- Directed by David Gordon Green
- Written by John Carpenter, Debra Hill, Scott Teems
- Stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL6R3HmQfPc
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This continues directly after Halloween from 2018. That was the movie that disregarded all the other movies in the series and was a years-later sequel to the first 1978 movie. What’s worse than ignoring the second movie from 1981 and all the other movies in the series? Going back to edit and supplement the events in the 1978 original and its ending. This movie spreads its cheeks and takes a massive steaming dump on the whole Halloween timeline.
Synopsis
A few minutes after the previous film (Halloween 2018), Allyson’s boyfriend Cameron finds Office Hawkins on the street; Hawkins isn’t quite dead yet. “He needs to die,” whispers Hawkins. “And I’m the one who’s gonna get him.”
We get a flashback to 1978 as Hawkins shoots at Michael Myers. The police warn all the kids that there’s a murderer on the loose, including Lonnie, a wimpy kid. Lonnie sees Michael and calls him the Boogieman. The two cops then go into the old Myer’s house to look around. Michael storms in and attacks one cop, but Hawkins shoots the cop by mistake. Hawkins tells Loomis that Michael did it, and the police capture Michael outside, a sort of alternate ending to the first movie. Credits roll.
Back in 2018, there’s an awful talent show at the local bar in Haddonfield, hosted by adult Lonnie. A guy comes up on stage and tells the story of Haddonfield’s most famous citizen. He’s Tommy, the boy from the first movie. He points out several survivors of that fateful night. They all drink a toast to Laurie.
Meanwhile, Laurie is in the back of a truck with her family, heading out of town after setting fire to her house with Michael in the basement. The firemen show up and do their thing. One of them falls through the floor into the basement, where Michael kills him and steals his hat, enough to get the others to help him out. The firemen see who it is and attack Michael, but he kills them all.
Laurie is taken to the hospital; Karen and Allyson are there as well. Karen breaks down, realizing that her husband didn’t survive. Laurie goes into emergency surgery.
Michael kills an old couple a few houses down from the fire. He fills up the old man with knives like pins in a pincushion, but takes the best knife with him.
Before long, Tommy, Lonnie, and everyone in the bar learn about what happened on the TV news. One of the patrons finds someone in their backseat, and a bunch of the bar patrons go out to “get” Michael. Whoever was in the car drives off but doesn’t get very far. We see that it’s not Michael; it’s the other escaped lunatic who’s still unaccounted for.
Big John and Little John live in the old Myers house now, and they tell the story to scare some kids.
Hawkins gets wheeled into the hospital, and he needs surgery too. Karen brings the police up to date on her story.They tell her that Michael’s alive. Cameron explains that the whole town is out looking for Michael; Karen insists that Michael will be coming to the hospital for Laurie. Allyson wraps up a big knife and lays it next to the unconscious Laurie.
Tommy, Lonnie. Lindsay, and everyone else get guns and go Michael hunting. They start organizing, but Michael starts fighting back. Laurie wakes up, but Allyson has run off to join the fight. Hawkins is in the next bed, and they talk about old times. Laurie tells him they killed Michael, and he doesn’t know any better.
Tommy comes to the hospital, and he rabble rouses dozens of families to hunt for Michael. “Evil dies tonight!” and they shout down the incompetent police. Tommy comes in and tells Laurie the truth. Karen says to trust the system, but Laurie isn’t having that. Laurie gives herself a shot of pain relief and says bring it on!
Outside, the second maniac shows up, asking for help, and the others think that he’s Michael. They chase the terrified lunatic all over the hospital, causing no end to the riot’s mayhem. Karen tries to save the guy, but he ends up jumping out the window instead.
Laurie gets carried back to her room, and Hawkins tells more about what happened in 1978. Loomis was about to kill Michael, but Hawkins saved Michael’s life; lots of regret there. Hawkins explains that it was Dr. Sartain that took Michael to Laurie’s house; Michael doesn’t care about her at all– it’s about that house and going home.
The Big and Little Johns get a knock at the door. Michael’s home! Lonnie, Cameron, and Allyson figure this out on their own and head over there. They soon find two dead Johns. Lonnie and Cameron soon join them, but Allyson puts up a fight. She can’t win, but then Karen arrives and sticks a pitchfork through Michael. She steals his mask, but he gets up and comes after anyway. She runs away, leading him away from Allyson.
Turns out, she was leading him to the organized mob of townspeople, armed and ready. He picks up his mask and puts it back on. They shoot him repeatedly and beat him up with baseball bats even more repeatedly. Then they kick him excessively. Karen finally stabs him in the back of the neck.
Back in the hospital, Laurie says there’s “no way Michael could be human. The more he kills, the closer he gets to ascendance. You can’t defeat it with brute force. If they don’t kill him tonight, maybe we’ll find him again next Halloween.”
Michael gets up and kills the entire crowd of armed people, one at a time, including Tommy and Karen.
Laurie and Michael both stare out windows pensively.
Commentary
We mentioned that the previous film disregarded the second movie, and here they even retcon the end of the first film, showing Michael’s capture instead of escape.
Remember, as far as most of these people know, only five people were killed way back in 1978. Only five. How did Michael get to be so legendary for that when we have bigger murderers than Michael almost every day in modern times? By cutting out all the umpteen deaths in previous films, they’ve reduced Michael to a pretty minor serial killer in the big picture.
Finally, the Silver Shamrock masks come into play! Well, they make an appearance anyway. Not only those, but a lot of the former cast members of the original 1978 film reappear here. Most of the adults in town were child actors in the first film.
For the most part, Laurie and Hawkins sat this one out, but you can tell they were saving them for the next and final part, “Halloween Ends.”
Horror Guy Kevin notes that this is a watchable movie, even with some entertainment value, but he has lost patience with the disrespect to the original two films.