Halloween Kills 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIE — 2/5

Plot Synopsis: The nightmare isn’t over as unstoppable killer Michael Myers escapes from Laurie Strode’s trap to continue his ritual bloodbath. Injured and taken to the hospital, Laurie (JAMIE LEE CURTIS) fights through the pain as she inspires residents of Haddonfield, Ill., to rise up against Myers. Taking matters into their own hands, the Strode women (JUDY GREER, ANDI MATICHAK) and other survivors (WILL PATTON, ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL, etc) form a vigilante mob to hunt down Michael and end his reign of terror once and for all.

Review: “EVIL DIES TONIGHT!” After watching this sequel, I kind of hope this franchise dies with Halloween Ends, but probably wouldn’t be that lucky so long as people flock to the theater or bring in the numbers for the Peakcock streaming service.

When the Halloween sequel-reboot came out in 2018 I was at least moderately interested in that it was a direct sequel to the 1978 original, ignoring all the sequels that came after, including Halloween II, thus removing the whole Laurie and Michael were brother and sister, a plot point John Carpenter came up with to justify a sequel in the first place. However, the end result was a movie that had its moments, but never really made an impact, plus you had characters making ridiculous decisions and in the finale, having to force a Laurie vs. Michael confrontation literally driven by his obsessed and insane doctor.

So with Halloween Kills, my expectations were low and frankly interest level was basically non-existent. This entry finds Michael Meyers, as superhuman as ever, slashing his way through the town of Haddenfield, meanwhile we get the return of some characters from the 1978 film: Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall replacing Brian Andrews, assuming the latter had retired from acting), commemorating the 40th anniversary of the day Meyers killed three teenagers; also there are former town sheriff Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers returning), former Loomis assistant nurse Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens) and Tommy’s friend Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards also reprising her role).

If the focus was just on these characters and their shared terror of being haunted by Michael Meyers I think this would’ve been okay, not great as a storyline as they were written, are shown to be idiots, though nothing new from any other slashers old and new, in fairness. However, the writers expand this to the entire town where they go into full riot mode shouting “evil must die!”, a frenzy that’s not exactly earned since Meyers had murdered 40 years prior and for some reason the townsfolk of Haddenfield has gone into a craze. All of this felt manufactured, not to mention them hunting down the other person who escaped despite bearing zero resemblance to Meyers.

Besides all of that, and while I can appreciate some of the technical achievements with recreating Haddenfield circa 1978 but other than that, there’s not much positives I could take away. The acting from most of the cast was forgettable where star Jamie Lee Curtis, as she did in Halloween II, not only spends time in the hospital, but majority in a hospital room. Everyone else seemed to spend the time panicking and/or yelling “evil dies tonight”. Maybe on paper that line works, in practice, and when said over and over, lacks any emotional impact. Add to that, as mentioned, characters making puzzling choices only made me root for Meyers…

David Gordon Green returns to the director’s chair, and co-scripted with Danny McBride and Scott Teems. While the direction itself was fine, the biggest issue is with the writing. And maybe this movie does show the limitations for Michael Meyers as there’s not much to expand on character-wise so I can see why they would focus on his past victims beyond Laurie Strode, but how it was executed just fell flat. As a side, Green’s next project after Halloween Ends is a direct sequel to… The Exorcist. Wonderful.

Halloween Kills certainly is the right title. Sure, Meyers does kill a lot, almost in Jason Voorhees fashion, but it also kind of kills this new timeline for the franchise. And from what I read about Halloween Ends, that it’s using the pandemic as part of the plot doesn’t make me feel this will finish on a high note. Personally, I guess I’ll stick with the other timeline, at least those sequels, as bad as they tended to be, are so bad it’s good, not so with Kills.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 3¼/5

This two-disc set comes with an embossed slip cover and inside is a code for the Digital HD copy. All of these are on both the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray discs, as are both the Theatrical and Extended Cuts.

Gag Reel (3:12) filled with line flubs.

Deleted/Extended Scenes (3:21) — Only three scenes here, however none of them are of consequence.

Haddenfield’s Open Wounds (7:15) — Featurette that focuses on the story for this sequel and on what Michael Meyers did to the town and those left in his wake (like Anthony Michael Hall’s Tommy Doyle).

The Kill Team (11:02) looks at those behind the camera with on-set footage.

Strode Family Value (3:37) — This featurette on the Strode family with Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer and Andi Matichak.

1978 Transformations (5:50) — Short but interesting look at recreating Haddenfield 1978 with a set reconstruction of the Meyers’s house and the work done brining Donald Pleasance back to life using someone who resembled him and prosthetics.

The Power of Fear (4:28) is on the stupid and puzzling reaction and rage of the entire town, not just the survivors of Meyers’s savagery. Remember, evil dies tonight. Ugh.

Kill Count (0:53) — Here we get to see all of Meyers’s kills, 31 to be exact.

Audio Commentary — Co-Writer/Director David Gordon Green & Stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Judy Greer. The track is pretty good and light-hearted but still providing some information on the production and stories from the set.

4K VIDEO – 4¾/5, BLU-RAY VIDEO – 4¾/5

Halloween Kills slashes its way onto 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray where it’s presented with a 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and 2160p and 1080p high-definition transfers respectively. For the most part both formats look great. Despite the movie taking place mainly at night, colors do appear nicely balanced throughout and detail is sharp and well defined, both for close-ups and mid-range objects or characters. Black levels have a good balance without appearing crushed. Comparing the two, the 4K picture was sharper and the natural film noise was present, although the Blu-ray looks great on its own.

AUDIO – 5/5

Both the 4K UHD and Blu-ray comes with a strong Dolby Atmos track. Dialogue comes across with great clarity and the “pulse-pounding” music from John Carpenter, son Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies that really makes use of all available channels and there is some decent ambient noises like people yelling during the riot or in the background people screaming as they’re being hunted by Meyers.

OVERALL — 3¾/5

Halloween Kills is an ill-conceived follow-up to 2018’s Halloween which itself was an ill-conceived sequel to the 1978 original. There’s not much here to admire outside a couple technical aspects, and it doesn’t give me much hope for Halloween Ends.