Halloween Kills
Universal Pictures | Release Date: October 15, 2021 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
22
Negative:
13
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Screen DailyWendy IdeSep 8, 2021
Whatever else could be said about this competent and generally pretty entertaining latest addition to the series, surprising it is not. Read full review
60
The GuardianJonathan RomneySep 8, 2021
Forty years after John Carpenter made the defining slasher movie, director David Gordon Green has made a creditable stab, as it were, at reanimating the title. Read full review
58
IndieWireBen CrollSep 8, 2021
If this bloody entr’acte, whose title addition works as both noun and verb, has little to offer but a jacked up body count on a bed of fan service, it serves both with panache, charging forward as an almost elemental slasher outing unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellOct 15, 2021
Halloween Kills is a huge comedown compared to its predecessor, offering plenty of blood, guts and gore to satisfy fans but little for everybody else in a by-the-numbers slasher sequel. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 15, 2021
It’s average. If you like this sort of movie, knock yourself out. Read full review
50
ABC NewsPeter TraversOct 15, 2021
It gets the job done for trick-or-treat season, but this sequel falls short of expectations by sidelining its luminous star Jamie Lee Curtis and substituting rote mayhem for an inventively scary frightfest. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoOct 14, 2021
This film muddies its entire concept with a bizarre, unrefined commentary on mob mentality that is quite simply some of the worst material in either Green’s career and the history of this rocky franchise (which is saying something if you’ve seen, say, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers). Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 14, 2021
It’s almost as if Halloween Kills is an inconsistent, sloppy mess. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeOct 14, 2021
The problem isn’t that Halloween Kills is about nothing more than brutal nihilism; that’s a perfectly acceptable thing for a horror movie to be. It’s that it tries to be about so many things on top of brutal nihilism that it loses its grip early on. Read full review
50
Little White LiesAdam WoodwardOct 14, 2021
For all its reliance on gore and good old-fashioned jump scares, the film rarely raises the pulse. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 13, 2021
Even die-hard horror fans can’t help but notice Halloween Kills stumbles through the nostalgia that made Green’s “Halloween” reboot work, and that “Kills” isn’t scary in the least. Read full review
50
The PlaylistJessica KiangSep 8, 2021
After a genuinely promising beginning, Halloween Kills, already somewhat robbed of potential suspense by the fact we all know that another go-round, “Halloween Ends,” is on its way, seemingly doubles the body count of the previous installment while roughly halving its IQ. Read full review
40
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyOct 23, 2021
As a thoroughly modern, self-reflective revival of one of the most famous horror films of all time, 2018’s Halloween felt like a small miracle. Its sequel suggests that Green shouldn’t have pushed his luck. Read full review
40
Screen RantDebopriyaa DuttaOct 21, 2021
Shot frenetically with delightful gore sequences, Halloween Kills adds no real path for Myers' saga and crumples beneath its own misdirection. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriOct 15, 2021
You have to admire the effort — even as you survey, mouth agape, the calamitous results. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerOct 15, 2021
Maybe Halloween Kills will make more sense when the finale of the trilogy, Halloween Ends, gives those themes some context. But as a sequel to the deliciously absurd 2018 resurrection, it’s a ponderous bore, far-too-intermittently broken up by spurts of the franchise’s signature gore. Read full review
40
TimeStephanie ZacharekOct 14, 2021
Halloween Kills is scattershot and febrile, a confused film in which people spend a lot of time milling around, figuring out what to do next. Read full review
40
Rolling StoneDavid FearOct 14, 2021
As with so many middle parts of proposed trilogies, Halloween Kills feels designed to get you from Point A to a future Point C. It forgets, however, that a middle chapter still has to work on its own, and that stranding fans, completists, casual moviegoers, etc. in a weak-link entry runs the risk of permanently turning people off of the whole endeavor. Read full review
40
EmpireIan FreerOct 14, 2021
Despite the odd fun bit of bloodshed, Halloween Kills is mostly tired, tedious and an insult to everything John Carpenter got right first time round. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 8, 2021
What Halloween Kills lacks in ideas it partially makes up for in gruesomely authentic slasher texture. From cinematography to editing, casting to oozy prosthetic gore, Green and his crew have recreated the feel of the Carpenter original with an almost academic diligence, particularly in an extended 1970s-set opening flashback. Read full review
40
VarietyOwen GleibermanSep 8, 2021
Halloween night may be Michael Myers’ masterpiece, but Halloween Kills is no masterpiece. It’s a mess — a slasher movie that‘s almost never scary, slathered with “topical” pablum and with too many parallel plot strands that don’t go anywhere. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 8, 2021
Green has made exactly the kind of witless, worthless sequel that bled the franchise dry in the 1980s and ’90s. Read full review
More From This Movie

42 Critic Reviews

5.6 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 71 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL