'Halloween Kills' reviews: Critics poke holes in 'one of the most brutal films ever made'

We're barely past Labor Day, but all eyes are already on Halloween.

Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode in "Halloween Kills," the sequel to 2018's "Halloween" and the 12th installment in the Michael Myers slasher franchise. "Halloween Kills" (in theaters Oct. 15) made its debut Wednesday at Venice International Film Festival, and critics are already sticking a knife in it.

"Call it Halloween Overkills," The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney wrote, comparing the film to a "latex ghoul mask so stretched and shapeless it no longer fits." Rooney isn't alone: "Halloween Kills" has a Metacritic rating of 46 out of 100 and just 53% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes as of Thursday afternoon.

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Director David Gordon Green's film picks up right where the last "Halloween" film ended, with Curtis' character nursing a nasty stab wound after Myers was believed to be burned alive in her basement. The serial killer survived (shocker!) and picks up where he brutally left off.

Discussing Film critic Ben Rolph called the movie "one of the most brutal films ever made," adding that " 'Halloween Kills' is a non-stop, blood-rushing blast" that takes the brutality of the 2018 film "and amps it up, breaking the dial in the process."

But some critics argue that the film has nothing more to offer than "a jacked up body count on a bed of fan service," according to IndieWire's Ben Croll. The Playlist's Jessica Kiang wrote that the sequel "seemingly doubles the body count of the previous installment while roughly halving its IQ."

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In the film, an injured Strode inspires the expendable residents of Haddonfield to fight back against Myers after being terrorized for decades, with several characters returning from the 1978 original (played by Anthony Michael Hall, Kyle Richards and Charles Cyphers). But all logic has apparently gone out of the window.

"In the name of evolutionary natural selection, maybe a town this dumb deserves Michael Myers," Kiang added.

AwardsWatch's Savina Petkova said " 'Halloween Kills' swaps the personified cyclical trauma of Laurie for an angry, multitudinous crowd but what it achieves has little to do with communal kinship."

Rooney wanted more Strode: "What’s most disappointing is that after reimagining Curtis’ Laurie as a fierce warrior grandmother, hardened by PTSD into a tough customer at considerable cost to her personal relationships, here she’s basically sidelined in post-surgery recovery."

Other critics, however, argued that the film empowered the townspeople, even if many of them met a gruesome end.

"'Halloween Kills' is no mere gore-fest – it’s about the generational trauma bestowed upon Haddonfield," The Wrap's Asher Luberto wrote. "In Green’s social allegory, they are a way for citizens to confront their trauma, their rage, their oppression, and to reclaim their power and agency through revenge."

"Halloween Kills," produced by Universal Pictures, Miramax, and Blumhouse, hits theatres on Oct. 15 and will premiere on Peacock streaming service for a limited run.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Halloween Kills' reviews: Critics slash Jamie Lee Curtis' latest film