Halloween Kills

I wanted to have this review up earlier, but I was sick and bedridden all day yesterday.  That's not an excuse; it's...no, it's definitely an excuse.

Is there a general consensus on Halloween Kills yet?  I haven't found one, so I don't know which viewpoints to rail against.  No, I'm only joshing.  I have my own personal consensus, but in truth, reviews for this scrappy, pitiless sequel are mixed.  They are, shall we say, interdenominational in a panoptic way.  On second thought, let's NOT say that.  It's hard to believe that this isn't the final film in the franchise.  Characters have done everything to Michael Myers.  The Shape has been hacked, cleaved, set ablaze, severed, snapped, and downright demolished.  Yet our coterie of protagonists seems resigned to the fact that they cannot kill the bastard.

So what's left for Halloween Ends?  This speaks to a problem I had with Kills.  Well, the latter half of Kills.  It runs out of steam and relies on repetition.  The first half felt different.  Again, this is just my perspective.   I haven't seen too many fans share my attitude.  It actually feels like the film was directed by two people.  The opening fifteen (or thereabouts) minutes are framed beautifully.  The credits?  Badass.  The flashbacks?  I was convinced a couple of times that they crammed unused footage from 1978 into this bubbling cauldron.  Masks off to director David Gordon Green and...well, the whole damn crew for taking every measure to preserve the picture's timeless qualities.

As Kills nears its denouement, it loses a great deal of its visual flair.  Action and dialogue take precedence over prismatic pizzazz.  Maybe I need glasses.  This isn't even a big deal, but it becomes conspicuous when the pace slows and the script protracts the inevitable.  I mean, we know what's going to happen.  Either get there quicker or throw a gnarly curveball into the mix.  Man alive, this review is more negative than I had intended.  I dug Halloween Kills!  I'm giving both movies three and a half Z'Dars, but I do prefer the 2018 original by a cowlick.  Can everyone define "cowlick" or is that a southern thing?  Ack, look it up.

Mr. Myers is an incensed, forcefully vehement motherfucker, and I wouldn't change him for the world (aww).  The kills in Kills are brutal.  I can't remember for certain, but I'm pretty sure that I used the same adjective to describe the obliteration in 2018's Halloween.  Dude is not fucking around.  Of course, I appreciated the nods to previous installments.  If only they existed in this cinematic universe.  The atmosphere is ghostly, the acting is adequate, and the first half...I'm not kidding.  If Kills could have stayed the course, I would be gushing plaudits and proclaiming this to be the best Halloween picture show ever.  I know, right?

Alas, it trails off.  At some point, I'll give Halloween Kills a second whirl, and hey, who knows?  I may form a brand new opinion.  I must confide, this is easily the sharpest Rob Zombie joint since The Devil's Rejects.  I barely recognized Sheri Moon as Laurie Strode.