31 Days of Horror: Halloween Kills analyzes evil on a different level

It's been three years since Blumhouse concluded their Halloween trilogy with Halloween Ends (2023), and eight years since they brought Michael Myers back to the big screen with Halloween (2018) and opened the floodgates for what Scream 6 would appropriately call "Requels," a sequel to a classic film that erases all the strange inconsistencies that a franchise creates with endless sequels. While Halloween 2018 was a commercial and cultural success and Halloween Ends was a controversial finale, the film's middle entry, Halloween Kills, is uniquely divisive. This article contains a lot of spoilers for Halloween Kills, so if you've never seen it, I highly recommend watching it before reading. If you have seen it (or simply don't care for spoilers), I hope this piece offers a new perspective on the film.

The film opens with a flashback to Halloween 1978, where we get a new perspective on that night from the POV of Lonnie, the child that bullied Tommy Doyle in the original. It's worth noting that the degree the filmmaking team went to in order to recreate the look and atmosphere from the original film is worthy of applause. It's through this flashback that we discover Lonnie had an encounter with Michael Myers that same night. It's also revealed that the outcome of the night is slightly different than what we see on screen in the original.

In this new continuity, Michael walks out of the house to be surrounded by police with Dr. Loomis, played by Tom Jones Jr physically, while Colin Mahan does the voice. The two combined make a nearly perfect impression of Donald Pleasence. When Michael emerges Loomis attempts to shoot Michael but is ultimately stopped.

Halloween Kills picks up right where Halloween 2018 ends a la Halloween 2, with Michael Myers burning alive in Laurie Strode's safehouse turned trap and the citizens of Haddonfield still reeling from the bloodshed he caused. However, the night is far from over for the citizens of Haddonfield, and the reason comes not only from Michael Myers, but from the citizens themselves. As Laurie's safehouse burns to the ground, a fire department arrives on the scene to put out the fire, much to Laurie's dismay. This sets the stage for one of the best sequences in the film as Michael Myers emerges from the flames and brutally massacres the entire squadron of firefighters.

After this, we're taken to a local bar, where key characters from the original show up as central characters in the story. In this scene, we're introduced to Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), Lindsey (Kyle Richards), Lonnie (Robert Longstreet), and Marion (Nancy Stephens), the nurse Michael Myers attacked in the original film. At the bar, Tommy tells the story of Halloween 1978, reminiscing on one of the darkest nights of the town's history with those who remember it, and educating those who are before its time. This scene lays the foundation for what would become the climax of the film, and what becomes of the people of Haddonfield as the paranoia takes hold.

These deep-cut callbacks serve as our main protagonists throughout the film alongside newcomers Marcus and Vanessa, some Haddonfield locals who have never heard of what happened in 1978. The festivities end when Vanessa sees a figure inside of her car and runs inside, claiming it was Michael Myers. Tommy wastes no time pursuing the figure, and soon rally's a mob to hunt down the shape, unbeknownst to him that the figure isn't Michael Myers, but another far less dangerous asylum escapee. Meanwhile, Michael Myers wanders the outskirts of Haddonfield, slashing through victims with whatever means he sees available; one particular scene before he gets his hands on a knife shows him attacking a couple with just his bare hands and a lightbulb. Once The Shape acquires an array of kitchen knives, he continues making his way into the city, murdering anyone who crosses his path.

Halloween Kills lives up to the name; Michael Myers is on an unstoppable killing spree. While he didn't have a small body count by any means in Halloween 2018, his brutality in Halloween Kills is on another level. He finds more unique ways to kill, gives some characters slower deaths, and even kills children. When Michael Myers emerges from the darkness wielding a knife and a child's bloody Halloween mask, the legacy characters take this as their opportunity to strike, which leads to one of the more controversial sequences in the film where Marion, Vanessa, and Marcus are all killed quickly due to their terrible coordination and decision-making. The most admittedly laughable death in the film is Vanessa's, who charges at Myers while blindly firing a gun, only for Michael to kick the car door at her arm, causing her to shoot herself in the head.

