"Halloween Kills" (2021) Film Analysis - Trauma
Halloween Kills (2021) is perhaps one of the most perfect thematic films I have ever seen, building beautifully upon itโs predecessor, Halloween (2018), to even further elaborate that Trauma Kills.
Michael Myers represents Trauma.
SPOILERS FOR HALLOWEEN (2018) AND HALLOWEEN KILLS (2021)
This film, as well as the film before it, illustrate the consequences of traumatic events, and how they can spiral out and lead to even more traumatic events. As a slasher film, the Halloween franchise centers around violent Trauma, with Michael Myers, also known as The Shape, being Trauma incarnate. However, to survive against a violent attacker, the most common response is more violence, which makes sense for the attack itself, but to fight Trauma itself, violence both serves as the seemingly the only viable option, and also the very thing that makes the Trauma stronger.
Trauma is never solely relegated to the event itself, it lingers and makes the victims relive the event over and over, and you canโt fight back against it with violence, and to do so is to empower the Trauma and let it manifest, and thus causes the further suffering of yourself and others. This is why Laurie Strode, in Halloween (2018), is what triggers the events of the film. She suffers from the trauma of the attack fro, forty years ago, and she sees the only way to end her pain is to on a suicidal violent attack to try to kill Trauma. Her lashing out leads to Trauma being unleashed, and thus going out and creating more traumatic events. Like the victim of abuse dealing with their own inner trauma by regretfully lashing out at their family, their violent defence mechanisms create more traumatic experiences for themselves and others, empowering Trauma to spread out and infect others.
Everyone in Halloween Kills is involved with Trauma. From the survivors of the attacks forty years ago being driven by it, with Lonnie and Tommy chasing it down, to the newbloods being unable to handle it, with Vanessa and Marcus being very easily taken out by it in a morbidly comical fashion. Background characters from the initial film from forty years ago are introduced still shaken by the events, even before knowing that Michael Myers has returned, which shows how Trauma is still a huge part of their lives. Like Laurie Strode, these victims still relive that night over and over, tormented by it, and just like her, when they discover that there is an opportunity for them to rid themselves of the Trauma once and for all, they leap at it, simply wanting this nightmare to be over. Laurie Strodeโs granddaughter, who only experienced the Trauma for the first time several hours before in Halloween (2018), similarly switches from flight to fight, wanting to rid herself of Trauma so she doesnโt become like her grandmother. This also somewhat ropes her boyfriend into it, who also goes because his fatherโs experience with Trauma, and because several of his friends have been consumed by Trauma, and so a character who had never directly experienced Trauma is once again brought into it because of the actions of those who have. The fear of what Trauma could do to them, or the people they love, forces many characters, main and background, into taking up arms against it, distrusting the systems that are supposed to protect them because the systems have failed, and thus leading to greater uncontrolled forms of lashing out, influenced by Trauma, and perpetuating more.
There are other examples of Trauma in this film that arenโt purely violence based. One cop's compassion to stop Loomis from killing Michael eventually led to present events, as well as his well-intentioned accident with his partner. This shows that the source of Trauma isnโt just Trauma itself, but can come from moments of true care and compassion, genuine mistakes, and lapses in judgement. Adding another level of nuance to the film. The cop laments his actions, he feels guilty, thinking he is responsible for all this atrocity, when he was only trying his best. Trauma can spiral out from good intentions. Laurie didnโt intend for Trauma to be unleashed when she attempted to kill it, she wanted the exact opposite, and yet things happen. This reframes the discussion about morality in this franchise as less about good and evil, and instead sprinkles in elements of misunderstanding, mistakes, and miscalculations leading to Trauma. I will touch on this more near the end.
This film explores generational trauma, social trauma, short-term trauma, and long-term trauma. It cause fear and hatred, leading to blind rage and chaos, which only results in more tragedy. Some characters handle it on their own in person, with some confronting Trauma in their own homes, and others flee or freeze or group together to survive it.
This grouping together is an element rarely seen in slasher films, but serves a very poignant theme for this film. Early on, we see a group band together outside a bar to confront what they think is Michael Myers, and because of those numbers, they are far safer than they may otherwise be.
