Halloween Kills is the twelfth and newest addition to the seemingly never-ending movie franchise. This series of movies has been covered by 10 different directors, with John Carpenter creating the first in 1978. Produced by David Gordon Green, the most recent movies, Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills (2021) have a combined revenue of around $305.6 million. Halloween has a worldwide gross of around $255.6 million, while Halloween Kills has so far grossed around $50 million.

This second movie picks up right where it left off in the first movie from Green, with Laurie Strode, her daughter and granddaughter all fleeing the scene. They are rushing Laurie, played by franchise actress Jamie Lee Curtis, to the hospital after trapping Michael Myers in a burning house on Halloween night, 2018. There are several flashbacks to plots in earlier movies that build up the excitement, with Tommy Doyle becoming the main character who wants to take down Myers once and for all. He was the little boy Strode had babysat in the first-ever movie. The plot of the film really begins when firefighters arrive at Strode’s house to stop the fire, and viewers can see where Myers emerges from inside the basement he was trapped in. He kills all 11 firefighters on the scene and police warned everyone to stay inside. A group of people that consists of Doyle and several other actors seen in the other movies decide to track Myers for themselves, which is quite literally the dumbest thing they could have done. An extremely large crowd that appears to be basically the entire population of Haddonfield gathers at the hospital Strode is staying at. Doyle creates a riot, with the said crowd following behind him chanting, “evil dies tonight.” They blindly chase a man throughout the hospital that was claimed to be Myers himself, however, this character looks absolutely nothing like Myers. He was short and stout while Myers is slim and very tall. The movie continues to kill off some more major characters and gives Strode extremely little screen time.

 This leads viewers to believe that she will not appear in the next movie, airing in 2022. Every death scene shown gets more and more graphic and is definitely not a movie for those with even remotely weak stomachs. It almost seems like the producers were relying on gore for shock factors rather than a more interesting plotline. On Rotten Tomatoes, one of the world’s most trusted recommendation resources for quality entertainment, Halloween Kills started strong with 62 percent, but quickly fell to 38 percent. Critics on the website are criticizing the movie for being a huge bloodbath rather than successfully continuing the plot of the franchise. This leaves no other option than to give Halloween Kills a 3 out of 5 stars.