With the release of Halloween Ends this week, I had some catching up to do as I hadn’t seen either of the new films. When I found out that Halloween Kills was part of a trilogy I decided to wait until the final film was released before seeing all of them.

Halloween is not a remake or reboot of the original film from 1978 but a continuation so to speak. A few things are reset in this timeline such as Laurie and Michael no longer being siblings, as established in Halloween II.

The film is set 40 years on following the events of 1978 where Michael was found and again locked up. Over the years and following Doctor Loomis’ death, several doctors have examined Michael and all with differing opinions.

On the eve of Michael being transferred to another facility (sound familiar) two investigative journalists making a podcast about the babysitter murders are granted access to him but are unable to get any verbal response from him, despite a high level of provocation.

Meanwhile, Laurie appears to have turned into Sarah Connor. She has spent the years preparing for the inevitability of Michael escaping. Through an interview with the podcasters, we learn that Laurie has had her share of troubles dealing with the events that occurred that Halloween night resulting in a couple of marriage breakdowns and that she has an estranged daughter and granddaughter.

Now you’d think that after the last time Michael was transferred, they might want to put some additional precautions into place ensuring he doesn’t break free. Of course, if that were the case there wouldn’t be a film now would there?!

Nevertheless, Michael breaks free and it is total carnage. He doesn’t seem to care who he kills and one of his first victims is a 14-year-old boy.

I found this next instalment of the franchise to be much more violent than the original film. Michael appears to be experimenting with new ways to kill people. He seems to be a fan of grabbing someone’s head and repeatability bashing it against a surface. The infamous head tilt is back, curious as he explores what he has just done. With a nod back to the original film, he still seems to be a fan of pinning people to the wall with a knife.

Therefore, this film has a much higher kill count. It’s up from four in 1978 to seventeen in 2018. This feels more like a way of getting gore on screen than it does of innuendo. To me Michael’s motives don’t make a lot of sense. Is this supposed to be a build-up of 40 years being locked up? Of the evil pouring out? I guess his motives never really made sense and is part of the intrigue of the character.

The film also had a lot of call backs to the original 1978 film which I enjoyed. Some of those included footage from the original film, Michael being referred to as “the shape” which is a reference to the original script, as well as some familiar scenes for us fans. One example is with Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson, who sits at the back of the classroom in the same spot that her grandmother had sat. Although when she looks out the window, it is Laurie she sees standing there rather than Michael.

I’m interested to see where the three films take the story, but Halloween 2018 is a good starting point. There are some twists and turns along the way and enough links back to 1978 that would please fans of the original.

It’s quite an ending and I can’t wait to see how Halloween Kills will continue.