Film Review: "Halloween Kills" (2021).

"Evil dies tonight" in Halloween Kills. This slasher film directed by David Gordon Green, written by Green, Danny McBride and Scott Teems, and based on the characters by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. It is the sequel to 2018's Halloween and the twelfth installment in the Halloween franchise. An injured Laurie Strode inspires a vigilante mob to hunt down unstoppable killer Michael Myers and end his reign of terror once and for all.

In June 2018, McBride confirmed that he and Green had originally intended 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. By October, after the film's opening weekend, McBride confirmed that early development on a sequel had begun. In February 2019, it was confirmed that Teems was hired to pen the sequel with McBride and Green. In June, it was reported that a sequel would begin filming in September, with Green returning to co-write and direct with Curtis, Greer, and Matichak reprising their roles. By late July, Will Patton, Nick Castle, James Jude Courtney, Kyle Richards, Nancy Stephens, Charles Cyphers, Dylan Arnold and Omar Dorsey were confirmed to reprise their roles. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in early November. Filming took place in Wilmington, North Carolina. Also, Universal Pictures revealed the titles and release dates of two sequels were announced: Halloween Kills, set to be released on October 16, 2020, and Halloween Ends, set to be released on October 15, 2021. Green will direct and co-write both sequels with McBride, and Curtis will reprise her role for both sequels. Teems was confirmed as a co-writer for Halloween Kills, while Paul Brad Logan and Chris Bernier were announced as co-writers of Halloween Ends. In late August, it was announced that Anthony Michael Hall would join the cast as Tommy Doyle, a character portrayed by Brian Andrews in the original Halloween film. Paul Rudd, who played Doyle in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), was approached to reprise his role, but declined as he was unavailable due to his commitments to Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The film was originally scheduled for an October 16, 2020 release date, but in July 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was delayed to October 15, 2021. In early September 2021, it was announced that in addition to being released in theaters the film would also be streamed on paid tiers of Peacock for sixty days.

The film stars Curtis, Greer, Matichak, Patton, Castle, Courtney, Richards, Stephens, Cyphers, Arnold and Dorsey, reprising their roles, with Hall as a newcomer. Despite the strong performances given by the cast, the characterisations are fairly routine and under-developed, and Curtis has too little to do this time round.

Despite being far bloodier than 2018's Halloween, the suspense generated by the Green/McBride screenplay, which begins with the end of its predecessor, builds nerve wrackingly to a lacklustre middle chapter that is a retread of its far superior predecessor and 1981's Halloween II.

Simon says Halloween Kills receives:

Also, see my review for Halloween (2018).