Alternative Character Interpretation: Did Michael know that Lindsey was hiding under the bridge, but decide not to kill her? Lindsey did not pose a direct threat to him at that moment, and he may have had bigger priorities. He may have also wanted a terrified survivor to create more fear for the people who discover what happened in the park. Or did he get bored with chasing her and decided to just move on?
Award Snub: James Jude Courtney received a Best Villain nomination at the MTV Movie & TV Award for this movie, but Nick Castle—who also plays the role in that movie—does not share the nomination with him.
The version of the Halloween theme played over the opening credits is a uniquely somber-sounding, almost ethereal take on the tune, combined with the striking imagery of the classic pumpkin burning; accompanied by a sea of other jack-o-lanterns representing the Haddonfield mob.
The end credits variant of the theme, which combines the opening's haunting choir with the pulsing intensity of the 2018 theme. It not only feels as unstoppable as Michael ever was, but the ethereal vocals give it an almost supernatural feeling.
Ghost came up with the track "Hunter's Moon", a Filk Song from the perspective of Michael Myers. It's suitably a blast, and the version that's in the credits — as opposed to the single — cleverly sneaks the iconic Halloweenleitmotif into the mix.
Unkillable and Payback are two awesome new tracks for the film, one capturing the fear of seeing a pissed off and, well, unkillable Michael Myers getting his revenge, while the other plays during the climactic showdown between Michael and the town mob. If one listens closely enough, Michael's breathing can be heard throughout "Unkillable." "Payback" starts with the main theme and about halfway through contains a rock-style remix of "The Shape Hunts Allyson," already considered to be the highlight of the 2018 film's soundtrack.
Anvilicious: This movie is very straightforward in its message that a mob mentality never solves anything and no matter what good intentions they may have, it only actually causes more harm than good.
Base-Breaking Character: Tommy Doyle. Some viewers like him for not being the same scared boy he was and perfectly understand his Well-Intentioned Extremist attitude as he seeks to stop Michael Myers from going on another killing spree, while others absolutely hate him and blame him for many of the movie's bad events, such as getting an innocent mental patient killed, indirectly getting Lindsay's search party attacked, and even leading a mob to their deaths in the final battle with Michael. There are arguments from both sides over whether he's a good character or a Failure Hero, but you could also hear a few complaints that he's not played byPaul Rudd.
Broken Base: The ending. Depending on whom you ask, it's a thrilling conclusion that demonstrates how powerful Michael has become as an embodiment of evil or a heavily cathartic moment that was nullified by having Michael No-Sell the beating and murder the entire mob, essentially becoming an Invincible Villain again akin to Jason Voorhees.
Catharsis Factor: The mob, including Tommy, Karen and Lee Brackett, give Michael the mother of all beat-downs with guns, knives, baseball bats, etc. It doesn't stick, Michael gets up and kills them all, but that doesn't make it any less satisfying after everything he's done.
Contested Sequel: The film was far more divisive than its predecessor, which received near-unanimous praise for its great performances, intelligent writing, and high-quality production value; while the acting and production design were similarly praised in Halloween Kills, its direction was considered to be a lot more disorganized and clichéd (resulting in far more cases of Narm, as recounted below).
Critical Dissonance: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a low 38% Critic's Score, but a more forgiving 66% Audience Score.note (Verified Audience, anyway. Total Audience Score is a slightly more divisive 57%.)
He's Just Hiding: Despite a seemingly definitive closeup of Karen's glassy, lifeless eyes after Michael stabs her, the sheer abruptness of the ending (especially compared to the depiction in the original screenplay) has some fans suspecting the next film will reveal she's still alive. After all, Hawkins ended up being a case of this.
Halloween Ends would then confirm that Karen did in fact die during the aforementioned events.
Humor Dissonance: Many reviews complained about some kills being played for laughs, which seemed to be chosen at complete random, before the movie goes right back to wanting us to take the next one seriously.
When it was revealed that Michael had survived the fire in Laurie's house from the previous film, fanart of him with a half burnt face began popping up everywhere. The second teaser confirms that the left side of Michael's mask is now partially burned and melted as a result of the fire.
Many people also guessed Cameron ending up as one of Michael's victims.
Mandela Effect: Since practically shortly after its release, many fans have claimed they heard Michael speak after Karen takes his mask. Specifically, he allegedly whispers, "Give it back." While it does sort of sound like that, it's generally agreed that what's actually heard is the floorboards creaking in an odd way and that people who noticed the words being said after the spread of the supposed discovery are mostly just influenced by the power of suggestion. Not only that, but both James Courtney and John Carpenter themselves have responded to the speculation and confirmed that Michael does not in fact talk in that scene. Despite this, many people still swear that they genuinely remember hearing him say the phrase even before the word got out.
"Karen should have gone for the head."spoiler After Michael receives a savage No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by Tommy and his lynch mob of Haddonfield residents, Karen grabs Michael's knife and embeds it into his back. Michael goes on to use said knife to massacre the entire mob and later Karen herself. Many fans jokingly chide that she should have put the knife in his head.
Evil dies tonight!
Misblamed: Universal got a lot of flack for putting the film on Peacock (NBC/Universal's streaming service) on its release day, in a bid to give fans additional viewing options due to unclear COVID-19 policies in different territories (with some blaming the studio for negatively impacting the film's performance). It was actually Jason Blum's own idea after he was stung so badly by the Box Office Bomb of Freaky during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tommy's mantra of "Evil dies tonight!" gets to be this way after the first dozen times. It's somewhat hilarious when you consider the fact that, in this film's continuity, Michael Myers has been locked up for the last four decades after killing four people in the late 1970s. It makes the attempt to frame Myers as an omnipresent evil that's been menacing the town for decades somewhat hard to take seriously. Likewise, it also isn't helped by the fact that it was already announced before its release that this movie would be the second part of a trilogy, so most viewers already know that evil will not, in fact, die that night.
