Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Anthony Michael Hall

Directed by David Gordon Green

Universal Pictures, out now

Spoilers

Laurie Strode and her family discover that Michael Myers did not die in the basement fire and is relentlessly continuing his trail of destruction.

David Gordon Green’s second instalment in his new Halloween trilogy is a brutal and gory horror movie, but by sidelining its lead, there’s too much emphasis on legacy characters doing some pretty dumb things.

Much like Halloween II (which, like the rest of the sequels, is ignored in this timeline) this sequel takes Laurie to hospital in the aftermath of her attack by Michael, and in the process it becomes just another generic slasher film. But unlike Halloween II, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is not the main focus, spending much of the time here in bed recovering from stomach surgery and talking to Will Patton’s Officer Hawkins, who we thought died last time round. What we didn’t realise (because this is a retcon) is that he prevented Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasance) from shooting Michael back in 1978, and was responsible for killing a fellow officer.

Unlike the previous movie, which was built around Laurie and her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), the story gets bogged down with returning characters. Tommy Doyle was one of the kids that Laurie babysat for, and he’s now played by Anthony Michael Hall (The Dead Zone). Lindsey Wallace was also with him that fateful night, and she returns here, the role played by original actor Kyle Richards. And then there’s Nancy Stephens playing nurse Marion Chambers again, and even the former police chief Leigh Bracket (Charles Cyphers, The Fog) who’s now a security guard at the hospital.

But most of these survivors return just so that they can be killed, and if you’ve missed people in horror films doing dumb things, you’re gonna love what the numbskulls get up to here. Characters stand around just so that they can deliver big lines, or go into basements or attics where they know Michael Myers is waiting. He is 100% supernatural now – bullets, knife wounds, fire don’t impede his progress in any way. And he picks on victims just because he can, never passing up the opportunity to twist a neck, and even using one old man like a knife rack.

This is adult horror, and is often hard to watch, but it feels so derivative and like it’s treading water until the big showdown in next year’s Halloween Ends. The mob posse is just so on the nose – who are the real monsters here? – and while John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies deliver a throbbing, familiar soundtrack, there’s no fun. It’s probably the most nihilistic entry yet, as evidenced by the ending.

Verdict: ‘Evil dies tonight!’ Except that it doesn’t. It takes a murder spree round Haddonfield in readiness for next year’s big finish. 6/10

Nick Joy