HALLOWEEN KILLS (18) ★★III
Picking up the action directly after the 2018 reboot of the Halloween franchise, three generations of Strode women – Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) – flee Laurie’s burning house with bogeyman Michael Myers trapped in the basement.
They head to Memorial Hospital for emergency surgery on a stab wound to Laurie’s abdomen.
Meanwhile, brave firemen inadvertently free Michael from the inferno and the monster continues his relentless pursuit of the Strodes.
Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), who Laurie babysat in 1978, whips up residents into a frenzied mob.
“It’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare,” growls Leigh Brackett (Charles Cyphers), who lost his daughter Annie to the serial killer in 1978.
Alas, that promise of bloodcurdling thrills doesn’t apply to us because Halloween Kills neither shocks nor surprises.
Let us pray that Halloween Ends, due for release in October 2022, is a declaration of intent.
In cinemas from Friday