Halloween Kills

Halloween Kills is a 2021 American slasher film directed by David Gordon Green, and co-written by Green, Danny McBride, and Scott Teems. It is the direct sequel to Halloween (2018) and the twelfth installment in the Halloween franchise. The film stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Jim Cummings, and Anthony Michael Hall. The film begins on the same night where the previous film ended with James Jude Courtney reprising his role as Michael Myers whose presence has become apparent to the residents of Haddonfield.

Jason Blum served as a producer on the film through his Blumhouse Productions banner, alongside Malek Akkad and Bill Block. Executive producers include Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter with Carpenter also returning to compose the score with his son Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. Before the release of the film, McBride confirmed that he and Green were originally intending to pitch two films that would be shot back-to-back and then decided against it, waiting to see the reaction to the first film. Following the critical and commercial success of the 2018 film, development on the sequel promptly began as early as October 2018. By February 2019, Teems was hired to co-write the script. The film's title was officially announced in July 2019, along with its sequel. Principal photography began in September 2019 in Wilmington, North Carolina, and concluded in November in the same year.

Following a year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Halloween Kills had its world premiere at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 8, 2021, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 15, 2021, by Universal Pictures. It also streamed simultaneously on paid tiers of Peacock for 60 days. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the film's effects, score, cinematography, and the performances of the cast (particularly Curtis, Greer, and Matichak), but criticized its screenplay, direction, and plot. The film was a box office success, grossing over $133 million worldwide. A sequel, Halloween Ends, was released on October 14, 2022.

Plot

On Halloween night in 2018, after being stabbed and left to die by Dr. Ranbir Sartain, Frank Hawkins is found by Cameron Elam, who calls an ambulance. Hawkins regrets allowing Michael to live, and vows to kill him.

In a flashback to the same night 40 years ago, rookie police officer Hawkins accidentally shoots his partner dead while trying to save him from Michael Myers. Hawkins also prevents Dr. Samuel Loomis from executing Michael, who had surrendered to police outside his home.

Back in the present, at a local bar, Tommy Doyle commemorates the 40th anniversary of Michael's capture, along with fellow survivors, Marion Chambers, Lindsey Wallace, and Cameron's father, Lonnie Elam, having each survived an encounter with Michael in 1978. Meanwhile, Laurie Strode, her daughter, Karen, and her granddaughter, Allyson, are taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, where Laurie undergoes emergency surgery. Firefighters responding to Laurie's burning house encounter Michael, who slaughters them with their own equipment. Michael attacks and kills Laurie's neighbor, Phil, and critically injures his wife, Sondra, before walking back to Haddonfield.

Tommy, Marion, Lindsey, and Lonnie learn of Michael's killing spree through an emergency alert. Tommy forms a mob of vengeful Haddonfield residents to hunt down and kill Michael. Karen is informed that Michael is still alive and withholds that information from Laurie to allow her to recover, while Allyson reconciles with Cameron, her ex-boyfriend and joins Tommy's mob to avenge her own father's death.

While warning the Haddonfield community to stay inside their houses, Marion, and bar patrons, Vanessa and Marcus, are killed by Michael. Lindsey escapes and is found alive by Tommy, Lonnie, Allyson, and Cameron. The group map out Michael's path and his victims' location and deduce that he is heading towards his childhood home. Tommy takes Lindsey to the hospital and reunites with former Haddonfield sheriff, Leigh Brackett, whose daughter, Annie, was killed in 1978, and informs Laurie about Michael's survival. Across town, Michael murders the current owners of his former home, Big John and Little John, as Laurie prepares to leave the hospital.

Lance Tivoli, a fugitive convict from Smith's Grove Psychiatric Hospital, who escaped alongside Michael when their bus crashed, arrives and is mistaken for Michael. Tommy's mob pursue him through the hospital before Karen realizes that he is not Michael. Despite her attempts to calm the mob and help Lance, he jumps out of a window to his death. Laurie urges Karen to work with Tommy and Brackett to hunt Michael down. Elsewhere, Lonnie enters Michael's home alone, and is killed. Allyson and Cameron rush inside and find his corpse before being attacked by Michael, who murders Cameron.

