This I know to be true: horror movies that come out in mid-October usually do good business. This I know to be truer: Halloween movies that come out in mid-October usually do great business.

Well, that’s accurate for the modern era. Earlier sequels didn’t bust any blocks, but 2018’s Halloween sold a bunch of tickets, and even in the semi-aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021’s Halloween Kills thrived. I’m pretty sure that if I put out 90 minutes of my Yorkie poodle as she gnawed on a rawhide and called it Halloween Chews, it’d make $75 million minimum.

As noted in that review, the 2018 Halloween pretended none of the sequels or Rob Zombie’s two reboot movies ever happened. Instead, it skipped ahead 40 years to update its characters after all those decades.

At that film’s end, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) – the main survivor of the 1978 film – thought she finally killed her seemingly unstoppable tormentor, psychopath Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney). Of course, this didn’t occur, and Michael returns to continue his reign of violent terror against the citizens of Haddonfield.

Honestly, that sums up the “story” pretty well, though Kills attempts a slew of subplots with subcharacters. Early in the film, we find a long flashback to 1978 with Haddonfield cop Hawkins (Thomas Mann), a police officer who confronted Michael back then – with tragic results.

Still on the force 40 years later, “Old Hawkins” (Will Patton) suffers an attack from Michael but survives, and ends up in the same hospital room with his old acquaintance Laurie. Ms. Strode’s daughter Karen (Judy Greer) warns all the locals that Michael will come for her.

This leads to a posse out for vigilante justice. Led by Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) – a kid babysat by Laurie in 1978 – he wants to end the menace of Michael once and for all.

Kills tosses out other subcharacters/subsituations as well. However, I’d like to finish this review before the next Halloween flick hits screen in October 2022, so I’ll leave the rest unsaid.

This glut of roles/story beats turned into a problem with the 2018 movie, and it continues to provide a snarl for Kills. Too much of the film feels disjointed, as these various pieces don’t connect in an especially satisfying manner.

Kills also stretches too hard to connect to the original 1978 movie. It digs up characters from that flick and also invents some – like Hawkins – who exist in this Halloween universe but didn’t appear in the 1978 film.

Kills works overtime to seem beholden to the 1978 flick’s mythology, and this can come at the expense of its own creativity. Not everyone/everything needs some connection back to the original film’s events, so the incessant stabs at these connections get tedious at best and eye-rolling at worst, as the movie really stretches credulity in some of its links.

Of course, no one goes to horror movies for objective reality, and this also conveys in Kills via the sheer stupidity of its characters. Yeah, participants in this genre’s tales need to behave without much logic for the stories to work, but even from that POV, those we meet in Kills seem shockingly dumb.

Indeed, the Kills characters act in such incessantly idiotic ways that I began to suspect writer/director David Gordon Green intends the movie to play as parody. This makes some sense given Green’s background, as he came from the comedy world along with co-writer Danny McBride.

The presence of Green and McBride seemed odd in 2018 and still feels strange now. Not that no one can ever shift genres, of course, but Green and McBride continue to come across like a mismatch for slasher flicks.

Anyway, I could easily see Green and McBride as the authors of a horror film that spoofs horror films, and plenty of Kills leans in that direction. The characters really do behave in sub-moronic ways, so it becomes easy to view this as a wink at the audience.

That said, horror tends to feel like self-parody an awful lot of the time. So many films in the genre offer silly, absurd tales that unless the filmmakers go for super-blatant, obvious mockery, it becomes difficult to discern a spoof from a “serious” effort.

Kills doesn’t take that path. While it can feel like it laughs at the genre, it doesn’t tip its hand in a strong manner.

Normally I would applaud a subtle sensibility, but in this case, I don’t, just because it never seems especially clear that Kills attempts parody. Maybe the filmmakers’ choices reflect mockery or maybe they just represent the usual idiocy of the genre - Kills plays it too straight for me to decide.

Don’t expect any real scares from Kills, though the film does muster a pretty decent sense of tension. I can’t explain why this occurs, as between the meandering narrative and the overuse of jump scares/graphic gore, the film doesn’t seem likely to inspire a dread.

But it does. Despite its flaws, Kills manages to give us a dark journey with ugly overtones that make it more ominous than I’d expect.

Too bad it never really pays off, especially since it ends without any form of real conclusion. Yeah, we know that horror franchises never die – even when they come with “definitive endings”, we know these won’t take.

In this case, though, we’re aware that Ends will (supposedly) wrap up Green’s trilogy, so Kills finishes without even a token sense of resolution. At least the 2018 movie kinda sorta felt like a self-contained product – sure, it implied Michael survived, but it still could’ve stood on its own, whereas Kills needs another film to feel “complete”.

And I’ll see that movie, though more out of a sense of duty than genuine interest. Maybe Green will finally give Curtis something real to do, as she’s sat on the sidelines too much of the time in the 2018 and 2021 flicks.

As was the case in 2018, Kills becomes a decent horror flick but not anything special. In 2021, genre standards are low enough to make it above average, but don’t expect something that remotely approaches the highs of the 1978 movie.

Halloween Kills appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The movie boasted a pleasing Dolby Vision image.

Overall sharpness worked well. Some wider shots veered a smidgen toward the soft side, but they remained in the minority during this largely accurate presentation.

I saw no shimmering or jaggies, and edge haloes remained absent. Print flaws also failed to become an issue.

In terms of palette, Kills went with a palette that emphasized a standard form of amber and teal. The disc reproduced these as intended, and the disc’s HDR added impact and power to the tones.

