The Halloween movies were less bloody than you remember, at least originally. John Carpenter’s slasher classic kick-started everything in 1978 and it did so with some shocking violence for the time, but nothing like what has followed in the years since.
In fact, some Halloween fans have pointed to the increased violence of David Gordon Green’s trilogy of new movies as one of the factors in their favor. They’re among the best horror movies of recent years and, particularly in the middle entry Halloween Kills, Michael Myers was hacking and slashing with more ferocity than ever before.
Kills, released in 2021, saw a vengeful Michael Myers rampaging through Haddonfield in an attempt to finish the job and kill Laurie Strode. Reddit user LutheranSinner pointed to Michael’s amped-up eye for the gruesome as a feature that makes the movie somewhat underrated in rankings of the Halloween movies in order.
They wrote: “Michael is at his most savage and fucked up in Kills. It’s actually crazy the body count and amount of creative kills. He must have slaughtered 40+ people in this one film. And he’s not just killing them, but over-killing and almost playing with them. It’s so messed up. He doesn’t stop until they’re dead-dead.
“I’m not too squeamish when it comes to gore and none of the other films have made me flinch or anything. But there are multiple kills in the movie where I almost looked away.”
As surprising as it seems, we have to agree that this is one of the very few ways in which Halloween Kills stands above the original movie, at least if you value cinematic violence. If you’re after gore above all else from the best slasher movies, then you can’t deny how much terrifying physicality James Jude Courtney brought to Michael.
In almost the very first scene, he mutilates a firefighter with an angle grinder. That’s a heck of a statement of intent. And by the end of the movie, he engages in blood-soaked combat with an entire mob of angry Haddonfield residents. It’s fair to say he’s the last man standing, as always.
Of course, the original Halloween is untouchable as one of the best movies of all time but, when it comes to buckets of blood, Halloween Kills deserves a lot more respect. We have a lot of love for the reinvention of Halloween Ends too, despite its negative reviews.
We’re deep into spooky season, so it’s time to prepare for those all-night marathons with our guide to the best Halloween movies. You’ve also got the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie release date to look forward to, and we’ve explained that you shouldn’t complain about FNAF’s PG-13 age rating.
Alternatively, find out why new horror movie Iron Lung is about to break an Evil Dead record. Or prepare for small screen shivers with our guides to Wednesday season 2 and Stranger Things season 5.