Halloween Kills (2021)

The Halloween franchise strikes again with the next installment, Halloween Kills (2021) directed by David Gordon Green, featuring the Halloween queen herself, Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode. More than one time during this slasher flick I found myself screaming at the screen “WHY?!” when characters made decisions that led to Michael Myers adding another victim to his list of kills. Halloween Kills captured some gruesome scenes and even played on mob mentality when the whole town chases an escaped prisoner they believe to be the killer to his death. We also pose the idea that rather than Michael Myers standing at his window looking out that possibly he was looking in, at his reflection. This gives to the overall theme of looking in the mirror when questioning what and whom is truly evil.

Intense moments fed one to another as different groups tried and failed to escape or defend themselves against Michael Myers. Not only that but we got a glimpse into the past where we learned on one fateful Halloween in the seventies Michael Meyers almost met his end before being saved by Officer Hawkins. Hawkins also reveals he killed a fellow officer during an attempt to shoot Myers. This installment also features different characters seeing what Michael Meyers looks like under his mask, new face burns and all. To the viewers horror Michael Myers manages to survive an attack at the end by a group of townspeople, including Anthony Michael Hall as Tommy Doyle. Over this scene of Michael yet again escaping death we hear Jamie Lee Curtis talk about Michael’s inhuman ability to survive and that each kill makes him only stronger.

We close out this movie with the death of Karen, played by Judy Greer, Laurie Strode's daughter. Leading us to believe that there will be more installments to come, especially when this final death is revealed and vengeance is sought.

Halloween Kills (2021) has garnered some criticism from viewers about a scene in which Michael kills an entire fireman force outside of the burning house of Laurie Strode, picking up where the previous film, Halloween (2018) left off. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with this scene, not only because they don’t show most of the massacre but also because that’s what Michael does. He has killed countless nurses, doctors, citizens, police, and children who tried to defeat him or stood in his way and for some reason this is the final straw. People are slashed in a slasher film and going into it it’s to be expected that if you’re called to the scene where Michael Myers is strolling around you’re more than likely to be slashed.

I enjoyed this installment and found myself screaming at the TV when Michael Myers claimed victims in utterly gruesome, nonsensical ways that are only found in movies like this.

Recommended score: 7/10