New Halloween Kills Image Will Thoroughly Freak You Out

Michael Myers: Since 1978's Halloween, he's been the continuity-defying Weeble of the horror community, oft wobbling but refusing, in any permanent sense, to fall down. He's gone through all of the boilerplate phases of a growing horror icon, save traveling to space and crossing over with, say, Puppet Master. He's been retconned, revived, rebooted, and run over more times than you can shake a kitchen knife at.

In 2018, Myers and his social circle shook off 40 years of on-again, off-again canon to bring audiences Halloween, the sequel-skipping sequel that bravely asked "What if we just sort of give the last nine movies a hard pass?" Directed by David Gordon Green of Eastbound and Down, Halloween represents the eleventh film in the series, the third with the name Halloween, and a direct sequel to 1978's Halloween. Confusing? A little. Luckily, the movie made up for its unorthodox approach to continuity by rocking really hard, landing the series its first Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes since the original entry in the franchise. With that in mind, fans have been eagerly awaiting a follow-up, but Halloween Kills has been through the same ringer as every other film circa 2020, with a squirrely release date that's been pushed back to October of 2021.

Now, thanks to Total Film, slasher enthusiasts can get a haunting new look at their old pal Michael in the upcoming sequel. Trigger warning: He still has William Shatner's face.

There he is, the Boogeyman of the Midwest, done up in his iconic onesie and brandishing a factory-fresh hunk of cutlery. As shadowy figures at the top of a flight of stairs go, he's not the first guy you probably want to run into.

Michael Myers, the second scariest thing in 1978's Halloween, was in a bad way the last time we saw him at the end of 2018's Halloween, having recently been shot in the kisser and locked in a burning building — a bad day for anyone, let alone a 61-year-old Boomer. It sounds like he'll be back in action right out of the gate when Halloween Kills hits screens (the new trailer has fans totally hyped) later this year, though. Speaking with Total Film, director David Gordon Green stated, "When we made the last one we wanted to find a way for someone who's never seen the original to get up to speed with the story. But this one gets right to the action. It's very aggressive. It's more efficient. We wanted it to be an explosive middle before things get streamlined and personal again."

Halloween Kills is scheduled to hit theaters on October 15, 2021. The series is set to conclude the following year with a franchise finale, Halloween Ends.