Michael Myers has always been “my guy.” That’s a weird thing to say of someone in a retrofitted William Shatner mask who slices and slashes human beings while muted and seems unstoppable, but welp, I’m a horror fiend, and I am what I am.
Point being, there’s another Michael Myers movie coming out, Halloween Kills, this October and Universal Pictures/Blumhouse Productions released the trailer a week-ish ago.
Whew, LET’S GOOOO! I’m a sucker for anything Michael Myers. Last summer, I blogged my way through a semi-re-watch of the franchise and for the first time, read the comic spinoffs. I love anything Michael Myers, and 2018’s Halloween, retconning and all, was no exception.
Plus, we had to wait an extra year to get the sequel, as Halloween Kills was originally slated for release in October 2020. Pandemic and all. Obviously, a film being delayed is of a less concern, but I’m just noting.
Anyhow, the film picks up where the last one left off: Michael Myers emerges in the coolest way possible from the burning home of Laurie Strode, where her, her daughter Karen and her granddaughter think they’ve finally extinguished evil (pun intended). Nope.
He wipes out the firefighters who responded to put the flames out, and then seems to be ready to go on a tear against the whole town of Haddonfield.
“A man couldn’t have survived that fire, the more he kills, the more he transcends, he’s the essence of evil,” Laurie tells anyone who will listen.
Michael Myers is the essence of evil. He is evil manifest in blue coveralls. Unstoppable in that way. But perhaps not, as the film’s premise is that Laurie Strode convinces the town to rise up against their hometown monster. I hope they keep Michael Myers’ supernatural elements as vague as that though. That he’s transcended his flesh and blood because he’s the embodiment of evil. We don’t need more than that.
I freaking love that premise, though. One of my favorite aspects of horror slashers is when the slasher has to deal with a group of people. Typically, by the nature of a slasher with stalking and such, the killer kills each member of the group one-by-one. It’s rare to see the killer have to deal with a group. We saw it in the second Nightmare on Elm Street and in Freddy vs. Jason. So, it’s not common, but it makes for one heck of a visual and potential showdown. Both scenes from the aforementioned are among my favorites from each franchise.
That’s why I’m particularly jazzed about this sequel. The 2018 one had some modern elements (a podcasting team is what sets all of this off) and situated it even more distinctly within a sort of feminist, trauma-focused realm. But it was still largely a homage to the franchise and particularly the original film. A “getting back to basics,” if you will. The sequel, going by the trailer, feels like they are going to try new things, such as a mob going after Michael Myers. Heck, even him going full-on against a group of firefighters was wild to see!
We did see a mob form against Michael Myers in the fourth film in the franchise, but it was foiled rather quickly after the mob killed the wrong person. Here, we’re going to see it in earnest. It’s the thrust of the entire film. We’re also not used to seeing an older “final girl” in Laurie Strode. Obviously, she took him on in 2018, but this time, the entire film is her taking him on. We don’t have any backstory to get to; we are continuing from the first film. In that way, this film already seems action-packed more than the first and with far more kills and creative, gruesome ones at that.
Also, one of the criticisms of the 2018 film is that the sheriff disappears. He’s here in the trailer! I’ll be curious to see if he gets more of a role and goes one-on-one with Michael Myers.
Yes, yes, as usual, my main complaint with trailers is that they show too much. My hope here is that we’ve barely scratched the surface of the offerings Michael Myers has in store for us.
October can’t get here soon enough. I’m ready for the mob vs. the Shape. I don’t like the mob’s chances, especially given we have a third (and seemingly final) film in the trilogy, Halloween Ends, scheduled for release next year.
Milam's Musings 