra scene.
 

Tttssd1972

Member
May 24, 2019
2,480
Absolutely hated this movie. Left the theater thinking it was shit, watched it 2 days later on Peacock thinking it was even more shit. It completely nuked the goodwill blumhouse created with Halloween 2018, and gives me serious doubts on how they are going to close this trilogy with Halloween Ends in October
 

bonch00ski

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,813
Absolutely hated this movie. Left the theater thinking it was shit, watched it 2 days later on Peacock thinking it was even more shit. It completely nuked the goodwill blumhouse created with Halloween 2018, and gives me serious doubts on how they are going to close this trilogy with Halloween Ends in October


I'd love to know where you place it among other Halloween movies
 

Deleted member 25888

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
891
I watched it earlier today, what a shitshow. There are some ideas that could've worked, but the execution is beyond terrible.

By the end, I just wanted Michael to straight up destroy everyone who showed up to murder him. I don't feel like there are any likeable characters to root for by the end and i just wanted to see Michael mop the floor with the entire town.

Felt the exact same way. I hated/disliked all the characters and halfway through I just wanted Michael to kill them so they would stop being in the movie.
 

bonch00ski

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,813
It's interesting the vitriol this one gets when objectively you can't put more than maybe 4 movies in the franchise above it. I dunno, maybe it's like reverse recency bias or something.


You cannot convince me 4/5/6/H20 are better. I'll let you throw H2 in front of it purely for nostalgia. Hell I'll even let you place Season of the Witch above it.
 

Tttssd1972

Member
May 24, 2019
2,480
I'd love to know where you place it among other Halloween movies
Tbh? H1978-H1981-H3-H2018……… HKills. Big fan of the franchise, but I have no issue saying that many of the movies are… kind of crap. Even some of the more popular entries H4/H20, I just don't get the love they get ESPECIALLY H20
 

bonch00ski

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,813
Tbh? H1978-H1981-H3-H2018……… HKills. Big fan of the franchise, but I have no issue saying that many of the movies are… kind of crap. Even some of the more popular entries H4/H20, I just don't get the love they get ESPECIALLY H20

H20 did not age well at all, I'd rather watch Resurrection. Busta Rhymes acted his ass off, you can't fault him for everything else. H20 was purely a Scream knockoff and I'd drives me bonkers that people think it's good today.
 

Tttssd1972

Member
May 24, 2019
2,480
H20 did not age well at all, I'd rather watch Resurrection. Busta Rhymes acted his ass off, you can't fault him for everything else. H20 was purely a Scream knockoff and I'd drives me bonkers that people think it's good today.
10000000%. Resurrection has the so bad it's entertaining factor. H20…. they even rip music straight from Scream 🤣🤣🤣. It's all a matter of personal opinion of course, but the only two things I can think of for H20's love is 1. Nostalgia and 2. I think people were happy to move on from the convoluted thorn cult.
 

scitek

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,099
I watched H20 last Halloween for the first time probably this century, and I was surprised at how basic and short it was. It was disappointing because I remembered liking it when I first saw it way back when.
 

echoshifting

very salt heavy
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
14,876
The Negative Zone
10000000%. Resurrection has the so bad it's entertaining factor. H20…. they even rip music straight from Scream 🤣🤣🤣. It's all a matter of personal opinion of course, but the only two things I can think of for H20's love is 1. Nostalgia and 2. I think people were happy to move on from the convoluted thorn cult.

That's exactly what it was. They sold it as back to basics and it worked.
 

Semblance

Member
Oct 26, 2017
791
California
This isn't a very good movie but the kills in it were pretty satisfying. I'd be reluctant to say it did much else right, but if you're solely in it to watch old man Myers pop off, yeah, it's entertaining.
 

Jerm411

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,041
Clinton, MO
I didn't like it at all coming out of the theater but after watching it a few times…..I don't know, it's grown on me lol.

The flashback stuff is sooooo well done and I love how they kind of play with the lore of the original.

Does it have its faults? Sure…but I softened a lot on what I didn't like before.

I'm extremely excited for Ends so damn curious about it…esp. with the rumors surrounding aspects of it.
 

Bananastand

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,437
I didn't like it at all coming out of the theater but after watching it a few times…..I don't know, it's grown on me lol.

The flashback stuff is sooooo well done and I love how they kind of play with the lore of the original.

Does it have its faults? Sure…but I softened a lot on what I didn't like before.

I'm extremely excited for Ends so damn curious about it…esp. with the rumors surrounding aspects of it.
What are the rumors?
 

Jerm411

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,041
Clinton, MO
What are the rumors?

Takes place Halloween 2022 so you're talking a 4 year time jump….the pandemic will apparently play some sort or role…Allyson is the focal point of the movie…JLC said the movie will shock and anger a lot of people (who knows what she means). Also the working title is "Cave Dweller"…

The time jump is the most interesting part to me…wonder if we'll get some sort of riff of Carpenter's original idea for Halloween 4.
 
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Jombie

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,392
The discourse surrounding this movie has always surprised me. People talk about how stupid the characters act, but people tend to act irrational in the face of pure irrationality. I've always seen Michael Myers as a Lovecraftian entity; he's the unknowable made flesh. I really love that in these movies - like a Lovecraftian entity - he drives people fucking insane. Sartain goes off the deep end in a quest to understand his motives, and Haddonfield becomes a collective den of bloodlust and rage at his return.

