In the relentless grind of slasher sequels, Halloween Kills and Friday the 13th Part VII unleash chaos—but only one survives the final cut.
Two towering entries in the slasher canon, Halloween Kills (2021) and Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988), pit unrelenting killers against desperate survivors in a symphony of screams and splatter. Directed by David Gordon Green and John Carl Buechler respectively, these films amplify their franchises’ signatures: Michael Myers’ supernatural stamina versus Jason Voorhees’ indestructible rage. This showdown dissects their narratives, kills, themes, and legacies to crown a victor in the blood-drenched ring.
- Unpacking the plots, from mob violence in Haddonfield to telekinetic terror at Crystal Lake, revealing how each builds on franchise lore.
- Analysing kills, effects, and atmosphere, weighing practical gore against modern polish.
- Delivering a final verdict on which sequel truly elevates the slasher formula.
Reviving the Monsters: Narrative Bloodbaths
Halloween Kills picks up seconds after the events of David Gordon Green’s 2018 Halloween, with Michael Myers seemingly defeated yet rising from the shadows of Haddonfield General Hospital. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) reel from the night’s horrors as a vengeful mob forms, chanting “Evil dies tonight!” The film spirals into chaos as Myers carves through the town, dispatching firefighters, nurses, and nostalgic survivors from the original 1978 classic. Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), now a grizzled barfly, leads the charge, only for the mob’s frenzy to mirror Myers’ inhumanity. Green’s script, co-written with Danny McBride and others, leans into sequel excess, blending humour with brutality across a sprawling ensemble.
Meanwhile, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood transports Jason Voorhees to new depths—literally. Years after Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, young Tina Shepard (Beth Ann Suckle as a child, later Lar Park Lincoln) accidentally unleashes Jason from his lakebed grave using her budding telekinetic powers, triggered by guilt over her father’s drowning. Fast-forward to her eighteenth birthday, Tina (Lincoln) returns to the now-private Crystal Lake estate, pursued by shrinks who doubt her abilities. Jason, regenerated and furious, hacks through a party of teens, including the vapid Melissa (Karin Schack), jock Russell (Blake Gibbons), and comic relief Nick (Kevin Blair). Director John Carl Buechler infuses psychic elements, pitting Tina’s powers against Jason’s machete in a mother-daughter revenge arc echoing Carrie.
Both films thrive on immediate franchise callbacks: Halloween Kills resurrects 1978 survivors like Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards) and Nurse Marion (Nancy Stephens), their deaths amplifying nostalgia’s sting. Friday the 13th Part VII nods to prior entries with Jason’s mask and eternal vendetta, but innovates with Tina’s telekinesis, allowing creative confrontations like levitating spears and exploding cabins. Yet Kills suffers from overcrowded plotting, juggling multiple threads that dilute tension, while New Blood‘s tighter focus on Tina’s trauma delivers emotional heft amid the hack-and-slash.
Production histories underscore their ambitions. Halloween Kills, shot back-to-back with its trilogy mates amid COVID delays, boasts a $20 million budget and Blumhouse polish, yielding crisp cinematography by Michael Simmonds. New Blood, constrained by a $5 million Paramount purse and censorship woes—the MPAA demanded 20+ cuts—relies on ingenuity, with Buechler’s effects team crafting Jason’s crystal-encrusted resurrection. Legends persist: Myers’ “live tweeting” stunt during filming hyped fans, while Jason’s child-murder subplot was axed to avoid backlash.
Kill Counts: Symphony of Splatter
The slasher’s pulse beats in its body count, and here both deliver feasts. Halloween Kills racks up 31 deaths, Myers’ rampage peaking in a hospital laundry room melee where he throttles Big John (Scott Innes) and Little John (Michael McDowell) with laundry carts and sink disposals. A standout: the slow-mo strangulation of Sondra (Michael Jerome Edwards) against a wall, her boyfriend’s futile rescue underscoring Myers’ inevitability. Green’s kinetic camera work, with sweeping Steadicam shots, heightens the frenzy, echoing the original’s voyeurism but amplified for IMAX screens.
Friday the 13th Part VII counters with 18 kills, Jason’s machete gleaming in low-budget glory. Iconic moments include bisecting Russell with a tree-felling axe, his torso sliding down the trunk in a geyser of blood, and the sleeping bag drag of Tamara (Heidi Kozak), zipped and swung into a tree like a piñata. Tina’s telekinesis shines in the finale, impaling Jason with rebar and burying him under the lakeside porch—a temporary win echoing franchise resurrections. Practical effects dominate, with Tom Savini protégé Barry Burman overseeing squibs and prosthetics that hold up decades later.
Creativity tilts to New Blood: Jason’s spear-gun suicide (reversed by Tina) and the cornfield impalement of two lovers innovate on camp tropes. Kills excels in volume and variety—sink disposals, fire axes, even a jaw-ripping—but repetitive throat-slits blunt impact. Both homage predecessors: Myers mimics 1978’s closet kill, Jason channels Part 2’s sleeping bag. Yet New Blood‘s psychic twists add unpredictability, making kills feel earned rather than obligatory.
Sound design elevates carnage. Kills‘ stabbing motifs swell with Cody Carpenter’s score, blending synth dread with mob chants. New Blood‘s Harry Manfredini cues “ki-ki-ki-ma-ma” stings amid cracking telekinetic bursts, amplifying isolation. In this arena, New Blood edges ahead for intimate, inventive brutality over Kills‘ bombast.
