Halloween Kills: The Official Movie Novelization

Halloween

by Tim Waggoner

The official novelization of the highly anticipated sequel to 2018’s Halloween, starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Minutes after Laurie Strode, her daughter Karen, and granddaughter Allyson 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. But as a group of other survivors of Michael’s first rampage decide to take matters into their own hands, a vigilante mob forms that sets out to hunt Michael down. Evil dies tonight. 

Genres: Horror, Halloween, Fiction, Audiobook, Adult, Novels, Crime

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 26, 2021

About the author

Tim Waggoner's first novel came out in 2001, and since then, he's published over sixty novels and eight collections of short stories. He writes original dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. He's written tie-in fiction based on Supernatural, The X-Files, Alien, Doctor Who, Conan the Barbarian, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Grimm, and Transformers, among others, and he's written novelizations for films such as Ti West’s X-Trilogy, Halloween Kills, Terrifier 2 and 3, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. He’s also the author of the award-winning guide to horror Writing in the Dark. He’s a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, a one-time winner of the Scribe Award, and he’s been a two-time finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and a one-time finalist for the Splatterpunk Award. He’s also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.

Reviews

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve watched this movie 5 times!! Michael Myers is my favorite killers of all time! I will be buying the movie. I have a shelf dedicated to Michael & Jason (Voorhees) Anyhoo..



The end of the book is different from the movie and I wish they would have added that little bit (unless it will be on the Blu-ray) I’m going to put it under spoilers for those that want to know but may not read this book. UPDATE: THE END OF THIS BOOK IS THE ACTUAL ALTERNATE ENDING ON THE BLU-RAY 😉

PS-DO NOT SMART REMARK ABOUT THE MOVIE ETC ON MY REVIEW OR YOU WILL BE CHOPPED AND BLOCKED. 😏😘



****Here is the spoiler of end of book!!!!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE MOVIE AS IT GIVES THE END AWAY!

The Shape stands at his sister’s window as he did so many years ago, blood-splattered mask reflected in the glass before him. He does not see himself, though. He sees something else. Something beyond… something greater. He sees-

A series of musical tones plays then, distracting him. He turns toward the sound, sees the woman—Her daughter—lying dead on the floor, Christmas sweater in tatters, her chest a ragged mess of blood and torn meat. The music is coming from one of her pockets. The Shape tilts his head to the side, considers. Then he kneels, reaches into the front pocket of the woman’s jeans with his three-fingered hand, and pulls out her phone. He stands, looks at the display, pushes a button, and raises the device to his head.

Laurie was relieved when the call was answered. She was about to speak when she heard heavy breathing on the other end, sick and distorted, as if whoever it was had been seriously injured. This wasn’t Karen. She knew that breathing, knew it as well as her own. She felt a tearing sensation deep inside then, as if a vital piece of her heart had been suddenly, violently ripped away.

Karen….

Her hand trembled, but when she spoke her voice was as cold as a windswept Arctic plain.

"I’m coming for you, Michael."

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾🎃🍂🍁

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a final book in this long running series. Will Michael Myers ever die? I have my doubts but Tim Waggoner created a thrilling creeper here. All known characters involved, intense, you're practically an eye witness to the action in Haddonfield. If you're looking for the ideal book to get in the mood for Halloween this is it. Everybody knows the movies and the legendary slasher. So you can even start with this volume. Highly recommended!

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tim Waggoner didn't have much to work with in turning Halloween Kills into novel form. A true turn-your-brain-off slasher marked by copious gore, the movie features a cast of cannon-fodder characters whose actions often seem inexplicable (unless we're accounting for their need to find themselves on the wrong end of an encounter with Michael Myers, of course). The movie is great fun but so paper-thin that its novelisation requires lots of expansion on character motive and background. Here's where Waggoner comes in, and he actually manages to make some sense of the forces propelling the likes of Tommy Doyle, Lonnie Elam, Leigh Brackett, and Tivoli through a somewhat chaotic storyline. There's also some scenes written from the vantage point of Michael Myers that stay true to the iconic image of the slasher killer without seeming stale or pointless. As an expansion on a silly fun slasher flick, Halloween Kills is one of the worthy movie novelisations.

