The Chicago International Film Festival (CIFF) announced the Opening Night After Dark feature, Halloween Kills, the new chapter in the iconic four-decade horror franchise starring Jamie Lee Curtis and co-written and directed by David Gordon Green.
In 2018, David Gordon Green’s Halloween, starring Curtis, killed at the box office, earning more than $250 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing chapter in the four-decade franchise and setting a new record for the biggest opening weekend in history for a horror film starring a woman.
Halloween Kills will screen at the Music Box Theatre October 13, 2021 as part of the Festival’s After Dark program. Sponsored by Dark Matter Coffee, After Dark at the Chicago International Film Festival showcases shock-filled, spine-tingling, and wildly strange visions that will keep audiences up late into the night.
And the Halloween night when Michael Myers returned isn’t over yet.
Minutes after Laurie Strode (Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning in Laurie’s basement, Laurie is rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, believing she finally killed her lifelong tormentor.
But when Michael manages to free himself from Laurie’s trap, his ritual bloodbath resumes. As Laurie fights her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against their unstoppable monster.
The Strode women join a group of other survivors of Michael’s first rampage who decide to take matters into their own hands, forming a vigilante mob that sets out to hunt Michael down, once and for all.
Evil dies tonight. Watch the trailer below:
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Universal has also released a new poster for the film:
From the returning filmmaking team responsible for the 2018 global phenomenon, Halloween Kills is written by Scott Teems (SundanceTV’s Rectify) and Danny McBride and David Gordon Green based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. The film is directed by David Gordon Green and produced by Malek Akkad, Jason Blum and Bill Block. The executive producers are John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green and Ryan Freimann.
Other After Dark Films
On Thursday, October 14, the Chicago International Film Festival After Dark welcomes director Jacob Gentry (THE SIGNAL) and star Harry Shum Jr. (CRAZY RICH ASIANS, GLEE) to the Music Box Theatre for a presentation of Chicago-set BROADCAST SIGNAL INTRUSION, a throwback thriller brilliantly channeling 70’s paranoid cinema. The film is also available for virtual screenings via the Festival’s streaming app.
Audiences at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival After Dark will experience hair-raising thrills at the drive-in at ChiTown Movies in Pilsen with freaky coming-of-age occult horror film HELLBENDER from Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, and John Adams; and ANTLERS, from visionary director Scott Cooper (CRAZY HEART, HOSTILES) and horror maestro Guillermo del Toro (PAN’S LABYRINTH, THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE).
In-theater and virtual screening highlights of this year’s After Dark program include wholly original werewolf tale THE HOUSE OF SNAILS from director Macarena Astorga, and master creature-maker Phil Tippet’s wildly imaginative stop-motion animation adventure MAD GOD.
In-theater exclusives of the Chicago International Film Festival After Dark include Jim Cummings and PJ McCabe’s comedy-horror THE BETA TEST, in which a hot-shot Hollywood agent becomes ensnared in a web of conspiracy and paranoia; and Taiwanese horror film THE SADNESS from director Rob Jabbaz, following a young couple’s journey through unimaginable chaos as they attempt to reunite with one another and escape the deadly hordes of the infected. THE BETA TEST co-director, co-writer, and star PJ McCabe will be participating in an audience Q&A following the screening on October 16 at AMC River East 21.
The Chicago International Film Festival After Dark also features a program of six short films in the Unexpected Terrors collection, including Annalise Lockhart’s ghost story INHERITANCE; MARKED, in which a tattoo artist is confronted by a client who knows the meaning of his body art from director Matthew Avery Berg; and Murat Emir Eren’s story of a woman trying to escape a sentient home that is not keen to let her get away, AS IF I NEVER EXISTED. Shorts 3: Unexpected Terrors will be screened both in-theater and virtually via the Festival’s streaming platform.
Universal Pictures, Miramax, Blumhouse Productions and Trancas International Films present Halloween Kills, co-starring Will Patton as Officer Frank Hawkins, Thomas Mann (Kong: Skull Island) and Anthony Michael Hall (The Dark Knight).
Halloween Kills from Universal Pictures, Miramax, and Blumhouse, arrives in theaters and streaming on Peacock on October 15.
