Warning: Major spoilers for Halloween Kills below, as well as mentions of violence.

The Halloween movie franchise has been around since 1978, comprising 11 movies and counting. Over the 43 years, five timelines and universes have been established. For Halloween Kills, this movie is a direct sequel to Halloween (2018), which is a sequel to the 1978 classic Halloween. The events of other Halloween films outside these three do not affect this timeline. 

Halloween Kills, released October 15, 2021, is a direct continuation of Halloween (2018) which is set 40 years after Michael originally committed the murders. Michael was in a mental institution after being apprehended and evaluated. However, the institution bus he was riding crashed, leaving Michael to escape. Laurie Strode, Michael’s eternal enemy, has set up for an intense battle with Michael. She has had rigorous training, extreme safety measures installed in her home, and has collected many weapons. In the end of Halloween (2018), Laurie traps Michael in her house, and sets it ablaze. Thinking Michael was finally defeated, Laurie and her family members set out for town to recover. 

Halloween Kills begins with a recap of the original events on Halloween night, 1978, seen from the perspective of Officer Frank Walker. In the original film, antagonist Michael Myers kills three teenage girls on the night of Halloween. After the recap, we are brought to 2018. Michael has escaped the burning house Laurie set, and immediately exacts his revenge on firefighters attempting to put the fire out. 11 firefighters are murdered on the scene by Michael, who is only wielding a Halligan bar. A man named Tommy, who experienced a close up encounter with Michael in 1978, speaks to a diner at an open mic night. He says that Michael may be back, but he cannot, and will not, succeed this time. After the diner speech, couple Vanessa and Marcus go out to their car, and hear a rustle in the backseat. Assuming it’s Michael, they run back to the diner to say that Michael is back, and is right outside. An angry mob forms, and the car speeds away, crashing almost immediately. Determined to find Michael, Tommy gathers up a mob of people and arms them to take on Michael themselves. Michael continues to terrorize the town, killing anyone who stands in his way. In the end, Michael kills Tommy and the group he created, and returns to his childhood home. In total, Michael killed at least 27 people in a single night.

Overall, the story did not progress. If you want to watch a movie with an easily ignored plot and plenty of gruesome on-screen deaths, Halloween Kills is great for you. If you want to discover the story behind Michael, his motives or his mind, you will not find it. The franchise is being milked dry, and Michael is a somewhat uncreative and boring villain. He’s basically invincible, incredibly fast, incredibly strong, and seemingly has no motive or comprehension of anything outside animalistic urges to kill what moves. Halloween Kills is a cash grab for horror fans that find themselves absorbed in the nostalgia of Michael Myers

Set for release in 2022, a final film entitled Halloween Ends will most likely see the final release of Michael Myers, and let the Halloween franchise die out.