Halloween Kills (2021) | 31 Days of Horror: Oct 31

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This is Halloween. This is Halloween!

Happy Halloween and welcome to the final article for this season, Halloween Kills which is a brutal and thought provoking entry in the series. It is the middle entry in a new trilogy and as such has darker themes and a darker ending than might usually be found in horror films of today.

Before Viewing

The trailer starts where the 2018 version of Halloween left off, with Michael Myers trapped in a burning basement. But not for long. He gets out and makes quick work of the firefighters and then starts for Laurie Strode and her family. Laurie vows that “Evil dies tonight,” as Michael goes on a killing rampage.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

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After Viewing

The film opens with a scene within the Halloween (2018) where Cameron (Dylan Arnold) tries to call his friend Oscar (Drew Scheid), who was slain in the previous film, before finding Officer Frank Hawkins (Will Patton) bleeding out in the road from his attack earlier that night. A flashback to 1978 depicts a young Officer Hawkins (Thomas Mann) and Officer Pete McCabe (Jim Cummings) following a trail from Michael Myers (Airon Armstrong) that leads back to his house. Inside Pete is attacked and Frank accidentally shoots him while trying to stop the killer.

At a local bar four survivors of Michael’s original attack 40 years ago, including Tommy (Anthony Michael Hall), Lonnie (Robert Longstreet), Lindsay (Kyle Richards), and Marion (Nancy Stephens), attend a Halloween open mic night. Tommy tells the story of the Boogeyman to the crowd. Elsewhere, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and grand-daughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) head towards the hospital to tend to Laurie’s savage knife wounds. They see fire engines heading towards her burning house.

Michael escapes the fiery basement he was trapped in, killing almost a dozen firefighters. He then brutally attacks Laurie’s neighbors Phil (Lenny Clark) and Sondra (Diva Tyler). At the bar Marcus (Michael Smallwood) and Vanessa (Carmella McNeal) believe that Michael has stolen and crashed his car, which engages Tommy to form a small vigilante posse to hunt down the killer, proclaiming “evil dies tonight.” At the original Myers house, the new owners Big John (Scott MacArthur) and Little John (Michael McDonald) are accosted by a trio of kids dressed as a skeleton, witch, and jack o’lantern.

At the hospital, police officers take statements from Karen and Allyson, and reveal that Michael actually survived. Allyson is reunited with her ex-boyfriend Cameron and they join in with Tommy’s posse. At a park Lindsay, Marcus, Marion, and Vanessa tell two kids to run home as they realize Michael has killed their friend. He then kills everyone else, except Lindsay who manages to escape. Tommy, Lonnie, Allyson, and Lonnie’s son Cameron arrive to see the carnage and realize Michael is headed back to his house.

Tommy brings Lindsay to the hospital where it undergoes a lockdown. He agitates the crowd thinking another escaped inmate is Michael. The crowd stampedes past the police and traps the man, who breaks a window and falls to his death. Karen and Laurie are shocked by the mob mentality. At the Myers House, Lonnie goes in first, but when a gunshot rings out Allyson and Cameron enter cautiously. They find his dead body, plus the John’s, who were killed earlier. Cameron is savagely killed as Allyson falls down the stairs, injuring her leg.

Michael is about to kill Laurie’s grand-daughter, when Karen arrives stabbing Michael in the back with a pitchfork. She steals his mask, taunting him, so he follows her–right into a crowd of vigilantes led by Tommy. The crowd beats Michael unconscious and Karen stabs him one last time for good measure. Suddenly he sits back up killing the crowd, including Tommy and security guard Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers). At the Myers house, paramedics tend to Allyson, as Karen walks upstairs to look out the same window Michael was always looking out. She is attacked by Michael with a knife, even as people congregate downstairs. The film ends with Michael looking out his bedroom window, and Laurie looking out the hospital window.

“Michael Myers has haunted this town for 40 years. Tonight, we hunt him down.” – Allyson

After an arduous thirty-one days, in which I started writing in one town, moved houses, and am finishing up this article 45 minutes away in my new city, comes the final 31 Days of Horror for 2022. This film is last year’s sequel to the 2018 Halloween reboot, Halloween Kills. It continues the story and themes from the previous film while setting up a final showdown between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers. This new trilogy of Halloween films ignores a large majority of the 40-year continuity of the franchise, instead choosing to focus on the 1978 film and skipping everything else. As the second film in the new trilogy, Halloween Kills must also set up the final film in the series (for now), which makes the ending of this film much darker and more of a cliffhanger than is found in other films of the franchise.

While the continuity of the film ignores everything from Halloween II (1981) forward, there are a number of moments that reference that film or take place behind-the-scenes of the sequel. The police manhunt for Michael, with Officer Hawkins, and the appearance of Dr. Loomis (not played by Donald Pleasence, but an incredible look-alike with some prosthetic makeup) feels like cut scenes from a Halloween sequel. Also Laurie spends a lot of time in the hospital in the original Halloween II, just as she does here. This film was also released 40 years after that original sequel, tying into the whole historical aspect of this new trilogy. Besides these elements, the film reunites a number of original actors and brings back adult versions of several other characters from that 1978 film.

