Get Ready For Halloween Kills With A Trio Of New Clips
Contains spoilers for "Halloween Kills"
Halloween may still be weeks away, but fans of the "Halloween" franchise have gotten an early treat this year with the release of three short clips from the upcoming sequel "Halloween Kills."
The film sees original series star Jamie Lee Curtis return to Haddonfield, Illinois, as plus ultra final girl Laurie Strode, ready to do battle with the hulking psychopath Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle.) Joining her will be director David Gordon Green, who helmed 2018's franchise-refurbishing sequel "Halloween," and co-writer Danny McBride.
In that film, Laurie, her daughter (Judy Greer), and granddaughter (Andi Matichak) trapped Michael in a basement safe room and set fire to the house. But Michael escaped his fiery death –– the trailer shows him emerge from the burning building and doing what he does best to the firefighters attempting to battle the blaze. And so the sequel, set immediately after its predecessor, sees the Strode women join forces with past survivors of Michael's rampages to form "a vigilante mob that sets out to hunt Michael down, once and for all." Considering a 2022 three-quel, "Halloween Ends," has already been announced, that seems unlikely.
The clips released October 6 all seem to show the film during its "getting the band back together" phase, as familiar faces from the Haddonfield community learn Michael survived, and steal themselves to do battle with him yet again.
One clip shows Laurie Strode steeling herself for battle with Michael Myers
One of the clips, presumably from early in the film, shows just how soon "Halloween Kills" begins after its predecessor. It shows Laurie in the hospital, still clutching her abdomen where Michael Myers stabbed her in the climax of 2018's "Halloween." The door to her room bursts open, and Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), the kid Laurie was babysitting during Michael's first killing spree in 1978's "Halloween," bursts in, followed by Laurie's daughter Karen (Judy Greer).
Tommy explains to her that Michael killed Marion, presumably Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens), who worked with Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) in the original, and attacked Lindsey (Kyle Richards), which may suggest that this particular spree isn't random. Tommy promises that he'll kill Michael when he arrives. "Forty years ago when I was a kid, you protected me," he tells Laurie, "so tonight I'm going to protect you." Good luck with that, Tommy.
The clip ends with the younger pair looking to Laurie for guidance, asking her what they should do. "We fight," she tells them. "We always fight!"
A new generation learns to fear Michael Myers in one Halloween Kills clip
Another clip shows Lindsey encountering a pair of kids on a playground late at night, questioning them aggressively about why they're out alone, trying to make them feel her fear of Michael. They're dismissive of her palpable terror, continuing to swing back and forth, and even telling her that they saw "a creepy man in a white mask" and that he was "playing hide and seek."
It's only when they spot him, and his knife, and something shaped like a red skull –– it looks a little stretched, so maybe another mask unless we think he has completely skinned one of his victims –– that they finally run. She tells them, "Do not turn around!" but then she immediately does so, and the clip cuts off before we see Michael again. She looks frightened but unharmed, so is he about to attack her, as Tommy said in the other clip? But if he hasn't already attacked her, then how does she know to be frightened?
The final clip shows Laurie, feeling better, at the edge of someone else's hospital bed: Deputy Frank Hawkins (Will Patton), the man who, in this new retconned universe, arrested Michael in 1978. Like Laurie, Hawkins ended the 2018 "Halloween" in bad shape after being attacked by Michael's psychiatrist, Dr. Sartain (Haluk Bilginer), who helped him to escape. The pair discuss the damage Michael has done to Haddonfield, and Laurie promises to put an end to it. "I'm the one that needs to kill it," she says to Hawkins. Her odds seem better than Tommy Doyle's, at least.
"Halloween Kills" premieres in theaters October 15.