The massacre of Marion, Vanessa, and Marcus is meant to be horrifying, but between Marion running out of bulletsright after delivering a dramatic Pre-Mortem One-Liner, Vanessa's inability to shoot Michael when he's right in front of her, Marcus's mouth opening and closing like a fish when he's stabbed, and Vanessa managing to shoot herself, it instead comes off as funny slapstick.
A tall man in a white mask is watching the trick-or-treating kids from afar, not saying a word. Then a woman runs up to them, clearly panicked, and telling them it's dangerous to be out alone. But the whole time, the kids are just laughing and mocking her like it's funny. The sheer stupidity of the kids makes the situation feel like a Black Comedy more than anything.
Big John and Little John referring to each other as "Big John" and "Little John" in almost every circumstance, including when they realize that an intruder has entered their house and that they are in danger. Assuredly, the Internet had a field day with one of the character's names reminding them of someone.
Big John triumphantly throwing down his golf club and picking up an incredibly small cheese knife to hunt Michael isn't quite the badass moment he seems to be aiming for.
Little John's dramatic line "There's someone in our house ... (extremely long beat) and it's not a child" fails at sounding ominous. The visual of the bloody handprint would have sufficed, or even ending with the first statement. It comes across as not trusting the audience to figure it out without another character spelling it out for them.
Little John, upon finding his lover's dead body with the killer on the other side of the room, doesn't run or even try going on the offense when he sees Michael. Instead, he says "You've come home" in a laughably out-of-place voice that sounds as if he's mesmerized by finally seeing Michael in person. It's telling that the novelization, which is otherwise very faithful to the original dialogue, excises this moment entirely.
At the film's ending, the mob runs out of bullets very quickly, despite none of them firing a shot until now. Apparently, they all just set out from the start with an absurdly low ammo count.
In a Freeze-Frame Bonus, you can see one member of the mob that tries to kill Michael at the end brought a clothing iron to fight Michael.
Another member of the mob is wearing a tiger print onesie. He couldn’t have gotten changed first?
Older Than They Think: Back in the '90s, Chaos! Comics released three comic books which were supposed to be the continuation of the sixth film. In these comics, Tommy Doyle survives the attack of Michael in 1998 and then comes gunning straight for him along with Leigh Brackett. All while crossing paths with the adult Lonnie Elam. For an added bonus, all three eventually end up dead, two of which are killed by Michael himself.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Cameron Elam really sheds his Scrappy status in this film. He's shown regretting what happened with Allyson, and the first thing he does in the film is help save Officer Hawkins' life. From that point, he is nothing but supportive and sympathetic to Allyson and her family and spends the entire movie helping them out, a far cry from the bad boyfriend he was seen as in the previous film. It made his character so much more likable to much of the audience that his incredibly violent death is known to incite a Alas, Poor Scrappy response.
Signature Scene: Michael making Vanessa shoot herself gained sizable traction upon release and has maintained traction in the years since as the most memorably ridiculous part of the film, in either a Narm or Narm Charm sense depending on the viewer.
Spoiled by the Format: It was announced long before the film's release that it would be the middle part of a trilogy, meaning unlike the previous film, everyone went into it knowing full well there would be no real closure.
Much like Halloween II, Laurie spends the whole movie sidelined inside a hospital. And unlike there, she never even sees Michael throughout the entire running time in this one. While it's realistic she'd have to stay hospitalized given her recent injuries, that means the main character is almost entirely unconnected from the central drama for the whole story.
Marion Chambers, one of the characters from the original film who also played a vital role in subduing Michael in the (now non-canonical) second film and was reduced to Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome in H20. She's only given a handful of lines and dies easily in her first encounter with Michael - getting less to do than she had in H20.
Leigh Brackett too, the parent of one of Michael's victims and former sheriff of Haddonfield, likewise just gets a couple of lines - with the movie never really examining how he was affected by his daughter's murder forty years ago or the role he played in catching Michael. He too is killed off unceremoniously, meaning this is ground that can't be covered in the third film.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: A major criticism of the film is that it's difficult to root for anybody outside of the Strode women and a handful of others. Laurie gets sidelined for a good majority of the film, so much of the focus is put on Michael, who is practically evil incarnate and doesn't really have a personality beyond that, and the people of Haddonfield, most of whom are complete idiots and make increasingly irrational decisions. The only members of the mob that ultimately were considered likable were Allyson, Cameron, Lonnie, Marion, Vanessa, Marcus, Leigh Brackett and Lindsay, and nearly everyone (except for Allyson and Lindsay) is killed by the end.
Tough Act to Follow: Many reviewers thought the movie couldn't live up to the pared-down, more believable reinvention that made the 2018 film so liked.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The 1978 segment shows Dr. Sam Loomis with Donald Pleasence's likeness and voice. The best part is that it's not a CGI deepfake, but an actor who already looks like Pleasence put under makeup that makes him look identical to him.
The Woobie: Lance Tovoli, the poor asylum escapee who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Insane Equals Violent he is not, and while everyone mistakes him for Michael Myers in a frenzy, he's just trying to get some medical help. Karen's attempt to protect him predictably fails, and he decides to take his chances with a window escape ... Which ends poorly.
of the Halloween theme played over the opening credits is a uniquely somber-sounding, almost ethereal take on the tune, combined with the striking imagery of the classic pumpkin burning; accompanied by a sea of other jack-o-lanterns representing the Haddonfield mob.