Things are coming together for Halloween Kills, the long-delayed follow-up to 2018’s Halloween, with a new trailer recently arriving to promise a bloody return to Haddonfield. Following on from some fresh images we received a few weeks, we now have an excellent look at Michael Myers’ melted mask, the result of the fire at the end of the first movie.
The pictures come via a cover story for Total Film, part of a John Carpenter celebration, and show Michael with half his iconic mask melted away, presumably into his skin. Jamie Lee Curtis can also be seen in the reflection of the killer’s blade, and it’s no surprise that she doesn’t appear too happy, considering her plan to trap and burn her enemy was upset by firefighters. The second shot is a more stripped-down portrait of Myers, and demonstrates how his burns extend onto his neck.
Based on the latest footage, it seems that Halloween Kills will be exploring the idea of Michael becoming more of an inhuman force, especially given that the body count is expected to skyrocket after his escape from death. Having a mask that is literally fused with his flesh certainly doesn’t detract from this concept, although we’re unlikely to get the Jason-level slasher that he became in the later Halloween entries.
With John Carpenter and others heaping praise on David Gordon Green’s sequel, we’re looking forward to seeing whether it can deliver on the hype built after a COVID-19-enforced delay. Compared to the previous instalment in the series, Gordon Green, Danny McBride, and Scott Teems’ screenplay aims to amp up the violence and turn the tables on Michael as the Strode family and the town of Haddonfield seemingly team up to bring him down.
Halloween Kills will premiere this October 15th, and is currently only slated to be available in theaters.