David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills, the latest entry in the decades-strong story of Michael Myers (a.ka. the Shape), was an immediate success at the box office upon its release earlier this month. This bodes well for next year’s Halloween Ends, as well as for the beloved slasher franchise as a whole, even with reviews running the gamut.
In recent days, however, a bit of the attention has drifted over to a number of articles arguably positing “homophobic” claims against the Myers character—who (SPOILER ALERT) kills a gay couple in the latest film—as being genuine and free-of-satire takes.
The characters in question, Big John (Scott MacArthur ) and Little John (Michael McDonald), are the present owners of the infamous Myers house in the movie and are (very) far from being the only people to meet their respective ends during 105-minute running time. In fact, some have since more accurately argued (examples of which are seen below) that Myers handled the murders of Big John and Little John with an uncharacteristic (albeit still very murder-y) sense of care and acceptance by quaintly arranging their bodies to mimic their pose in a photo that’s displayed in the house.
Still, the articles happened, despite mainly being built atop tweets that clearly don’t read as containing statements made in earnest. Put another way, this seems to be an example of reactions-based headlining backfiring spectacularly.
In that spirit, we’ve compiled a small assortment of ensuing tweets, with a palpable focus being placed on reactions to the initial tongue-in-cheek reactions’ spurring of headlines.
Halloween Kills is in theaters now and should surely enjoy another box office boom this unholy holiday weekend. The film, again featuring original franchise star Jamie Lee Curtis, is also available to stream on Peacock as part of the NBCUniversal-owned platform’s “Peacocktober” festivities.
Less than a year from now, we’ll likely be reporting on similarly massive box office numbers for the aforementioned Halloween Ends. While Kills picks up right where the 2018 Halloween ended, Ends—as Green previously teased—is set to open several years after the events depicted in this year’s sequel. Speaking with Uproxx, the director/co-writer said the new film will place the characters “into a contemporary timeline,” complete with some potential reference to the pandemic and the chaos of U.S. politics.