[Vikas Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is the sequel to 2018's Halloween and the twelfth instalment in the Halloween franchise. The plot ties back beautifully with the very first movie in the franchise. We learn that on October 31, 1978, Deputy Frank Hawkins had accidentally shot his partner dead while trying to save him from Michael Myers. He had also prevented Dr. Samuel Loomis from executing Michael. Forty years later, on October 31, 2018, he had been stabbed and left to die by Dr. Ranbir Sartain. The movie takes on from the earlier movie ended. Michael not only survives the fire but ends up killing all the firefighters. Before the night of 31st October, 2018 ends, Michael once again is on killing spree in Haddonfield. Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson injures him who later recovers and kills her mother, Karen.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m about to get up on my soap box about this movie because I don’t see how anyone could consider it less than perfection! It was seriously perfect from start to finish and I wouldn’t change a damn thing. The nods to the original three movies, the original actors and characters coming back, Jamie Lee Curtis’ skill, the BRUTAL kills, it was almost too much for my brain to process. And then the ending just had me absolutely GAGGED. My jaw literally dropped and I gasped and it was just bloody brilliant. Now for the book, this is one of the very rare cases where I’ll say the movie is better simply because the book was written based on the movie. Tim Waggoner does an absolutely brilliant job of making the movie into a book which isn’t an easy task with such a beloved franchise. It is an excellent adaptation and I did thoroughly enjoy it but it just wasn’t the same as watching Michael in action on the screen so I couldn’t give it full points. It is still definitely worth a read if you’re a Halloween fan though!

[Donnie McHenry · Rating 2 out of 5]

This movie sucks ass. And this book sucks ass more. It’s 1 star. The second star is because he took the effort to actually write it. But it sucks.

[Brett Littman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mr. Waggoner did what he could with the source material

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start by saying I agree with the creative team in disregarding all previous sequels and timelines. All 12 movies to date have like 4 timelines to them with #3 and the rob zombie two being it's own entirely. Not to mention 2 different Jamie lee Curtis timelines and one Jamie Lloyd/thorn cult trilogy lol.

Having these new two movies being a direct sequel to first Halloween breathes new life into the franchise.

This book was very fun to read. I enjoyed the flashback scenes to 1978, and seeing how the police and Dr. Loomis captured Michael after his first legendary spree and the children's take on it then and now as older adults.

Seeing Tommy, Lindsey, and Lonnie all grown up from 1978 was fun and nostalgic. Bringing back the nurse was fun even though she did show up in #7 H20 for a quick death scene lol.

2 of the scenes , for me, stopped it from being 5 stars. I enjoyed the mob mentality but how Michael then took on that whole Mob was a little cheesy. Also, didn't like the ending. No reason for Karen to go up to that room to begin with.

Overall fun read , 4 stars

[Harry Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - absolutely loved this edition of the novelization of the Halloween trilogy.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. So good. This differs slightly from the film, particularly the ending but I didn’t mind that at all. It was still just as entertaining as the movie and I’m super freakin’ excited for Halloween Ends next year. This franchise is my favorite horror movie franchise of all time and the books are a fun time as well and I highly recommend them.

[Will Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Not bad for what it was but it really does not add anything to the story unlike the other Halloween (2017) novelization did

[Luna Francke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen's death hurt more in the book than the movie. Ouch

[John Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know the saying, the book is always better than the movie. Most of the times that is true, so long as the movie is based on the book. But what about when the book is based on the movie? My experiences with movie novelizations have been that at BEST they are serviceable. Leave it to Tim Waggoner to fix a bad movie.

