Halloween Kills Horror Book Review
Minutes after Laurie Strode, her daughter Karen, and granddaughter Allyson left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning in Laurie’s basement, Laurie is rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, believing she finally killed her lifelong tormentor.
But when Michael manages to free himself from Laurie’s trap, his ritual bloodbath resumes. As Laurie fights her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against their unstoppable monster. But as a group of other survivors of Michael’s first rampage decide to take matters into their own hands, a vigilante mob forms that sets out to hunt Michael down. Evil dies tonight.
Horror Book Review Blog: Halloween Kills
Both the Halloween (2018) film and its novelization by John Passarella were lackluster, at best. While it was certainly fun and it was great to see Michael Myers return to the big screen and print, after the initial excitement of the franchise being reborn and given new life, yet again, it fizzled when an epiphany struck me – the movie was not that good. By no means was it bad either, it was just OK. I wanted it to be great, but there were just too many things that I wasn’t a fan of. One of them is Dr. Sartain donning the Myers mask. I scoffed at that scene. Of course, there was a lot more that I wasn’t a fan of. I recently attempted to watch the film again to reacquaint myself with the movie, hoping that it would be better than what I remembered. And, sadly, it again did little for me. Yes, it was fun, but I found myself not paying much attention to the film while also trying to make sense of a few things in the movie, i.e., the significance between Laurie and Michael when the sibling relationship is retconned at the beginning of the film. My take is that Laurie didn’t have to be in these latest Halloween films. Being that there is no relationship between Michael and Laurie, there is no need to continue the storyline with these two characters. But, of course, because Laurie is an integral part of the original timeline, her presence was familiar to the audience and it made sense, financially, to the filmmakers as she too, like Michael, is a box office draw. Personally, I would have been content with starting a new trilogy with a new storyline featuring our favorite masked serial killer, kind of like where I thought they were headed in Ends. Still, I was eager to see what Halloween Kills author Tim Waggoner did to make this novelization stick out.
Waggoner’s attention to detail and depth was astounding. He put us into the minds of many characters that were throwaways in the film. Of course, it is easy to do this in book format because there are no time constraints when reading. There is also this underlying curiosity about certain character traits and actions taken that are explored in the novelization, which allowed me to appreciate the story all the more. One big nuisance that many viewers of the film commented on was the “EVIL DIES TONIGHT!” battle cry. I, too, am in this camp. The constant rallying call was rather annoying and repetitive. However, as one Youtuber pointed out, if one has ever been part of a rally or protest, for something passionate, then this is authentic. It was a point of view that I neglected to acknowledge. Still, it was agitating.
The film picks up immediately after the first film where Laurie and company leave Michael to die in her basement. We know that’s not going to happen. They did, however, leave us wondering after the first film. Then the box-office numbers came in and Voila, a trilogy was born! I consider this installment, the filler episode where it is just a fun episode that does little to progress the story. It felt like the filmmakers had nowhere to go and just wanted to get a few things across before closing the trilogy out with Ends. This was just a way to squeeze in more kills and boost the body count, where Michael was given free rein to wreak havoc on the people of Haddonfield. Halloween Kills was fun, especially the flashback scenes which looked amazing and could fit right in with the original Halloween film if inserted. I likened Halloween Kills to The Empire Strikes Back where evil prevails and leaves the audience too feeling defeated on a big cliffhanger.
The book, like the film, focuses on the residents of Haddonfield as we see, through their eyes, and experience what Michael unleashes within them. This is a setup, for what comes next in the series. Laurie gets sidelined while recovering in Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. This time, however, Michael Myers opts out from chasing her because, well, she is not as important to him as she selfishly believes. Here, Laurie is relegated to a hospital bed because of the injuries suffered in Halloween (2018) and does little, if anything at all, to help in the capture/killing of Myers. No, instead we have a mob of Haddonfield residents hunting the killer down and taking matters into their own hands.
Michael is considered an evil force that continues to haunt Haddonfield, even though he has been locked up in an asylum for forty years. Tonight, however, on October 31, 2018, Michael escapes again but instead of letting the police handle the situation, little (now big) Tommy Doyle gathers a few people, ala, the town, and go hunt and kill Michael Myers. Had they been on the same timeline as the previous films, we all know what that led to in Halloween 4, so not a good idea. Nevertheless, they persist.
Legacy characters return such as the aforementioned Tommy Doyle and Lindsey, whom Laurie Strode and Annie Beckett, were babysitting the night He Came Home. Lonny, who bullied Tommy as a kid and was dared to go into the Myers house only to be scared away by a creeping in the bushes Dr. Loomis. Through flashbacks, we see that older kids bully Lonny too, and then encounters Myers. This was shoe-horned into the story for whatever reason. There was no need to expand on this character’s role as the character maybe had about five minutes of screen time in the original film. Fan service, I suppose. Nurse Marion is also part of this survivor’s group, led by Tommy Doyle. Again, Myers killed four people and two dogs in 1978 forty years ago, his sister Judith in 1963. If anything, the people of Haddonfield are the ones holding on to all of this and can’t seem to move on. Remember, the events of Halloween 2 never happened according to this timeline where an additional nine people were killed at the hands of Myers (10 if you count Ben Tramer being killed because of the paranoia caused by trying to “capture” Myers). With this in mind, a total of fifteen people murdered in Haddonfield in 1978 would make more sense for the people of the town to behave in the manner they adhere too in Halloween Kills.
Overall, Waggoner’s novelization of Halloween Kills is like the film, fun and not necessary. The writing is wonderful and engaging, keeping me on the edge of my seat even though I knew exactly what was going to happen. Still, Waggoner’s pension for honing in on character development made reading the book a more enjoyable experience. The story was already not very good, but Waggoner made it much better by adding more detail to the characters and the plot. This made the Halloween Kills novelization recommended reading for the Fall/Halloween season.