Halloween Kills trailer teases a bloody good showdown

The Halloween Kills trailer is here. The sequel to 2018's Halloween is slated to drop later this year, and this first tease showcases a sequel packed with slays, screams, and buckets of blood. In other words: exactly what audiences want from Michael Myers' return.

David Gordon Green's 2018 franchise reboot ends with Jamie Lee Curtis' forever final girl, Laurie Strode, hitching a ride with her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and grand-daughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) in a pickup, escaping Michael once and for all. But c'mon; Michael Myers never dies. In fact, Green confirmed the heavy breathing heard over the closing credits is Michael, still very much alive.

And that's where this trailer picks up, with the trio escaping as a flood of ambulances stream past. "Let him burn!" Curtis screams, a chilling line first spotted in the first teaser released last year, the day the sequel got pushed from its original 2020 release to 2021. Firefighters burst into the burning domicile, and one-by-one, they meet a grisly end at the hands of the masked killer.

From that point, the trailer steps up, lavishing in Myers' unique brand of brutality, his seemingly-unstoppable nature tied to his bloodthirst. "The more he kills, the more he transcends," Curtis explains, offering a glimpse at perhaps a logic behind his inability to stay dead. What's left plays out like a slasher vengeance tale, Michael's anger toward the three Strode women palpable, described by one of the main cast as "next level."

"Evil dies tonight," promises Curtis, loading her shotgun, but with another sequel, Halloween Ends set for release in 2022, it's unlikely we'll see Myers' die in Halloween Kills. Laurie Strode could still be correct, though. Halloween Kills picks up immediately after the events of the previous movie, an homage to the structure of the original two films, even down to the hospital setting from Halloween II. So why wouldn't the trilogy-closer do the same? Perhaps all three take place on the same night.

The trailer aligns with early word from those involved. Halloween Kills writer Scott Teems' description of the movie, as "the first one on steroids," and John Carpenter, who produces, claims its got a hell of a kill count.

Halloween Kills lands on October 15, 2021. Until then, catch up on our rundown of the best horror remakes.

Gem Seddon is GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.