Slasher sequel Halloween Killsboasts the biggest body count of the series so far, and earlier Halloween movies don’t even come close to its carnage. After COVID-19 caused numerous delays to the sequel’s release, the follow-up to director David Gordon Green’s successful 2018 Halloween reboot arrived in October 2021. While Halloween Kills divided critics, one thing no fan can deny is that the sequel truly ups the ante in terms of onscreen gore.

Although Halloween 2018 featured a relatively sizable body count, promotional materials for the movie’s sequel promised Halloween Kills would feature far more deaths than its predecessor. Even though series heroine Laurie Strode spent most of the story confined to a hospital bed, her nemesis Michael Myers was free to roam through his old stomping ground of Haddonfield and slaughter anyone who crossed his path.

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Picking up directly after the 2018 movie ended, Halloween Kills features the highest body count of any Halloween movie so far. 1989’s disappointing Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers comes second with 20 deaths, although many of these occur offscreen in an explosion. Meanwhile, director Rob Zombie’s 2007 reboot boasts a total of 22 deaths in its unrated edition, but “only” 20 in the theatrical cut. In comparison, Halloween Kills sees Michael murder 27 people, easily outstripping both the original and reboot continuity records. Michael’s killing spree is aided by two scenes of mass murder wherein he quickly kills an entire mob of locals in one fell swoop, but his body count remains by far the biggest number of victims the slasher has ever managed to rack up in one outing.

Not only is Michael deadlier than ever in the long-awaited Halloween franchise addition, but the kill count is not limited to killings committed by the series villain either. There is another death due to a case of mistaken identity, leading an escaped asylum inmate to leap out a hospital window after being pursued by an angry mob. The 1978 flashback also reveals Hawkins accidentally killed his partner by shooting him while trying to kill Michael. That is not the only accidental death, with Vanessa’s short-lived battle against Michael culminating with her shooting herself in the head when Michael kicks a car door open on the barrel of her handgun. Whether either of these two deaths counts toward Michael’s total is up to viewers, but in any case, Halloween Kills is his deadliest outing even without these.

While Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies were criticized for humanizing Michael too much, they did deliver in terms of upping the body count of the more tame original series. However, Kills manages to not only outdo Zombie’s two outings but also render Michael even less human in the process, with the character surviving numerous life-threatening injuries throughout the sequel. Michael Myers himself may be all but unkillable, but the residents of Haddonfield are still all too mortal, as proven by his record-breaking Halloween Killsbody count.

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Cathal Gunning
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Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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