As Michael prepares to kill Allyson, Karen appears and stabs him in the back with a pitchfork, steals his mask, and taunts him to follow her. She leads Michael into Tommy's mob, who seemingly kill him. When the mob drops their guard, believing Michael dead, he awakens and massacres the entire mob, including Tommy and Brackett. Back at the Myers house, Karen sees a vision of a young Michael in Judith Myers's old bedroom and goes upstairs to investigate. Michael appears and stabs Karen to death as Laurie stares out of her hospital room.

Cast

• Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, a survivor of Michael Myers' 1978 killing spree, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. She is Karen's mother and Allyson's grandmother.
• Judy Greer as Karen Nelson, Laurie's daughter and Allyson's mother
• Andi Matichak as Allyson Nelson, Karen's daughter and Laurie's granddaughter
• Will Patton as Frank Hawkins, a sheriff's deputy stabbed and run over in the previous film who arrested Michael following his initial killing spree in 1978
  • Thomas Mann portrays a younger version of Frank Hawkins.
• Anthony Michael Hall as Tommy Doyle, Lindsey's friend and one of the children Laurie babysat in 1978. He was previously portrayed by Brian Andrews in the 1978 original and by Paul Rudd in the non-canon sequel Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.
• Robert Longstreet as Lonnie Elam, Cameron's father who bullied Tommy Doyle as a child in 1978 but now is his best friend. He was previously portrayed by Brent Le Page in the 1978 original film.
  • Tristian Eggerling as Lonnie Elam in 1978 flashbacks.
• Dylan Arnold as Cameron Elam, Allyson's ex-boyfriend and Lonnie's son
• James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle as Michael Myers / The Shape, a masked figure who carried out a massacre on Halloween in 1978 before returning to Haddonfield in 2018 for another killing spree
  • Airon Armstrong portrays a younger version of Michael Myers in the 1978 Halloween night flashbacks.
  • Christian Michael Pates portrays Michael Myers as a 6-year-old child, as seen in Karen's imagination. He was previously played by Will Sandin in the 1978 original film.
• Charles Cyphers as Leigh Brackett, Haddonfield's former sheriff who lost his daughter in the 1978 killing spree and pursued Michael alongside Samuel Loomis. Cyphers reprises his role from the 1978 original and the now-ignored 1981 sequel Halloween II, though archive footage from the latter when Brackett sees his daughter's corpse is still used in this film. This was Cyphers’ last film role before his death in 2024.
• Nancy Stephens as Marion Chambers, the retired former assistant to Dr. Samuel Loomis. Stephens reprises her role from the 1978 original film and the now-ignored sequels Halloween II (1981) and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).
• Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, Tommy's friend and one of the children Laurie babysat in 1978. Richards reprises her role from the 1978 original film.
• The Levesque Triplets as the singing triplets in the bar.
• Carmela McNeal as Vanessa, the "nurse".
• Michael Smallwood as Marcus, the "doctor" and Vanessa's husband.
• Mike Dupree as the singing ventriloquist.

Also appearing in the film are Omar Dorsey as Barker, Haddonfield's current sheriff; Jim Cummings as Pete McCabe, Hawkins' partner whom Hawkins accidentally killed in 1978; Scott MacArthur and Michael McDonald as Big John and Little John, the current owners of Myers' house; Ross Bacon as Lance Tivoli, an escaped convict from Smith's Grove Psychiatric Hospital who is mistaken with Michael; Brian F. Durkin as Graham, Haddonfield's deputy sheriff; Lenny Clarke and Diva Tyler as Phil and Sondra Dickerson (Diva was the caretaker in the previous film), Laurie's neighbors; and Elaine Nalee as a helpful neighbor from Tommy's mob.