The trend for films using original cast members for reboots or sequels further down the line is not new. Star Wars: The Force Awakens did it with much hoopla, but also The Matrix Resurrections, and Top Gun: Maverick. It’s a way to connect the older fanbase to the new film and show that there is a continuity between events, while still telling a new story with new characters. Halloween Kills may have the biggest amount of returning cast members of any of these films. Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode), Kyle Richards (Lindsay Wallace), Nancy Stephens (Nurse Marion Chambers), Charles Cyphers (Leigh Brackett), plus Nick Castle as the Shape all appeared in the original film and return as their respective characters. Two additional characters, Tommy and Lonnie, who were recast for this film, created seven returning characters to the franchise, many after a 40 year absence. The character of Tommy had appeared in 1995 in the sixth film Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, played by Paul Rudd. Apparently he was not contacted about returning to the series, believing his star status now might have detracted from the part.

Tommy’s character becomes a very important part of this new film. His blue collar sensibilities and the trauma he still has over the murders 40 years ago lead him to organize a grassroots vigilante mob. It begins at the bar as they believe they are going up against Michael Myers, who has stolen a car. In fact, it’s another inmate who also escaped from the mental institution bus in the previous installment. The mob has it all wrong. But when has mob mentality ever been right? Tommy doubles down on his vow that “evil dies tonight” when he thinks he sees Michael at the hospital. Again the mob takes off after the person, ignoring the warnings of the police, and injuring several people as they barrel down the smaller halls of the facility. His thirst for vengeance leaves one man dead, and lots of property damage. Even after a moment that he and Karen share across a crowded hospital floor mouthing “it’s not him,” he still feels the urge to continue his ritual. Karen is equally culpable in Tommy’s final fate, as she leads Michael to the street where the mob has congregated. Filmgoers may watch that shot thinking about the poor people about to die, but Tommy believes that they will be able to kill Michael. What the film shows is that this type of vigilante extremism only hurts innocent people, society, and oneself.

The ending of the film is psycho. Not just psycho, but also Psycho, as in Norman Bates. Director David Gordon Green backs off the actual bloodshed and violent killing with a sequence inspired by the master, Alfred Hitchcock. While Karen’s killing seems brutal and violent, that is only a trick of the mind. The filming and editing of this sequence is based on a similar violent-looking shot from Psycho’s shower scene, where Janet Leigh is stabbed to death by Anthony Perkins. The use of multiple camera setups and multiple edits hide the majority of any real shots of the knife penetrating Karen. It only appears as brutal, due to the previous graphic depictions of Michael’s killings. The body count in this film is the highest for any of the films reviewed on 31 Days of Horror this year. Calculations put it at approximately 31 dead, which is appropriate given that Michael’s killings all take place on October 31st.

Halloween Kills is a strong contender in the overall Halloween franchise for best film. It’s hard to separate it from the 2018 film, but it features a lot of things that horror-aficionados enjoy. It features an iconic character, who does what he loves, and that is killing people in new and creative ways. Stabbing someone in the throat with a serrated fluorescent light bulb is all sorts of gross, and also new. The chills experienced in this film come from Michael’s brutal dispatch of so many innocent people. But it also tells a very human story about trauma and its unintended consequences. Characters never seem to heal, and those wounds keep festering and allowing others to get hurt in the process. It raises a question like, if Laurie had left well enough alone, would her daughter still be alive? Some of these may be revisited, or even resolved, in the third entry in this saga, Halloween Ends, which came out just a few weeks ago in October 2022. For now, that ends the hectic schedule of reviews for 31 Days of Horror 2022. Until next Halloween, pleasant…screams!

Assorted Musings

• • As with the 2018 Halloween, Halloween Kills has a series of homages to other films in the Halloween franchise.
    • Halloween – Michael jumping on top of a vehicle to attack potential victims [see also below].
    • Halloween II
      • Laurie spending most of the movie in the hospital.
      • A character being mistaken for Michael and then killed [see also below].
      • Head security guard at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital being killed by Michael.
    • Halloween III – Jack-O’-Lantern, Skull, and Witch masks being worn by the young kids are based on the Silver Shamrock design.
    • Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
      • Haddonfield news report on the TV at the local bar.
      • Haddonfield citizens hanging out in a local town bar before hunting down Michael.
      • Michael killing a bunch of angry citizens.
      • Michael jumping on top of a vehicle to attack potential victims [see also above].
      • A character being mistaken for Michael and then killed [see also above].
    • Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
      • The Haddonfield Sheriff’s department being in full force while Michael is on the loose.
      • Karen stabbing Michael in the back with a pitchfork, references Michael stabbing Spitz in the back with a pitchfork.
    • Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers
      • Michael killing Laurie’s daughter.
      • Michael returning to his childhood home and killing people living in it.
  • Leigh Brackett, as with the original film, was named after a screenwriter of the same name, known for The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, and the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back.