How Halloween Kills Reframes The Entire Franchise
Since the first Halloween movie sliced and diced its way into theaters in 1978 the characters sitting at the head of the slasher table have been Michael Myers and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). It’s hard to imagine one without the other, even if there is a string of subpar Halloween films that tried to do just that.
When the franchise was reimagined in 2018, director David Gordon-Green created a direct sequel to the first movie, once again returning to the central story of Laurie vs. Michael, revisiting the trauma of that Halloween evening decades ago. In the latest film, though, a much different story is being told. Halloween Kills isn’t about Michael Myers vs. Laurie Strode. Instead, it’s about Michael vs. an entire town of people who feel they have been wronged by the supposed boogeyman–including the young children Laurie was babysitting in that initial film.
“Tommy and Lindsay we’re obviously going to be traumatized from their horrific encounter with the boogeyman, protected by their babysitter,” Green explained when speaking to a small group of press about the film. “How do they respond to that evening’s catastrophe decades ago?”