For today’s 31 Days of Halloween post, we are almost at the end of the Halloween franchise as it stands today, this time looking at Halloween Kills (2021). Michael Myers has dominated this year’s volume of 31 Days of Halloween, and I really appreciate the chance to revisit the entire series and really think about it, film by film.
Each one of these has been wildly experimental in what I write about, and often revolves around my first thoughts while watching one of these movies. With the previous film, I had a lot of positive thoughts about the character of Frank Hawkins, which continued into this one, and I was quite impressed by how the writers managed to integrate him into the lore with clever flashbacks.
Turns out it was among the better writing decisions in this legacy sequel trilogy.
But for now, let’s talk about TV Tropes a bit, shall we?
My brain chemistry was forever altered after spending time on TV Tropes as a teenager. I can’t help but recognize tropes as I watch films, and it is funny to me how clearly some of their pithy and ridiculous trope names from the site pop into my head as I consume media.
Case in point: the trope of “Remember the New Guy?” The trope is simple enough. A previously unmentioned character comes to the forefront of a story who is on the same terms of knowledge of events as the rest of the cast, who has apparently been on the periphery of events the whole time. Sometimes this can feel cheap; sometimes it can work.
Watching Halloween (2018) and especially Halloween Kills (2021), I think that trope was executed perfectly with the character of Deputy Frank Hawkins. It worked well enough when he appeared in Halloween (2018), but Halloween Kills (2021) and the related flashbacks to his role that night in 1978 cemented him as a canon character and made for an even better inclusion than the numerous legacy characters brought back for Kills. I had started thinking about this when I did my rewatch of the 2018 film, but it really stood out to me in the follow-up film, really building on the mythology and themes of the franchise.
From a TV Tropes page on examples of this trope in live-action film: “Halloween (2018) features Deputy Frank Hawkins. He was one of the cops patrolling for Michael in the original movie, though he’s only properly introduced here. Granted, we didn’t see any other cops in the original other than Brackett — and Halloween Kills begins with a flashback explaining that he only encountered Michael a short while after Laurie Strode was rescued.”
Frank Hawkins comes off as even more of a legacy character than most returning ones because he also has a very effective character arc, bolstered by strong performances from Will Patton and Thomas Mann. There is a tragedy and guilt to the character of Frank that works well with Laurie’s obsessive intensity and elevates the film’s awful decision to keep her stuck in the hospital for the runtime. Frank, an inexperienced deputy as of 1978, accidentally shoots his partner when Michael uses him as a human shield within the old Myers house. Frank takes a shot, fatally wounding his partner in the neck and letting Michael escape. Thankfully, Dr. Loomis and the other officers of the Haddonfield PD arrive to surround Michael.
The accidental death of his partner is not what Frank considers his biggest sin, however. After all, his superior helps him cover it up in the chaos of the Halloween night from hell. As Frank sees it, his greatest sin is his intervention in Loomis’ attempt to execute Michael. In a moment of mercy, Frank stops Loomis from shooting a cornered Michael. It is a moment that says a lot about the type of man Frank is, but during the crisis 40 years later, he sees it as maybe the worst thing he has done, maybe more so than accidentally killing his partner.
It’s all very compelling stuff parceled out through the film, and gives his revelation that Michael was not coming after Laurie real weight. Frank is a compromised man woven into the fabric of this mythology that Laurie has projected around herself. Just like Michael’s choice to stalk Laurie and her friends in the original film is just circumstantial – she came to the entrance of his nest, and he decided to follow her – so too is Michael’s attack at her home 40 years later, orchestrated by Dr. Sartain. Laurie is compromised by tragedy and does not think clearly, and Frank is one of the few people around Laurie who is equally burdened by that night. The film locking Laurie in the hospital is really only given any real weight because of Frank and his unique relationship to her, and it strengthens an overall narratively frustrating decision.
Frank ends up bearing a lot of the weight of building the legacy alongside Laurie. The inclusions of Tommy Doyle, Lonnie Elam, Leigh Brackett, Marion Chambers, and Lindsey Wallace all feel perfunctory at best and misguided nostalgia bait at worst, all introduced again in Halloween Kills. Most die, meant to pad the body count for Michael. Tommy’s character is poorly written through terrible dialogue, and Anthony Michael Hall feels like the wrong choice of actor for the vengeance-fueled rabble-rouser the story was aiming for. The film tries to make Lonnie Elam more of a thing than he was, creating a new encounter between him and Michael in 1978. Leigh Brackett, father of Laurie’s best friend who died in 1978, has no scene with Laurie Strode in Halloween Kills despite him being the hospital security guard. Marion and Lindsey don’t offer much; Marion is brutally murdered, while Lindsey is written out of the story at the hospital.
But the new guy, the one who was there the whole time according to the two legacy sequels, actually matters. He actually builds the story. His inclusion becomes one of the best parts of the films, and I find that hilarious. It truly is one of the most successful examples of the trope of “Remember the New Guy?”
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