Halloween Kills (2021) Review – Michael Myers Unleashed

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

Following the amazing return of Michael Myers in Halloween (2018), director David Gordon Green didn’t take long to bring the Boogeyman back for more violence. While Halloween (2018) focused on Laurie Strode, Halloween Kills focuses on Michael Myers. That’s right, Michael Myers is the main character and we get to watch him go on a rampage through Haddonfield with no holds barred. I loved this movie for finally unleashing Michael.

The movie does an amazing job of showing a flash back to Halloween night in 1978. This is only a short while after Dr. Loomis shot Michael 6 times and watched him run off. The scene follows young Officer Hawkins and the Haddonfield Police as they go looking for the escaped killer. The attention to detail is amazing, everything from the lighting, cinematography, police uniforms, patrol cars and cars parked on the road look like they belong in John Carpenter’s original movie. You can even see Loomis’ car in the background. Michael’s appearance, mask and movement is very realistic and looks like it could have been from 1978. If I didn’t know better I would have thought this was footage we hadn’t seen from Carpenter’s masterpiece.

The return of Dr. Loomis was amazing. They didn’t use CGI to create Donald Pleasence, they used makeup and prosthetics on Tom Jones Jr. who was part of the construction crew. Colin Mahan provided the voice. The resemblance is amazing. With careful use of lighting and shadows it really does look like Donald Pleasence. For this moment it feels like Loomis has returned. This also showcases how Hawkins connects more with Michael’s past. We learn that Hawkins was involved in the original capture of Michael Myers. He also shot his fellow officer, accidentally of course. He has felt guilty for decades thinking he didn’t do enough to stop the evil return to Haddonfield. This is another example of how Green uses characters and events from the original and makes them more important without taking away from the original.

Back in the present Laurie, Karen and Allyson are heading to the hospital. They see fire engines heading to Laurie’s burning house. Michael is still in there. I loved finding out that Michael had hid in Laurie’s gun safe. He had pulled down the shutters to keep himself safe. This was a nice touch as although we have seen Michael survive so much, he isn’t dumb. He knows he is in danger and hides. This leads to one of the best massacres in the Halloween franchise.

The firefighter scene is amazing. We see one of the firefighters reach into the smoke and then suddenly Michael pops up. It’s a great cinematic scene that you’ll remember. Michael then appears outside the burning house holding the Halligan tool. He then absolutely destroys the emergency team. From the Halligan tool being smashed into his victims faces to the massive saw, it’s just utter destruction. This is Michael Myers at his most aggressive and James Jude Courtney looks absolutely terrifying.

The thing I really enjoyed was how different Michael is from the previous film. Halloween (2018) had Michael as the slow and calculating Boogeyman. In this film it felt like he snapped. He’s been attacked, trapped and almost burnt to death so he’s finally had enough. While Rob Zombie’s Michael Myers was very aggressive from the start, this version feels like he’s gone from bad to worse. James Jude Courtney does still have that ghostly feel that Nick Castle did brilliantly in the original, but it feels like he’s more aggressive. This is definitely his film and he does an amazing job.

Another very disturbing scene is the one with Phil and Sondra. They are an elderly couple having a peaceful evening. Sondra was actually in the previous film as well. She had a small part in the cemetery. I love how in this trilogy they bring back some of the minor characters. Their peaceful evening is ruined as her drone crashes in the bathroom and suddenly launched out. They investigate and find Michael in there looking after his wounds. When the light turns on Michael smashes it. This results in one of the nastiest scenes.

Michael stabs Sondra in the neck with the broken fluorescent tube lighting. He then moves onto Phil and repeatedly stabs him with various knives though moments before he was pulled through glass and stabbed. It’s a very cruel scene. It’s very disturbing how casually Michael does this. We haven’t really got to know these characters but they still feel very sad. Michael isn’t just trying to get away or kill them, he wants to cause as much pain as possible. Watching him stab Phil repeatedly with the knives is something that will stay with you.

One of the things I really liked about Halloween Kills was that some of the characters from the original film were brought back. Kyle Richards plays Lindsey Wallace again, Nancy Stephens plays Marion Chambers and Charles Cyphers plays Sheriff Brackett again. Though, Anthony Michael Hall plays Tommy Doyle and Robert Longstreet plays Lonnie Elam. It’s lovely to see them come back forty years later especially with the original actors. But Green hasn’t brought them back just for nostalgia. They have had experiences with Michael and are now caught up in his killing spree.

The park scene is another amazing scene. Lindsey and Marion are joined by Vanessa and Marcus who were seen briefly in the last film having an encounter with Michael during his return to Haddonfield. It’s great that they have included continuity. It’s an absolute crazy and violent scene. Michael attacks them while they are in their car. Marion has an encounter with Michael similar to the original. He climbs onto the car and breaks through. This time she has a weapon but it doesn’t help. Marcus dies in a horrific way and Vanessa accidentally shoots herself. Lindsey tries to fight Michael off using her bag of bricks. She is then forced to run into the park and hides under the bridge while he searches for her. A very tense moment.

I loved how this scene went from being a complete massacre to a real tense scene. After watching Michael kill a few people brutally we are left with Lindsey trying to hide. It’s scary because we know what Michael can do. James Jude Courtney’s slow movements make this scene very effective. The fact that Lindsey is one of the original survivors makes this even more tense. We have known this character since 1978 and watching her fight for her life is an amazing scene.