Yeah, I said it. Halloween Kills was a bad movie. Tim Waggoner took a script full of bad dialogue and huge gaping leaps of logic and made it work. He did this through effective scene construction and narrative. Things that made you scratch your head in the movie no longer do so here, because you know WHY the people do what they do. If you're comparing Halloween 2018 to the HK novelization, their are minor inconsistencies because of script changes to the first movie. This book makes sense as the sequel to the halloween 2018 movie, there are parts of it that wouldn't work if it was the sequel to the halloween 2018 novelization.

If you enjoyed the movie, give the book a read. If you hated the movie, the book might change your mind. It has been recently revealed that Waggoner will NOT be doing the novelization of Halloween ends, because the producers already had an author duo in mind, and i've got to say that that is a huge mistake. I don't care who they have in mind, Waggoner wrote a book that outdid the movie and deserves Halloween Ends for that alone.

[David Veith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to give this more, but just couldn't do it. I have read many Halloween books and have an enjoyed them all. I did enjoy this (and have not seen the movie yet) but just felt this one was going through the motions at times. There were a lot of parts where many people were killed, but just skimmed over. I guess I was looking for a little more gore since this is a slasher book/movie/franchise. I do love the thoughts from the Shade himself though. Really wish there was a way to get that across in the movies, but I do not think there is a way to do so, which is why I like it in the books. Guess in the end I just felt this could have been done a bit better.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read and good continuation to Halloween. I really enjoyed this novelisation and felt I could image the film as I read. I loved the additional bits that were added in and gave a bit more context to some of the parts in the movie. One part that I thought was so well written and added a great deal to the books was the sections on Tivoli, my heart ached for this man and Tim Waggoner did an amazing job of telling things from his perspective.

Altogether a great read and I may be biased as I love the Halloween films but even so its very well written and will not disappoint.

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know I'm rather biased but I honestly thought Tim Waggoner really improved upon the film with this novelization. He has a way of filling in the gaps that I appreciate, both in his work on the novelizations of Ti West's X-verse, and here. I especially enjoyed the way he wrote from Michael's perspective and how Laurie almost is deified in Michael's mind with her title and capitalized pronouns. It's an excellent little touch.

[April B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely 💯 percent frightening 😱💀☠

[Russell Holbrook · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!! I actually prefer it over the film version, which I also totally love. To me, the characters are a bit more fleshed out in the book and everything gets some more time and detail. And it's super creepy! This was definitely a blast and I can't wait for the next installment later this year!

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very competently written novelization that is 10x better than the movie but still suffers from the work it's adapting.

[Emerson Toronto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read! Loved getting into the shapes head and really experiencing the void of his reasoning

[Kieran Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost fixed everything wrong with the movies plot but sacrifices some gore

[Matthew House · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.75

[Rcoleman3171 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not too bad

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
This was fun! I think I enjoyed this more than the others because I watched the movie previously and knew what was happening and the lore. It’s actually like the movie so if you enjoy that you’ll probably enjoy this. You do get to be briefly in Michaels head which I found interesting.

[Alexander Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know, it is a novelization of a polarizing second entry in a new trilogy of a decades old franchise. But you know what? I love this movie, and I think that Waggoner did a great job adapting the script, and even fleshing some stuff out. He writes the shape about as good as someone probably could, and the kill scenes are great. This one was better than I expected.

[Nate Dawg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tim Waggoner does and outstanding job with this novelization of Halloween Kills. His character development and backstory makes this an excellent read. I enjoyed this book more than the movie itself. If you’re a horror fan and/or fan of the Halloween movies definitely give it a read.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a long time fan of the Halloween franchise, this was a book I had to read. I saw the movie when it was released and liked it. I don't usually read the book after the movie, but it worked, and I liked it better than the movie. Tim Waggoner did a hell of a job with this novelization.

[JW · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adequate novelization, though the (little) time spent inside Michael Myers' mind was not a good choice.

[Mark Heiliger · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you have to spend half the book explaining why the characters are doing a variety of stupid things and falling into every single horror movie cliche, you know your story is in trouble.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the greatest, but enough solid differences to be worth the read.