Halloween Ends (2022): Did This Final Fright Just Ghost Us or Hide a Secret Plot Twist Only Scorpio Fans Can Decode?
Added on October 31, 2025 inEntertainment News Cards, Movie News Cards
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So, it’s Halloween night—spooky vibes in the air, the stars aligning in Scorpio’s intense grasp. Perfect timing to unravel a horror flick that promised blood, guts, and the final showdown of all showdowns: Halloween Ends. But what if this finale felt more like a cosmic bait-and-switch? Instead of the expected chaos, fans ended up caught in a quirky love story, bizarre subplot tangles, and a Michael Myers who apparently spent more time lurking in sewers than terrorizing Haddonfield—and yes, there’s a dance scene. Talk about mixing your horoscopes; Scorpio season’s get-your-heart-pounding intensity meets Taurus’ stubborn twists and a dash of Gemini’s unpredictability. This installment dared to be different—heck, it rattled the cage so much even Jamie Lee Curtis warned us it’d “make people very angry.” Was it a bold reinvention, or a Frankenstein of plotlines stitched together by a writer-director with the attention span of a hyperactive bat? Join me as we dive into the chaos behind Halloween Ends—from its four-year time jump, the oddball new character Corey Cunningham, to the many test screening shake-ups that had fans gasping louder than a ghost at a séance. One thing’s for sure: Michael Myers may have “ended,” but the legend—and controversy—definitely hasn’t. Ready to get to the bottom of this pumpkin? LEARN MORE
It’s Halloween, everyone! We’re going to have a good time tonight. Or are we? Today’s film, depending on how you look at it, was either a promise unfulfilled or a unique take on a classic horror character. Hell, to some of you it was just a giant Michael Myers sized slap to the face. Using his good hand. It’s the story of a writer/director with plot ADHD trying to make something profound. Or perhaps just flat out bored of the sandbox they’d been playing in since 2018. The journey includes an actress promising to anger fans (bold strategy, Cotton!), bad test screening rumors, Michael Myers doing in a sewer, and the final fight ever between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. Or at least between Myers and Jamie Lee Curtis. Probably. It’s a story of anticipation, confusion, and Corey mother effing Cunningham. Of spaghetti-stained milk glasses and a possible Halloween III: Season of the Witch connection. This is what happened to Halloween Ends.
After the ending of Halloween Kills, it seemed obvious where the franchise was headed for its thirteenth installment and the finale of the David Gordon Green trilogy. Our last shot of Kills, after all, was Laurie mean-mugging her way out of the hospital on her way to avenge her daughter and half of Haddonfield’s deaths. An alternate ending of Halloween Kills even featured Michael answering the phone in dead Karen’s pocket, with Laurie hearing his hot breath on the other end of the line. Rumors were abound that Halloween Ends’ story would take place on that same night. As they had done many times throughout the trilogy, David Gordon Green and co-writer Danny McBride threw a curveball instead. Halloween Ends would take place four years after the events of Halloween Kills. So, I guess Laurie just walked across the parking lot to…angrily eat Zaxby’s?
There had been many ideations about where the franchise would quote/unquote end, but the constantly changing interests of writers were only exacerbated by the pandemic delaying both sequels a year. Where we landed after months and months of tinkering was with Green and McBride writing a script full of wild ideas. So many ideas that they had to hire fresh-faced writers Paul Brad Logan and Chris Bernier to tame and organize them all. Paul Brad Logan would also end up writing a fascinating novelization on the film that featured extra scenes, including Michael’s murder of two city sanitation workers, as well as some much-needed depth around some of the unexplained ideas of the movie. Such as what really happened between Michael and Corey in that sewer choke down scene. While fans were gearing up for an all-out slugfest between Laurie and Michael as well as satisfying answers to the questions asked in 2018 and Halloween Kills, Green had his heart set on a love story. And to some, this was the equivalent of handing out math equations on Halloween in leu of candy. Green also wanted to explore the idea of a secluded community member becoming a psychopathic killer. He also wanted to explore in further detail the collateral damage of the decades-long battle between Laurie and Michael on Haddonfield. He also wanted to tell a coming-of-age story that harkened back to John Carpenter’s Christine. And a dance scene. And for the film to somehow reflect the effects of the ongoing pandemic.
At this point, it became necessary to create an entirely new character to harbor all of Green and McBride’s desired story themes and ideas: Enter Corey Cunningham. While this route was clearly going to upset fans, John Carpenter praised the writers for their willingness to not rehash the same stories that had come before and this was all the blessing they needed to move forward with their auteur vision for the white-faced horror of Haddonfield. Or at least what was left of him by the time the script was finished.
Important surviving characters from Kills would return, including, of course, Jamie Lee Curtis at a clip of $3.5 million dollars. She’d be joined by a swooning Will Patton as a Sheriff who just wants to see some effing cherry blossoms and the lovable Andi Matichak as Allyson. Allyson’s character had been the true coming-of-age story to this point, forged by the fire of Michael, Laurie, and Haddonfield’s craziness. But she too is on the verge of breaking, which pushes her right into the arms of Mr. “I’ll light the match” Cunningham. Corey went to actor Rohan Campbell (who will be playing Billy in the upcoming Silent Night, Deadly Night remake), after beating out hundreds of others who had auditioned for the role, none of which were told it was for an upcoming Halloween film. Campbell did a great job as Corey and was not at all to blame for the peculiar route the story took. But if you’re wondering if the production knew how things were about to go down, both Green and Curtis warned him before accepting the role that there would likely be massive fan outrage over his character. Hell, Curtis stoked fan flames before production had even begun, telling news outlets that the film would be “shocking” and “make people very angry”. Though fans were very happy to have James Jude Courtney return to don the mask, he made things even more peculiar when he called the final fight between the two quote/unquote “erotic.”
