Director David Gordon Green’s third and final Halloween film, Halloween Ends, has finally premiered both in theaters and Peacock, ending the decades-long struggle between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers once and for all (for now, at least). Like the second film in Green’s reboot trilogy, Halloween Ends has left critics and audiences split down the middle. Even so, the film still delivers an exciting final battle between the Scream Queen and the dreaded Shape. In case some readers are still curious about this film, here’s a breakdown of what may be the definitive conclusion to the Halloween saga.
The film opens on October 31st, 2019, one year after the events of Halloween Kills. Since then, the townspeople have grown angry and paranoid after Michael disappeared without a trace. While high school senior Corey Cunningham babysits a young boy named Jeremy, the latter traps him in the attic in a mean-spirited prank. But as Corey tries to break himself out, he accidentally kicks the boy off a balcony, sending him falling to his death just as his parents return home.
The film then jumps three years later to 2023, which shows Laurie trying to move on from her traumatic past with Michael by writing a memoir as she lives with her orphaned granddaughter, Allyson. Meanwhile, Corey has become a pariah in Haddonfield for Jeremy’s tragic accident, and he gets relentlessly picked on and scorned by almost everyone in town. This abuse is partially due to the townspeople not healing from Michael’s rampage, instead choosing to redirect their anger toward a new Boogeyman with the old one nowhere to be seen.
Allyson takes a liking to Corey after meeting him at the hospital where she works, and she tries to show him a good time by taking him to a costume party. Unfortunately, Corey gets driven out by Jeremy’s mother, who’s still grieving over her son’s death, and he is later tossed over a bridge by some teenage bullies. If that wasn’t enough for poor Corey, Michael Myers shows up and drags him into his sewer lair like Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Though Corey wakes up and escapes Michael’s lair, he stabs a homeless man who tries to attack him with a knife outside. From that point forward, he starts walking down a dark path.
Much like Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker, Corey becomes so consumed by his anger over how the townspeople have mistreated him that he, too, becomes evil. He then teams up with Michael to murder the people in Haddonfield who have wronged him and Allyson. This begins with Corey luring Allyson’s ex-boyfriend into Michael’s lair to get back at him for bullying him. Eventually, Corey dons a mask of his own and carries out murders himself, thus becoming like Michael. transformed into the ruthless killer that everyone painted him as for so long.
Recognizing the evil growing in Corey, Laurie grows suspicious and tries to keep him away from Allyson as the two of them start dating. However, Corey decides to leave Haddonfield, and Allyson agrees to go with him, having also become sick of the town. Laurie tries to stop her from going with him, saying that Corey has become like Michael, but Allyson refuses to believe her. She even goes as far as to blame Laurie for all of Michael’s deaths, as she failed to kill him in the past.
At the same time, Corey turns on Michael and steals his mask so he can wear it during his next murder spree. After killing many more people in town, including the teenagers that bullied him, a radio DJ, and his own overbearing mother, Corey breaks into Laurie’s house and tries to kill her so he can be with Allyson. Laurie catches Corey off-guard with a fake suicide attempt and overpowers him. But in a surprise twist, Corey stabs himself in the throat as Allyson arrives to make it look like Laurie killed him, causing Allyson to leave Laurie.
While it seems like Laurie has reached her lowest point, Michael enters the house to take back his mask from Corey, whom he quickly kills by breaking his neck, and she engages in one last brawl with her mortal enemy. Following such a brutal battle, Laurie succeeds in impaling Michael to the table, pinning him beneath a fridge, taking off his mask, and slitting his throat. And though Michael tries to choke Laurie and take her down with him, Allyson returns and breaks his arm, and they both finish the job by slitting Michael’s wrist and letting him bleed out.
And with that, Michael Myers is finally dead. But this isn’t enough for the people of Haddonfield. After the police arrive on the scene, they all decide to give everyone closure by having them all see Michael’s corpse as they drive it across town. And to really confirm that their Boogeyman is truly dead for once and for all, everyone watches as Laurie grinds up Michael’s body in a car crusher.
With Haddonfield finally at peace, Laurie finishes writing her memoir, and Allyson leaves town to live her own life. Despite being left with an empty nest, Laurie strikes up a conversation with her crush, police chief Frank Hawkins, implying that their relationship will grow into something more. The film closes with a shot of Laurie’s office, with Michael’s mask sitting on the table, revealing that she kept it as a memento of her victory. And as the credits roll, Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” plays in the background as a callback to how the song was used in John Carpenter’s original film.
All in all, Halloween Ends is about the people of Haddonfield as they struggle to recover from the grief and trauma that Michael left behind after taking so many innocent lives. Michael isn’t seen that much throughout the film, but his evil has left a massive effect on the townsfolk that caused them to inadvertently turn Corey into another Boogeyman. This fact is cemented in the final line of Laurie’s memoir, which argues that evil can never die but instead will take a new shape.
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