Michael Myers’ name has become synonymous with Halloween since the original film’s debut in 1978, and four decades later, this weekend’s $50.4M bloody debut proves slasher fans will keep coming back for more. 

Like several releases in 2021, the film’s opening weekend featured a dual-release, available in theaters and for streaming on NBC’s Peacock. 

“Halloween Kills” is the middle chapter in the latest trilogy helmed by Director David Gordon Green that picks up where 2018’s “Halloween” ended. 

The cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis in her now-iconic role as Laurie Strode, James Jude Courtney as Michael, Judy Greer as Karen Nelson, and Andi Matichak, Greer’s daughter Allyson. 

“Halloween Kills” starts with an opening flashback sequence to the end of the original film “Halloween,” showing what happened after a young Deputy Frank Hawkins, played by Thomas Mann, found Michael after his killing spree. Will Patton returns to play Deputy Frank Hawkins from 2018’s “Halloween.”

Flashforward to 2018, and the story picks up right after Laurie Strode, her daughter Karen and granddaughter Allyson leave Michael trapped in a burning house, believing him to be dead. 

One of the cinematic highlights of the film is when Michael emerges from the doorway of Laurie Strode’s burning house facing down a company of firefighters. 

The difference between Director Green’s 2018 “Halloween” and 2021’s “Halloween Kills” is the townspeople of Haddonfield play a more prominent role in the showdown with Michael. 

Several characters from the 1978 original film, including Anthony Michael Hall as Tommy Doyle, Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, Robert Longstreet as Lonnie Elam and Charles Cyphers as sheriff Leigh Brackett reprise their roles.

“Halloween Kills” doesn’t shy away from Michael’s darker, bloody butchering of his victims; it puts it on display. It’s a visceral bloodbath. 

The film’s shock value is best when Michael puts his victim’s mutilated corpses on display, leaving each of them wearing a children’s Halloween mask on a playground’s merry-go-round and hanging from a swingset. 

“Halloween Kills” sees the townspeople of Haddonfield take on Michael following his violent killing spree in his path to his childhood home.

Without major spoilers, the townspeople quickly develop a mob mentality—becoming enraged and erratic in their pursuit. 

Horror films have a way of implicitly or explicitly working social commentary into the narrative and are often used to evoke an emotion. 

“Halloween Kills” uses fear and how it manifests to reflect how fast mob mentality spreads and impacts a group of people—clearly a mirrored image of society.

While the film delivers on the gore, the problem with “Halloween Kills” is that it’s missing the big showdown; the payoff never comes. 

Laurie Strode spends the entire film in the hospital following her showdown with Michael at the end of 2018’s “Halloween.”  

In the end, Karen and Allyson find themselves face to face with Michael in his childhood home. 

The final moments of “Halloween Kills” set up the inevitable showdown in Director Gordon’s trilogy, with “Halloween Ends” set to hit cinemas on October 14, 2022. 

I’m holding out that “Halloween Ends” will deliver on the big payoff and be the ultimate showdown between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode one final time. 

In July 2021, Jamie Lee Curtis said that “Halloween Ends” will probably be the last time she plays Laurie Strode. 

“Halloween Kills” is worth watching but not my favorite in the “Halloween” franchise.