As the film progresses, and more people band together at the hospital, further witnessing the effects of Michael Myers, of Trauma, they grow more frightened, and more angry. They even start chanting โEvil Dies Tonightโ, which as an impartial viewer one can easily read it as the folly of the mob, that they have given in to mindless and stupid hate, but it makes total sense within the story. These people are scared, they are unsafe, and they want this nightmare to end. They are a group, the killer is a single man. If a killer stands in a room of fifty people and starts attacking them, if no one fights back, all fifty will die, and if only one fights back then they might all still die, and so the only way to survive is to stand together in solidarity and fight back. It is natural to band together and to even hype oneself up to be brave and willing to violently attack another person, because it is beginning to seem like kill or be killed. This makes sense, especially given that the killer really is only one man, and would probably be the best route to take if this were real. However, Michael Myers is no man, he is Trauma incarnate, and thus there are some thematically supernatural forces at play, and there are moral messages to be delivered.
We as audience members are aware of the dangers of mobs, and we get an overhead view of this violent mob causing chaos, but these people are scared, they have seen or experiences the traumatic events and they just want it to stop, no matter what it takes. It makes you want to shout at the characters and the mobs to stop being stupid in how they act, but that's the thing about Trauma, it isn't always logical. Furthermore, they do not know that they are in a movie that is trying to make moral points. In real life, banding together to take on who they think is the killer makes perfect sense, and it even almost works near the end, but they arenโt aware that this is a movie and that the killer is more than just a man, he is a metaphor.
This mob of traumatized people go on to unintentionally play a game of telephone, with questions asked on whether a figure in the crowd is Michael Myers, the source of their Trauma, and the question is eventually heard as a statement, and soon the whole crowd is chasing this figure. Empowered by their experiences with Trauma that has enforced such violence defence mechanisms, they chase to kill. The man they chase, albeit another escaped convict, is innocent of the crimes they accuse him of. Their reactions to Trauma has led them to demonize an innocent man, to ruin and threaten and, eventually, take his life. Even of the victims of Trauma can have their defence mechanisms unintentionally spread more Trauma. This man, overwhelmed by the effects that have spiraled out from Trauma, cannot handle it, he asked for none of this, and in fact willingly came to the hospital seeking help even though he must surely know that they would send him back to prison, and so he takes his own life. Trauma, Michael Myers himself, never appears at the hospital, and yet the influence it has had on the people, even people it never directly interacted with, has led to the Trauma spreading. โNow heโs turning us into monstersโ says one of the characters; Trauma has blinded them and bound them to their fear, it has made them desperate, it has made them see red, and it has used them to perpetuate itself. We never find out what the escaped convictโs crimes were, and we can imagine that in-universe there would be people claiming he wasnโt all good because he was a convicted criminal, but for all we know, he could have had one too many parking tickets, and now he is dead.
It is also worth mentioning that the preceding film, Halloween (2018), also attempted to impart the theme that experience with Trauma can lead us to becoming monsters ourselves, albeit a bit more ham-fistedly. There was a Doctor character who became obsessed with Michael Myers and eventually attempted to literally become him, which was one of the less compelling story beats of that film. They also somewhat touched on this with the podcasters having a fascination with Trauma that led them being consumed by it too.
The characters in this film seek to kill their Trauma, rather than solve it in any other fashion, and thus they keep confronting Trauma on itโs terms, playing by its rules, getting up close and personal with it, and empowering it, leading to it consuming them. This is shown in the third moment of people banding together to take on Trauma, now in the climax of the film.
Halloween (2018) showed that going out alone to violently take on your Trauma can only unleash and even empower it, but ends with Laurie Strode standing with her loved ones all working together to trap and destroy Trauma. This ending is presented as open-ended, mostly because a sequel was not guaranteed. As they didnโt know if they could carry this on, they wanted the message to show that having the support of your loved ones was better than going it alone, but they also didnโt want to fully give into that message as they still used violence to try and destroy their Trauma, rather than dealing with it more appropriately, so the filmmakers compromised by having Michael Myers be last seen in the burning inferno, but then have his breathing be heard at the end. The Strode family did not end their Trauma, they merely saved each other from being consumed by it. They stopped the attack from being fatal, but the wound is still bleeding.