Another interesting aspect to Tommy Doyle’s story. Whilst I didn’t really get into Anthony Michael Hall’s portrayal of Tommy at first, over the course of a couple of viewings I did. Tommy is a very loud and aggressive character who wants to become Haddonfield’s hero. He constantly encourages people to join him by shouting “Evil dies tonight!” whilst getting louder each time he says it. Whilst it is quite over the top, you can still see the scared boy who met Michael in 1978. He has had decades of fear and is trying to convince himself that he can finally overcome it.

There is a scene in the hospital with Tivoli the escaped patient (Who was on the TV in Halloween (2018) as having been missing with Myers) is quite hard to watch. He gets mistaken for Michael and is chased around the hospital by an increasingly aggressive mob. He then jumps out of a window out of fear. This is quite a scary scene. Whilst we are used to seeing Michael chase innocent people, this is different as it is regular people of the town who are acting irrationally due to their fear and anger. Tivoli is a very weak man who has done nothing to deserve this. His death shows how much Michael’s evil has affected the whole town. Whilst he isn’t physically there, his evil is still having an impact on everyone. Although it is not pleasant to watch, I think it adds to the film.

Big John and Little John living in Michael’s childhood home was a great scene. It starts off with some light-hearten moments but quickly becomes very scary. Whilst they are interacting with the trick or treaters it is quite fun to watch after a swift prank. However, when they start to investigate the knocking they are hearing it becomes very intense. The hand print on the backdoor and then the heavy footsteps upstairs are very creepy. We know who is in there but they don’t. They prepare themselves to fight whoever is in there without knowing they will be facing Michael Myers, who is slightly burnt and extremely pissed.

Big John’s death is very gruesome. Michael stabs him under the arm and then gouges out his eyes. Little John then sees Michael standing at the window of the bedroom. This window is one of the most interesting parts of the film. Michael keeps coming back to this window and no one seems to know why. Is he remembering something from his childhood? Is there something about the view from the window that makes him want to come back? I like how we don’t get a clear answer. It is much scarier knowing that Michael is just staring out of the window with no one knowing what he is thinking.

The final act is where Halloween Kills truly lives up to its name. Allyson, her boyfriend Cameron and his father Lonnie head into the Myers house looking for Michael, only to realize they’ve made a terrible mistake. Lonnie is killed, and Cameron endures one of the film’s most brutal deaths. Michael doesn’t just dispatch him and move on. He savagely attacks him before snapping his neck, all while an injured Allyson is helpless to intervene. Just when it seems Michael is about to finish her off, Karen shows up and drives a pitchfork into him before stealing his mask.

Karen’s decision to lure Michael into the street is a brilliant moment. She knows how much the mask means to him, and by taking it she can lead him away from Allyson and toward Tommy Doyle and the waiting residents of Haddonfield. Armed with guns, knives, bats and anything else they can get their hands on, the mob launches a vicious attack. Sheriff Brackett is there as well, bringing another familiar face from 1978 into the confrontation. For a moment, it genuinely seems as though Michael has finally been defeated. He’s taken an extraordinary beating, and the residents appear to have done what nobody else could.

But then Michael gets back up.

And what follows is absolutely glorious carnage. Michael tears through the mob, killing Tommy, Brackett and the others who believed they could finally put him down. It’s almost as if he’s received another surge of energy, and suddenly the entire crowd is completely outmatched. After spending the film declaring that evil would die tonight, Haddonfield discovers that Michael Myers isn’t going anywhere.

The ending delivers one final shock. Karen returns to the Myers house and is drawn upstairs toward the bedroom window, seemingly imagining Michael standing there as a child. She takes his place at the window, looking outside, before Michael suddenly appears and brutally murders her. It’s a devastating moment, particularly after the previous film spent so much time developing Karen’s relationship with Laurie and Allyson. But I thought ending the film this way was a brilliant decision.

Too often in horror franchises, particularly something like Friday the 13th, we watch these seemingly unstoppable killers get defeated at the end of every instalment, despite knowing they’ll eventually return. Halloween Kills does something different. Michael survives everything Haddonfield throws at him, kills the people who tried to stop him and ends the film victorious. There’s no triumphant moment for Laurie, no dramatic capture and no suggestion that the town has finally overcome its nightmare. Michael Myers wins, and for a film that has deliberately placed him at the centre of everything, I couldn’t have asked for a more fitting conclusion.

Ultimately, Halloween Kills is an absolutely tremendous sequel that delivers exactly what I wanted. The 1978 flashback is an extraordinary achievement, the returning characters add genuine continuity, and the film balances moments of traditional suspense with some of the most savage violence in the franchise. The mob storyline occasionally becomes a little excessive, but its consequences give the film an unexpectedly disturbing dimension beyond Michael’s killing spree.

Most importantly, James Jude Courtney once again proves why I consider him the definitive Michael Myers. He captures the ghostlike presence of Nick Castle while bringing a level of aggression and brutality that makes the Shape more terrifying than ever. David Gordon Green gave Laurie Strode her moment in Halloween (2018), but this time he hands the film over to Michael, and the results are bloody spectacular.

Halloween Kills is Michael Myers unleashed. No mercy, no holding back, and this time the Boogeyman wins.

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