"Evil will die tonight!"
The movie opens with a
trip down memory lane, just past the closing moments of the original
Halloween- as police are on the trail of Myers, following him to his
home where he kills again. Where we see more of the terror he left
behind on that awful night, after the credits rolled in the original
John Carpenter classic. It closes a small hole left behind with the 2018
"sequel", which ignores all of the franchise films and focuses on what
was left behind in that original film.
And in 2018, Evil will die tonight.
For Laurie Strode, it was a promise that failed to materialize within
the opening moments of Halloween Kills, as Michael escapes the "death
trap" we last saw him in. He is still the Shape, he is still the essence
of evil. And he still has evil to do.
He Kills again. And again.
Evil will die tonight.
For
the former victims of Michael Myers, it's a rallying cry to strengthen
them against fear of the dark and the lingering memories of Halloween
1978. Four survivors, Tommy Doyle, Lonny Elam, Lindsay Wallace, and
Marion Chambers reminisce at a bar where they relate the events for
locals and pay tribute to the dead and still living. Then they receive
the news- Michael is back.
Evil will die tonight.
Tommy
Doyle (Anthony Micheal Hall) will not stand aside to let others protect
him anymore. He declares the above statement with rage, with fear, with
determination to fight against the dark, to cast out the demon that has
haunted his sleep for decades. It's a battle cry quickly picked up by
the other people in town- echoing down the streets, in the hospital
corridors, in the homes of frightened Haddonfield- it echoes loud,
insistent, and virulently.
Michael's greatest evil is the fear he
creates- not just the victims of his brutality, but the families, the
friends, the lovers, wives, husbands, children, and parents. And
righteous rage will burn and it will consume- Halloween Kills is horror
at it's best, at it's most brutal, at it's most gory, at it's most
primal, it's most savage, it's more fear-drenched and it is a work of
cinematic perfection.
10 out of 10