Halloween Kills (2021) similarly delivers a satisfying climax without betraying the themes for a more typical movie ending. The third act triumphantly shows the next generation of victims, led by Laurieโs daughter Karen, banding together to take down Trauma, not doing it alone nor fleeing from it. It is portrayed as heroic, and it is certainly cathartic to watch, but the audience is reminded that he is no ordinary man, that he will always be with the characters, and by giving in to the urges that Trauma has forced them to use, they have merely empowered the hold it has on them, and thus he comes back stronger than ever. Karen, the next generation, plants the killing blow, moments after comparing herself to Michaelโs sister, and she makes her way to Michaelโs sisterโs old room, and stares out the window as Michael is want to do. She becomes him, consumed by Trauma, giving into the very act that created Michael Myers, committing the act that began it all, and so she is taken out moments later. They use hateful and violent acts to take him down, but by doling out what has been done to them, they are normalizing such traumatic events in their heads, justifying themselves using it, and thus participating in the more incremental aspects of the cycle of Trauma.
Halloween Kills (2021) is really a perfect thematic movie, especially in context with the previous one and (hopefully) the next one. Entitled Halloween Ends (2022), it is likely to conclude this sequel trilogy and, if Halloween is similarly representative of Trauma, with Halloween (2018) being mere Trauma and Halloween Kills (2021) meaning Trauma Kills, then Halloween Ends (2022) stands for Trauma Ends, and will see them finally dealing with their Trauma in a more effective way. So, I expect the third film, Halloween Ends (2022), to show the end of Trauma with Michael Myers and those involved finally getting therapy, with community support and forgiveness. I'm joking, of course, but to show how Trauma Ends, I presume it'll be a metaphor for that. I'm not entirely sure how they would appropriately handle that, so I'm wary of the third one, it certainly has some big boots to fill. But as it stands now, Halloween Kills (2021), as well as it's predecessor Halloween (2018), are a perfect thematic duology.
There are still some more points I would like to make, however, relating to certain choices and the wider storytelling implications.
It is worth mentioning that within the universe of the film, at the end we see Michael Myers get up and fight back, and then we see him in the Myers house behind Karen. No one else in the local area has apparently been alerted to the massacre of the attackers, and no one apparently noticed Michael entering the house, and even after Karen is slain, there does not seem to be anyone responding to the death cries. This isnโt a continuity error, I interpret this to be both an actual event as well as heavily symbolic. Karen has been consumed by Trauma and thus it kills her, and the attackers have also been consumed and thus Trauma is empowered and attacks them. It is allegorical in that it makes no realistic sense, but it still happens. Showing people being alerted or running up the stairs would have lessened the impact, and showing Michael Myers making his way to Karen, sneaking past people, would have lessened the surprise. One could interpret it as entirely allegorical, that Karen is alive but just given into her Trauma, but that may come off as messy if the third film opens with Karen being alive, confusing mainstream audiences. Instead, I think that Michael Myers did come back and kill her, and that the internal consistency of how he made it to her is unimportant. Just like the supernatural aspect of Michael Myers growing stronger with violence and surviving impossible attacks; they arenโt going to go into the third movie explaining that Michael Myers is some demon and that specific supernatural forces are real, instead they are going to treat him as a vaguely supernatural being, more akin to a phenomena at the edges of believability, and focus more on the thematic use of his character, rather than the ontological.
Furthermore, there is another aspect of the film that I think is worth discussing. They bring up the fascinating point about Michael Myers looking out of his sisterโs window after killing her, and how important that was to his character. We see an officer looking out as well, noting that nothing interesting happens here, but it is later elaborated on that it wasnโt what they saw outside that had an impact on these characters, but the reflection of the glass itself. Michael and the officer saw themselves in the glass and questioned who they were. This theme comes up again a lot, with countless shots of reflections and characters being seen through glass, questioning the nature of the human condition. And at the end, we see Karen looking out the same window, her reflection standing out to her, and then Michael Myers appears, part of her reflection, showing that they have become one and the same.
However, I think there can be more than can be elaborated upon in the third film, a new revelation that could incorporate the other themes of Trauma. Like a window, this aspect could go both ways. Michael Myers saw himself in that moment, but he also saw what was outside. Karen saw herself in that moment, but she also saw the traumatic aftermath of what happened outside. The theme of Trauma perpetuating itself works well in all the events following the killing of Michaelโs sister, but the event itself is often portrayed as a child being pure evil, that Michael is evil and that evil merely exists. This muddies the theme as it presents a clear villain of the world, a source for all Trauma that did all this simply because it could. Iโm not a fan of that, partially because I disagree with the notion that true evil exists but mostly because I have a degree in Child Development. There is an interesting line said in the film; โHeโs a six-year-old boy with the strength of a man and the mind of an animalโ. Children learn from what they experience, everyday is a learning day and everything that happens to a child, in some way or another, influences their development. The same character also states โDo you know that when he was a little boy he used to stand in his sisters room and stare out the windowโ, that doesnโt necessarily mean that after he killed his naked sister he looked out, it more implies that he liked to do that. If we take the Trauma theme and the Window theme and combine them, the third movie might benefit from a reveal that he saw something out there as a child.
