The “Halloween” series’ most recent film, “Halloween Kills,” was way too much murder and not enough storyline in order to push the current trilogy along. This was the second film in the current trilogy and was a continuation of the 2018 “Halloween” night that was shown in the first movie of the trilogy. 

The film begins with a flashback to 1978, the night that Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney, “Far and Away”) goes on a killing spree after escaping a psychiatric hospital. This has been known in the series and is the plot of the first “Halloween” movie that debuted in 1978. The new revelation of this flashback was the scene of sheriff deputy Frank Hawkins having the opportunity to shoot Myers dead in his childhood home but missing the shot and killing his partner instead. When Dr. Samuel Loomis (Tom Jones Jr., “The Abyss”), pleads with Hawkins to tell what happened, he freezes and stops the execution of Myers to occur. 

The film suddenly advances back to 2018 and opens with the scene of main character Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, “Knives Out”) being rushed to the hospital after being stabbed in the stomach during the closing scene scramble of the previous film. The assumption is that Myers died during the closing scene, after being trapped and burned to death in Strode’s basement. It is soon revealed that this is not the case. Myers survives and kills every single first responder that arrives to put the fire out with a pickaxe. 

This was the most action that the movie sees, as the night continues to develop but the plot does not. The introduction of more characters from the 1978 night, now in the present, was novel but pointless. 

The plot struggles to advance because the chaotic energy that Lee brought as Strode throughout the course of the entire first part of the trilogy, was completely sidelined. The movie only features select scenes with Strode and most of them involve her from a hospital bed. The entire climax of the movie does not feature her at all. This passes the Strode family role of trying to trick and kill Myers to her daughter, Karen Nelson (Judy Greer, “Jurassic World”). Greer is not able to bring the performance of Lee from the first part of the trilogy. 

Additionally there was one scene that was supposed to bring reflection but instead brought confusion. A mob breaks out in the hospital in Haddonfield, Illinois as the town tries to put the killing of Myers on their metaphorical backs. Citing the inability of cops to do so. This predictably does not go well and a misidentification of Myers for another escapee of the psychiatric hospital leads to the mob chasing the escapee to a hospital window. Feeling trapped, he jumps and gruesomely dies on the pavement 30-feet below. The scene was pointless in the overall plot. 

“Halloween Ends,” the last film in the trilogy, will be released Oct. 14, 2022. It might as well have just followed the first film after a wild yet pointless second installment.