Blacks looked dark and deep, while shadows seemed smooth and concise. HDR gave whites and contrast extra punch. I felt happy with this high-quality presentation.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack added involvement to the proceedings. The channels used music in an involving manner, and various effects also broadened the soundscape in a winning way.

While not a film packed with action, Kills came to life enough to work the speakers well. Various horror elements related to the thrills moved around the room in a convincing pattern to contribute life to the tale.

Audio quality worked well. Speech seemed concise and distinctive, while effects appeared accurate and natural. Louder moments boasted fine punch.

Music was warm and full, with a good level of punch from percussive elements. All of this left us with a satisfactory “B+” soundtrack.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the Blu-ray version? Both came with identical soundtracks.

The 4K’s Dolby Vision presentation showed the expected improvements, though. A native 4K production, the image boasted superior delineation, blacks and colors. Expect a good upgrade.

The disc comes with both the film’s theatrical version (1:45:06) as well as an Extended Cut (1:49:07). What did the extra four minutes, one second buy us? Potential spoilers ahoy!

Chapter One comes with one extra minute of Lonnie as he wanders scared. In Chapter Four, Karen enters the hospital morgue to find the corpse of her husband.

Chapter 14 provides about 30 seconds more of the crowd at the hospital, while Chapter 19 adds roughly one and a half minutes to the ending. In addition, a handful of scenes add a smidgen of extra violence, but never more than three to five seconds per chapter.

The pre-finale changes don’t give us much of interest, honestly. None of them seem problematic, but the movie gains little by their inclusion.

As for the alternate conclusion, it gives us a more “sequel-teaser” conclusion as well as added violence. Like the other footage, it neither harms nor helps the film.

Overall, the “Extended Cut” seems like a perfectly valid way to watch Kills. However, it comes with such minor changes that either version works about as well as the other.

Alongside either version of the film, we can screen an audio commentary from writer/director David Gordon Green and actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Judy Greer. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific discussion of story and characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, Easter eggs and deleted scenes, and related domains.

Expect a mostly enjoyable but not particularly great commentary. At its best, we do find some good insights.

However, Greer and Curtis often tend to just watch/react to the movie, and this increases as the film progresses. While worth a listen, this never becomes a particularly strong chat.

A Gag Reel goes for three minutes, 12 seconds and delivers the standard selection of goofs and giggles. It works as expected.

Three Deleted and Extended Scenes occupy a total of three minutes, 21 seconds. We see “Allyson Meets Bracket” (0:30), “Sondra’s Drone Finds the Shape” (1:48) and “Protestors Rock Outside Hospital” (1:03).

All three seem forgettable, though “Drone” allows us to see original “Shape” actor Nick Castle’s cameo. Nothing memorable takes place in these scenes otherwise.

Six featurettes follow, and Haddonfield’s Open Wounds runs seven minutes, 15 seconds. It brings notes from Green, Curtis, co-writers Danny McBride and Scott Teems, co-producer Ryan Turek, producer Jason Blum, makeup FX designer Christopher Nelson, and actors Andi Matichak, Anthony Michael Hall, Dylan Arnold, Robert Longsteet, Kyle Richards, and Charles Cyphers.

“Wounds” looks at story/characters as well as cast and performances. It manages a promotional vibe, so don’t expect much substance.

The Kill Team lasts 11 minutes, two seconds and features Green, Blum, Nelson, Matichak, Curtis, McBride, Turek, Longstreet, Hall, Teems, Cyphers, director of photography Michael Simmonds, script supervisor Ronit Ravich-Boss, 1st AD Atilla Salih Yucer, and actors Carmela McNeal, Michael Smallwood, Michael McDonald, Scott MacArthrur and Lenny Clarke.

We learn about the movie’s crew as well as aspects of the film’s violence scenes. Though it comes with some good notes about the technical elements, too much of “Team” just sticks with praise.

With Strode Family Values, we get a three-minute, 37-second segment that offers material from Curtis, Green, Matichak, Turek, McBride, Greer and Blum.

Here we get thoughts about the movie’s main female characters and actors. This feels like another insubstantial piece.

1978 Transformations fills five minutes, 50 seconds with remarks from Hall, Curtis, McBride, Green, Turek, Matichak, Simmonds, Nelson, production designer Richard A. Wright, and costume designer Emily Gunshor.

The featurette discusses the work done for the flick’s flashback sequences. Like the others, it mixes self-congratulation and useful notes.

Next comes The Power of Fear, a four-minute, 28-second piece that involves McBride, Curtis, Richards, Green, Hall, Greer, Matichak, Longstreet, and Arnold,

“Fear” discusses the movie’s depiction of the “mob mentality”. It proves oddly uninformative.

Finally, Kill Count goes for 53 seconds. It offers a “greatest hits” reel that tears through all 31 of Michael’s slayings in the movie. It seems kind of pointless.

A second disc provides a Blu-ray copy of Kills. It includes the same extras as the 4K.

The Blu-ray opens with ads for Stillwater, Candyman (2021) and Copshop. No trailer for Kills appears here.

After a successful sequel/reboot in 2018, 2021 brought more of the same with Halloween Kills. Though better than average for the genre, Kills never becomes especially memorable. The 4K UHD brings very good picture and audio along with a decent array of bonus materials. Fans will like the movie but it seems unlikely to convert new viewers.

To rate this film visit the prior review of HALLOWEEN KILLS