Michael Myers continues to terrorise the small town of Haddonfield as Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) recuperates in hospital. 

Directly picking up from where Halloween (2018) left off Halloween Kills feels like a mostly superfluous middle movie in this new trilogy that intends to finish next year with ‘Halloween Ends’. 

The plot is pretty much encapsulated by the title. Myers brutally kills lots of people. Although this time there seems to be a change in his focus, instead of trying to kill Laurie he is trying to go home. Whilst he is on his murder spree there are two other plot lines. A further retcon of what happened in 1978 in the original film which is mostly successful thanks to the excellent Jim Cummings appearing as a small town cop. Something he now has nailed down following Thunder Road and The Wolf Of Snow Hollow. And a wholly unsuccessful and incredibly boring take on mob mentality as another survivor of the original film, Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) stirs up the residents of Haddonfield who regularly shout “evil dies tonight”. 

As with the last film this one is completely devoid of scares and focuses on brutal murders. A key recurring theme is people improbably surviving savage attacks just long enough to have someone else witness their death or gurgle blood as it pumps out of them. Last time I was entertained by its reverent references. Here I was bored by its clumsy mob rules storyline, constant “evil dies tonight” utterances and it’s clumsy attempts at explaining Michael Myers otherworldliness. 

Best thing apart from Jim Cummings? The soundtrack. 

I really hope they come up with something better for the first finale.