I sat and re-watched the new trilogy again (one movie a night) over the past few days. I had only seen Kills and Ends once in the cinema so I will say I had forgotten a lot of those movies whereas with 2018 I was sort of casually watching it as I've seen it a fair few times now.
The main problem with 2018's movie, for me, is the terrible dialogue. Dialogue might not be an issue for some but for me I really appreciate well-written, believable and intelligent dialogue. Sadly, this movie has some of the worst dialogue in all the Halloween films! Okay, maybe that's a stretch but it mostly is really basic and cliched and poorly written. I honestly don't think the writers are good at writing dialogue. Whether it's the ''peanut butter on my penis'' scene, the awful dialogue/characterisation of Judy Greer's Karen or Alison always referring to Laurie as 'Grandmother' which just sounds so odd. Not Gran? Grandma? Like, it sounds so informal, cold and also really unrealistic like she's from the 1930's. I also hate the introduction at school of Oscar - annoying and again the whole dialogue in that scene is just not how kids talk or interact. It's in part cliche and in parts embarrassing to watch. Then the whole trap Laurie has under her kitchen counter... like, who installed that? She really had that for 40 years convinced Michael was going to find her... erm, why? It makes no sense once you remove the sibling connection. Sure, I can get behind Michael and Laurie coming back together if that Dr Sartain arranged it but why does Laurie seem to think Michael would come to find her? Again, if they'd kept the sibling connection it would have made sense but once you remove it, it really doesn't. As I've gone on about endlessly, H20 did this a lot better and a lot more believable too.
But, I do enjoy the movie for what it is. I saw it twice at the cinema at the time. I think the hype did make me think the movie was better than it actually is but there are some good scenes in it I still really enjoy and some good kills.
Watching Halloween Kills again, I already knew the ''Evil dies tonight'' scenes and the mob scenes would piss me off and they still do, although by knowing they were coming it annoyed me less so. I just watched it and didn't get too cranky about it. Kills also suffers from some poor dialogue although this is less of an issue in this movie because there's a lot more action/kills to distract you.
I actually ended up enjoying this one more than I thought I would and more than my re-watch of 2018! Sure, some of it makes no sense and I didn't really see the point in bringing back people like Tommy and Marion Chambers just to kill them off in stupid ways and have them do nothing to actually help anyone. That said, it was nice to see Lindsay back and Laurie was more 'Laurie' in this one than I felt she was in 2018. The kills are awesome in this and as a fan of slasher movies, Kills really gives you everything you want. So, whilst the story is basic and doesn't do a lot, visually I find it more interesting and I would probably pop this one on over another re-watch of 2018's.
I noticed there were some additional writers on Halloween Ends and I think it shows. Again, with the dialogue, which is definitely better written, thank God. I watched this in the cinema and remember feeling like it was a very unsatisfying end to the trilogy. I still felt that way after re-watching it last night. Despite that, I do think it's well-written (the best written screenplay out of the 3) and I really enjoy Laurie's characterisation in this one the best.
The Cory character was interesting and had this been a one-off Halloween movie, not part of the Laurie/Michael saga and not built up as the 'end' of the Laurie/Michael saga I think it would be appreciated a lot more by fans. I do see this one actually getting more praise in years to come, similar to something like Halloween 3: Season of the Witch.
Again, H20 did the Laurie/Michael send off so much better for me but I still appreciate Laurie pinning Michael down with Knives and draining him of blood before throwing his body into the crusher!
Long-winded, sorry but, overall I do think these movies are enjoyable as their own trilogy. I have my issues (mostly with under-written characters, very poor dialogue and too many cliches) but I probably have similar issues with other Halloween movies too! Kills and Ends surprised me because I enjoyed them more than I thought and whilst Ends is not a great way to end the trilogy it is a good movie that I enjoyed a lot more on my second watch.
I just wonder where they go from here because, there's no way that's the end of the Halloween franchise, right?