Though she wasn’t originally slated to return, Kyle Richards reprised her role as Lindsey due to fan demand after an impressive performance in Kills. And let’s not forget the all-time legend Nick Castle, who both returned in a cameo as a partygoer and provided Michael’s all important breathing.
After some pandemic delays and false starts, filming on Halloween Ends finally began in January of 2020 in Savannah, Georgia under the working title Cave Dweller. Academy Award winner Christopher Nelson returned to handle the guts and the gore, as well as provide some continuity to his excellent mask work in 2018 and in Kills. Nelson decided to add on to the ever-growing personality of Michael’s mask by crafting a mask that reflected his damaged psychological state at the time. The mask’s physical appearance told the tale of both Michael’s battle scars and where he had been: rotting in a sewer under Haddonfield for years. Nelson always revisited the original 1978 mask as his north star, making sure that the new iterations still connected to the original look. Say what you want about David Gordon Green’s trilogy. But it’s hard to find anyone who will complain about Nelson’s work on the franchise, whether it be his use of practical FX to create ultra-gnarly carnage or the way he carefully managed Michael Myers’ mask through three films. The same could be said for James Jude Courtney’s makeup and costume. The actor let Nelson’s depiction of his bodily scars and burn wounds inform his performance in both his movements and psyche.
When it came to the final showdown between Michael and Laurie, James Jude Courtney and Jamie Lee Curtis were both hellbent on making the fight as emotionally cathartic as possible. James Jude Courtney did his own stunt work as usual, and Curtis insisted that they let her do as much as possible. The two allegedly began weeping together as they went talked through the fight scene step by step before filming. Courtney said that both he and Curtis agreed it was the most powerful scene she had ever done. Someone’s never seen the dance scene from True Lies! Courtney also called the scene a “violent, emotional release,” and yeah, for some reason he called it “erotic.” The fight scene went through a lot of effort and changes, not unlike the ending of the film as a whole.
Halloween Ends finished filming in March of 2022 with four days of reshoots to be completed a month later. Then it was time for the test screenings, which had become a thing of lore in David Gordon Green’s trilogy over the years. Each of the two movies to this point had endings changed by test screenings. Ends would be no different. Rumors from the test screenings spread like wildfire throughout the Halloween community, much of it misinformation from attention-thirsty social media accounts, though some of it would turn out to be true.
David Gordon Green explained that after the test screenings they added the entire funeral procession where Michael is turned into Hamburger Helper in front of the entire town. They did so because they and the audiences who screened the film felt the original more intimate ending lacked a grand finale. This was filmed just four months before the film’s premiere. Then there was the constant back-and-forth about what to do with our character’s after Michael was quote-unquote “dead.” The ending of Ends wasn’t always cherry blossoms and memoirs. Different ideations of the film and possible endings included Laurie dying in the final fight or becoming infected with Michael’s curse. In one, her eyes became dark as Michael was incinerated. She would later attack Allyson and slam the door on the audience, essentially becoming Michael herself to close out the trilogy. Other possible endings also featured different fates for both Corey and Allyson.
One of my favorites is Christopher Nelson’s description of an ending that featured a Halloween III: Season of the Witch tie-in that would show a Silver Shamrock factory mass producing Michael Myers masks. He also mentioned that the masks seen throughout the film, including the scarecrow mask donned by Corey, were to be official Silver Shamrock masks. This ending would have been insanely out there and probably kind of rad. But it may not have played well with those uninitiated in Season of the Witch lore. Which, by the way, is why the font in the credits is italicized and blue. It’s a callback to the third film in the Halloween franchise. One that featured even less Michael Myers than Ends does. Much less.
John Carpenter returned with, of course, another banger of a score alongside his son Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. There is also original music from the group Boy Harsher that fits the tone of Ends with ease. What didn’t go over with ease was David Gordon Green’s interpretation of how to finish off the Halloween franchise in the eyes of fans who had been anticipating it for years…
When Halloween Ends debuted in October of 2022, it was met at the door with frustration and bewilderment. Instead of a straightforward ending to the story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode (for now), fans were treated to a love story, a goofy subplot about an unruly child going splat on Halloween and a kid who was bullied by band geeks now tag-teaming with Michael Myers. Who, by the way, was in a cave for half of the movie and was only brought to life by awkwardly gyrating as he stabbed a guy. Let’s not forget that we were forced to watch Michael take a one on one ass beating from a teenager. Some respected the wild swings and the weirdness of it all. Most were more pissed off than the iron wielding lady from Halloween Kills. Critics were no different. The film sits with 40% and 57% “Rotten” scores on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes and features a litany of complaints about the confusing choices.
Halloween Ends would garner a worldwide theatrical haul of $105 million on a $33 million budget. Not bad for a film that released day and date on the streaming app Peacock. The company also reported that the film had made a massive dent there, becoming the most streamed content over a two-day period ever on the app. This did, however, attribute to a near-record 88% dip for the film in week two.
If you’re wondering if Halloween Ends and all of its controversy was truly the “end” of Michael, I can assure you…it was not. Just the end of Blumhouse playing in the Shape’s sandbox. No, it was made very clear to many people by the late longtime Halloween producer Moustapha Akkad that Michael was never to be officially killed off. You could stop him for a while, but you can never kill him.
Though we don’t know exactly what the future holds for that white-faced jerk…there was recently a bidding war for the TV rights to the franchise won by Miramax, who is said to be developing a Halloween series that again promises to be a creative reset that harkens back to the original film. So it’s safe to say that Michael will return. We just don’t know when. And that is what happened to Halloween Ends.
A couple of the previous episodes of this show can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
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