Perhaps Michael Myers saw an attack around the time of his own actions, a child looked out the window and saw a violent attack in the street, with causes of its own, and he also saw his own reflection, and he learned from it. He experienced a traumatic event, he associated it with himself, and then he carried out the same event . Because he was a child, perhaps a mute child, he never understood that what he saw was bad, and since then he was only met with condemnation, all of which he still didnโt understand, perhaps because Loomis was not versed in child development, Michael never really learned. He was constantly reminded of his attack, and therefore the attack that inspired him, and just with Trauma, he relived that night over and over again, normalizing it into him to a point that he was entirely emotionally detached and couldnโt comprehend anything beyond it. This would also explain why violence makes him stronger. With the mind of a child, every time he is attacked, he normalizes it, he thinks it is normal and he adapts to it, and with people attacking him, he thinks it is normal to attack them. He doesnโt find joy in it, he is too emotionally detached for that, but instead he does it because itโs all heโs been conditioned to do, with every action enacted on him being either violence or referring to violence.
This can be expanded upon if the attack was of a more invasive way, such as a sexual assault. If he witnessed someone engaging in unwanted sexual acts with another out in his street, and the other was begging the attacker to stop, then that was normalised in his mind. And so, when he witnesses his naked sister engaging in sexual acts with someone else, it triggered his memory to the traumatic event and led him to recreate it on his own sister. This would also explain why he has a preference for knives, being more phallic and invasive weapons, and why he doesnโt respond to people protesting or begging or screaming, he very simply does not know better, because he was forged in Trauma.
Given that Halloween Kills (2021) also introduced them theme that Trauma can stem from, or be empowered by, well-intentioned actions or mistakes, such as with the copโs compassion saving Michael Myers and allowing the present-day events to occur, this child development direction could also utilise that theme too. The attack that Michael witnessed as a child may have been done by an attacker who was weak. Perhaps they felt scorned, or let their fear turn to hatred, or were even being driven by their own defence mechanisms from Trauma they had experienced in their past, pushing them into doing the horrific act. This lapse in judgement, albeit a very serious one, unintentionally led to the creation of Michael Myers as we know him. Trauma begets Trauma.
In a potential plot for the third film, we may be introduced to an elderly couple. This couple, who were young in the sixties, were the attacker and the victim that Michael witnessed. At the time, things werenโt great for domestic abuse survivors, or for those with Trauma, and so they didnโt go public with it at the time and the abuser and the survivor remained together, and over the years they changed, they found actual help, the attacker got therapy for their issues and the survivor for therapy for the traumatic event they had endured. Now, sixty years later, they have improved, healed, reconciled, and made amends, and are living as best they can. This couple can show the main characters a better way at overcoming Trauma, and can reveal why Michael Myers is the way he is. He isnโt evil, he is just a child playing out the Trauma he witnessed over and over again. This could lead them to, instead of trying to kill him, reach out to him. In Halloween Kills (2021), the cop character also posits that they donโt know why he kills, but he always wants one thing, and thatโs to go home, and that could be the key to finding common ground with him. Halloween Ends (2022) could be a psychological horror, still with many slasher elements, but with our heroes trying to lead Michael Myers into confronting his past and showing him a better future, how things should be. This can have many complications throughout the plot, with mistakes in working with him, or lapses in judgement and letting their hatred of him slip, or other characters still seeking to kill him, but for the most part it could be an effective exploration of Trauma in a more optimistic way. Though, the conclusion can both be optimistic and not idealistic, as Michael Myers has lived sixty long years in this state, and even if they break through to him and have him experience a moment of calm or emotion or care, he still may be unable to escape his Trauma, and they have to put him out of his misery in the end. Hence, Halloween Ends with Michael Myers dying, but Trauma Ends with Laurie Strode understanding the reasons behind her own traumatic events, knowing why it happened and what led to it, and even reconciling with her attacker, and finally witnessing his certain end, allowing her to move on, and cope her with Trauma in a healthy way, able to live again, after forty long years. That could cap off this sequel trilogy that was, as Jamie Lee Curtis puts it, about Trauma.