Is it on the nose? Yeah, but not all movies have to be subtle. I enjoy its massive shit on MAGA chuds.
 

Jedi2016

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,795
Finally got around to watching this tonight.

Honestly, it was a lot better than this thread led me to believe. I don't know what people expected, it's like they have rose-tinted glasses about what they think these movies are. Sure, it's not going to win any Oscars, but it was as entertaining as any other schlocky slasher film.
 

higemaru

Member
Nov 30, 2017
4,111
Couldn't stand this movie. Hate when these horror reboots are Capital A-"About Something".

The originals already had a subtext that could be analyzed coded into them by their reactionary genre politic, it spoke for itself while also being a gripping story about a neighborhood terrorized by a relentless rampage killer. Halloween Kills is just about Trumpism's assault on the American psyche. It's such a lame hackneyed spin, at least 4:5:6 have bonkers nonsense mythology that's at least creative and mildly original. It's a bad graft, an ill fit for the franchise more than anything.

On that note, what scene does the director's cut add
 

ShutterMunster

Art Manager
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
2,478
I didn't realize the HBOMAX version was a new cut.
I'll probably throw it in tonight. Seen the other edition twice, didn't care for it.
 

Burt

Fight Sephiroth or end video games
Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,179
This was pretty bad, but the pick up truck roll up scene was legitimately good

and then they completely undercut it with another 'lets stand around' and there being no feasible way to have him take on 30 townies without it being a stylized montage

I'm sure there was a fear of making things look like live action Looney Tunes walloping on Myers E. Coyote, but the result was some serious "Well, we can't figure out any other way to write through this" energy, which is really how the whole movie felt.
 

Zor

Member
Oct 30, 2017
11,429
Not really Kills-related and not sure it warranted a new thread, but loving the new stuff from Carpenter et all for the upcoming Firestarter:



 

Fuhgeddit

#TeamThierry
Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,740
Why are there so many of these movies? They always feel the same. I watched 25 minutes of this and then stopped.
 

Gaius Cassius

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,866
Oregon
The more times I watch this movie the more I wish it was entirely like the intro flashback 1970s scenes. I just felt like that part was so much more well done than what we got for the rest of the film.
 

kowhite

Member
May 14, 2019
4,452
We'll, I know this one is polarizing, but I loved it. It's so mean spirited…yeah I liked that.
 

Snake

Member
Oct 25, 2017
265
The more times I watch this movie the more I wish it was entirely like the intro flashback 1970s scenes. I just felt like that part was so much more well done than what we got for the rest of the film.
The beginning was in some ways shockingly good.

I didn't actually hate the rest of the film, but was definitely disappointed that it couldn't live up to the high bar set early on.
 

KillingJoke

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,672
I'll probably rewatch when Ends comes out but thought it was awful. Direction went full looney tunes.
 

Gaius Cassius

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,866
Oregon
The beginning was in some ways shockingly good.

I didn't actually hate the rest of the film, but was definitely disappointed that it couldn't live up to the high bar set early on.

That's exactly how I felt. I wouldn't have minded if the film had been entirely flashbacks and been a pseudo Halloween 2 (1980) reimagining/reboot. Then they wouldn't need to do such a huge time jump for Halloween Ends.
 

Zor

Member
Oct 30, 2017
11,429
That's exactly how I felt. I wouldn't have minded if the film had been entirely flashbacks and been a pseudo Halloween 2 (1980) reimagining/reboot. Then they wouldn't need to do such a huge time jump for Halloween Ends.

I'd have loved this to be honest. Before Kills came out the leaks suggested that it was going to open with the aftermath of 1978 and I wasn't the biggest fan of that idea.

In the end, I thought what they pulled off was really cool and genuinely would have liked more.
 

HStallion

Member
Oct 25, 2017
62,262
I forgot I saw this film but this thread reminded me. It's not a terrible film but it actually reminded me a lot of Rob Zombie's depiction of Michael. A brute who just smashes things and beats people to death. A lot of it just felt really ham fisted with Myers constantly into these absurd situations that he comes out of rather easily. I much prefer when he's a shadow that comes and goes till he's ready to strike and this one felt like the Terminator. I was actually getting a bit bored of things and it didn't help that everyone in town seemed like a complete doofus.
 
Oct 30, 2017
15,278
I'd have loved this to be honest. Before Kills came out the leaks suggested that it was going to open with the aftermath of 1978 and I wasn't the biggest fan of that idea.

In the end, I thought what they pulled off was really cool and genuinely would have liked more.
Yes, I agree the flashback sequences were incredible and felt more coherent than the entire movie did.

Kills is just so goofy I couldn't hate it. I just found myself not taking it seriously after the first half hour and just marinated in the ridiculousness of it. I laughed at every "evil dies tonight!" variation because the movie was trying to take itself so seriously. Literally the only scenes that evoked any feelings from me were the Little John/Big John scenes. They were the two most likeable characters in the film and they had, what, a total of 10 minutes of screen time? Plus their renovation to the Myers house was gorgeous. My wife drooled over the set decoration.

Also I love how there is zero explanation as to how Michael was able to take out like 20 people giving him an ass-whooping. He just pops up and starts slashing. Tommy Doyle was a useless overconfident moron. Give me Rudd's Doyle back, please.