Thematic Clashes: Rage, Revenge, and the Supernatural
Halloween Kills probes mob psychology, the chant “Evil dies tonight!” devolving into lynching as Haddonfield’s citizens become as monstrous as Myers. It critiques vigilantism, with Tommy Doyle’s arc from hero-worship to delusion mirroring real-world frenzies. Class undertones simmer: blue-collar survivors versus Myers’ middle-class haunts. Green’s post-2018 lens infuses commentary on trauma cycles, Laurie declaring “Do you know who Michael Myers is? He’s evil,” yet the town fails to contain him.
Contrast New Blood‘s familial curse: Tina’s powers stem from patricide guilt, her telekinesis a metaphor for repressed rage. Jason embodies paternal failure—Pamela’s drowned boy—while Tina avenges her mother’s murder. Gender dynamics flip slasher norms: empowered final girl versus undead mummy. Buechler draws from Stephen King, Tina as Carrie 2.0, exploring psychic burden amid 1980s teen excess.
Sexuality and repression weave through both. Kills‘ incidental gay couple’s tender bath death subverts tropes, yet exploitation lingers. New Blood‘s scantily-clad partygoers pay sins-of-the-flesh prices, but Tina’s celibacy underscores purity. National anxieties surface: 1980s Reagan-era moral panics in New Blood, 2020s division in Kills. Thematically, Kills offers sharper social bite, though New Blood‘s personal stakes resonate deeper.
Final Girls and Fodder: Heroes Under Siege
Laurie Strode evolves in Kills, from bunker hermit to defiant matriarch, her hospital showdown with Myers a brutal ballet of hammer blows and knife thrusts. Curtis infuses weary resolve, her survivalist ethos clashing with the mob’s folly. Allyson taps rage, killing a copycat, signalling generational shift. Ensemble shines: Hall’s manic Tommy, Greer’s poignant Karen.
Tina Shepard dazzles in New Blood, levitating Jason’s mask in fury, her arc from doubt to dominance pure catharsis. Lincoln’s wide-eyed intensity sells vulnerability turning vengeful. Supporting cast chews scenery—Schack’s bitchy Melissa, Glenn’s sleazy doctor—but Tina anchors.
Fodder fares better in New Blood‘s archetypes, memorable despite brevity. Kills‘ nostalgia bait drowns in numbers. Heroes edge to Laurie for icon status, but Tina’s powers tip innovation.
Gore and Effects: From Practical to Polished
New Blood‘s practical mastery—hydraulic blood pumps, animatronic Jason—defines 1980s gore, censored shots still visceral. Buechler’s background in effects yields crystalline Jason, a visual coup.
Kills blends CGI enhancements with legacy squibs, Myers’ Shape rendered hyper-real by James Jude Courtney’s physicality. Pharmacy fight’s fluorescent flicker amplifies prosthetics.
Practical purity wins for tactility, though Kills‘ scale impresses. Nostalgia fuels both: returning stuntmen, revived masks.
Atmosphere and Legacy: Enduring Terrors
Haddonfield’s autumnal fog versus Crystal Lake’s misty woods: both nail isolation. Kills‘ widescreen suburbia feels epic; New Blood‘s 4:3 intimacy claustrophobic.
Legacy: Kills grossed $132 million, boosting reboots; New Blood launched Tina (scrapped later), influencing psychic slashers like Teleios. Fan polls favour New Blood‘s fun, Kills‘ ambition divisive.
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood claims victory—tighter, inventive, heartfelt amid gore. Halloween Kills swings big but sprawls.
Director in the Spotlight
David Gordon Green, born in 1975 in Little Rock, Arkansas, emerged from the indie scene with a naturalistic style honed at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. His debut George Washington (2000) won Sundance acclaim for its poetic coming-of-age tale shot on 16mm. Green’s career zigzags: meditative dramas like All the Real Girls (2003) and Undertow (2004), stoner comedy Pineapple Express (2008) with Seth Rogen, and Your Highness (2011), a medieval flop. Influences span Terrence Malick’s lyricism and John Carpenter’s genre precision, evident in his Halloween trilogy revival.
Green’s pivot to horror peaked with 2018’s Halloween, grossing $255 million by honouring Carpenter’s vision while subverting sequels. Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022) completed the arc, blending nostalgia with social commentary. Beyond, The Righteous (2020) returned to arthouse roots. Awards include Independent Spirit nods; he’s directed HBO’s True Detective Season 3 (2019). Filmography: George Washington (2000, poignant child drama); All the Real Girls (2003, raw romance); Undertow (2004, Southern Gothic thriller); Snow Angels (2007, domestic tragedy); Pineapple Express (2008, action-comedy); Your Highness (2011, fantasy spoof); The Sitter (2011, family comedy); Prince Avalanche (2013, road dramedy); Joe (2013, Nicholas Cage redemption tale); Manglehorn (2014, Al Pacino loner story);
Actor in the Spotlight
Lar Park Lincoln, born Elizabeth Park Lincoln in 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia, rocketed to fame as Tina Shepard in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood, her telekinetic final girl embodying 1980s scream queen prowess. Raised in a showbiz family—her mother a model—she trained at the University of Georgia before bit parts in soaps like As the World Turns. New Blood (1988) showcased her dramatic range, from haunted teen to vengeful powerhouse, earning cult status despite modest box office.
Post-Jason, Lincoln graced TV: Seinfeld (1991), Matlock, and miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998). Film roles included Superboy (1989) as villainess Matrice, and Personal Choice (1989, actioner). She semi-retired for family, resurfacing at conventions. No major awards, but fan adoration persists. Filmography: Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988, psychic slasher heroine); Superboy TV movie (1989, antagonist Matrice); Personal Choice (1989, kickboxing lead); The Haunting of Morella (1990, Gothic horror); guest spots in MacGyver (1990), Seinfeld (1991, as Joanne), NYPD Blue (1994), and voice work in animations.
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