While many fans mock this scene, and while it is admittedly kind of silly, I think this adds to the film's overall theme of human nature and the hubris we might have when swept up in the idea of doing a heroic act like stopping a serial killer. Tommy has effectively created a mob seeking vigilante justice, a mob of townspeople who more likely than not don't have the skills necessary to take on someone like Michael Myers. An equation like that inevitably leads to innocent people dying, and this isn't the last instance of that outcome occurring.

At Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, Laurie is being nursed back to health after her injuries fighting Michael Myers in Halloween 2018, much like Halloween 2 (the hospital even has the same logo as the one in H2). Also, much like Halloween 2, Laurie spends the majority of the film in the hospital before learning that Michael Myers survived the house fire. She learns this from Tommy Doyle, who storms the hospital with his mob and rallies even more of the townspeople to join his cause, claiming he saw the figure he's been chasing arrive at the hospital. Chaos erupts to such a degree that even the police force can't contain it, with some officers and citizens being trampled while others aid Tommy in laying siege to the hospital. This all comes to a head when they corner the man they believe to be Michael Myers, causing the impaired mental patient to jump from the roof of the hospital, leaving him a mangled and bloody corpse on the steps of Haddonfield memorial.

This is the catalyst of the mob B-plot. Tommy Doyle has lived with his fear since 1978, and spent all those years bottling it up until it was a rage. At that first supposed sighting of Michael Myers, Tommy took it as an opportunity to unleash that rage, and he took half the town with him on his hunt. Tommy's paranoia spread like a sickness; it infected the citizens of Haddonfield and led to a series of avoidable deaths. This is why I feel Halloween Kills is one of the best in the franchise; we get to see that Michael Myers' impact is more than a series of cool kills; it’s an impact that rocks a small, quiet town into a bloodthirsty mob that has the power to be just as blindly violent as Michael Myers. Halloween Kills shows that even the survivors of Michael Myers are left hurt, and that hurt can manifest into some grim outcomes for the innocent bystanders of Haddonfield.

After the hospital fiasco, Allyson and Karen, who really don't have much to do until this point, assemble on the street of Myers' childhood home upon realizing that's where his trail of bodies leads. At the house, Allyson and her boyfriend Cameron have a confrontation just after Michael kills Lonnie. Allyson gets a broken foot from the encounter, while Cameron is given an excruciating death by being slammed into a stair banister before having his head rotated 180 degrees by The Shape. Allyson and Karen eventually lead Michael out of the house, where he is ambushed by Tommy and the rest of the townspeople. Officer Brackett, the father of Annie from the first film, recites his classic line, "It's Halloween, everyone's entitled to one good scare" in an eye-roll-worthy delivery.

The mob lays into Michael; one after another, they bludgeon him with their various weapons. Tire irons, wood boards, hammers, a clothing iron; shockingly, only one citizen had the sense to bring a gun. This is one of the few times we see Michael show weakness, as each time he tries to get back up, another citizen beats him over the head or back with whatever weapon they have armed. As the seemingly final blow is struck by Karen, we cut back to Laurie in the hospital talking to Officer Hawkins about how she believes Michael cannot be killed. As she has this realization, we cut back to the mob jumping Michael Myers, with Myers rising up and fighting back against the mob, this time striking devastating blows to each of them. Eventually Myers gets to Karen and kills her just before the credits roll.

At the end of the day, evil can't die. Much like a sickness, it exists as long as there is someone infected by it. Michael spread that sickness to the people of Haddonfield to the point where blood will be spilt without him even having to lift a finger; that is the tragedy of Halloween and Haddonfield. A once quiet and pleasant town thrust into fear and rage all by the actions of one man on one night in 1978. While Halloween Kills has its share of things to poke fun at (take a shot every time someone says 'Evil dies tonight'), I appreciate it for not just going all in on the bloodshed, but for taking a step back to the bigger picture and analyzing how Michael Myers affects not just Laurie Strode and anyone unfortunate enough to be around her on Halloween, but the entire town. "Evil never dies; it just changes shape".

David Gordon Green directed Halloween Kills alongside the rest of the Blumhouse trilogy, and while the trilogy itself remains controversial due to its final installment, every time the air gets a bit chilly and stores start selling candy corn by the bag, I feel the urge to throw on the original Halloween and chase it with Halloween Kills.

Halloween Kills is currently streaming on Peacock.