It’s almost time for Halloween Ends. The upcoming horror movie will round out the trilogy that began in 2018 with the return of Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode, a badass grandma who is traumatized by meeting Michael Myers 40 years earlier and has been preparing for the day of his return all this time. In Halloween Ends, the story will pick up four years after the end of Halloween Kills saw the death of Laurie’s daughter at the hand of Michael. According to Curtis, Laurie no longer sees him coming ahead of a final face-off between them. But, the question on my mind is whether the teased last straw between Laurie and Michael can be satisfying after all this time.
The latest Halloween trilogy has ignored every movie in the Halloween timeline except for the original, but as an audience, we've seen nine other movies with Michael Myers in between, with a couple of other appearances by Curtis’ Laurie Strode. We’ve been haunted by The Shape even more than this Laurie Strode has. Ahead of Halloween Ends, I’m not convinced it’s capable of giving us the closure many are anticipating. The possible outcomes just don’t seem like they’ll do the trick, but here’s hoping I’m wrong.
If Michael Myers Is Defeated
One possibility is that Laurie Strode does in fact get the revenge she’s hoped for, and honestly deserves and finds a way to kill Michael Myers for real this time. Hey, if anyone can do it, it’s the woman he’s haunted the most. He killed her daughter, Judy Greer’s Karen Strode, in Halloween Kills, not to mention various people in Haddonfield. Because of Michael Myers, Laurie has truly not felt safe for most of her life, and for her to take off his mask (which is teased in the trailer) and end the life of a man who has brought her so much torment would be a cool ending.
However, at the same time, the whole horror of Michael Myers is that he’s unkillable. He seems to always rise from the ashes and just keep killing people. When the character was first conceived for the 1978 original, the movie’s co-writer Debra Hill shared that the concept of Myers came from the idea that you “couldn’t kill evil,” per The Guardian. She shared that her and John Carpenter went to the Samhain festival tradition (Halloween), where it was believed that on Halloween night “all the souls are let out to wreak havoc on the living, then came up with the story about the most evil kid who ever lived.”
With the original spirit of the Halloween in mind, how does one kill evil? Evil will always exist, just like the idea of good always will. There are odd implications to Laurie Strode killing off Michael Myers with that in mind, especially because this is a horror franchise, and if we leave the theater feeling safe and happy, it hasn’t really done its job, has it? That is, unless, when Laurie does kill The Shape, she becomes the one to embody evil next.
If Jamie Lee Curtis Is Killed
On the other side of the coin, another possibility for the finale of Halloween Ends is that Michael Myers is victorious in killing Laurie Strode, finally, after many, many attempts. That would be a bit anticlimactic, wouldn’t it?Plus, let's not forget that Laurie has long been known as the ultimate final girl among horror fans. Sure, it’s become a trope over the years, but her iconic final girl status would be painfully demoted if Michael was to kill her.
That's not to mention how pissed I and many fans of the franchise would be if we have to watch Laurie die in front of us in Halloween Ends at the hands of Michael Myers. Sure, it would feed into her fears throughout the franchise, but I really don’t wanna cry in that theater. There could be one version of this where Michael kills Laurie and finally feels remorse somehow and stops being a killer, but wow, is that a horrible ending.!The only plus of Laurie dying is it’ll finally put an end to this ongoing cycle, and perhaps with her death, this will be Myers' final haunting of Haddonfield, and he’ll find another town to terrorize when the franchise is inevitably rebooted 10 years from now.
If They Both Share The Same Fate
Another way Halloween Ends could cap off Laurie Strode’s trilogy with Michael Myers is if they either both die or stay alive. Maybe Laurie takes off Michael’s mask and likes what she sees and they become lovers, ya know? That’d certainly be twisted enough to have me on the edge of my seat, but obviously unlikely. Or it could end like 2018’s Halloween does where Laurie thinks she gets him, but it just never works and they both stay alive. Perhaps she decides to move to another town, or maybe the city, where murderous masked criminals are not always haunting her. It’d be a smart idea on her part!
If Michael and Laurie both stay alive in Halloween Ends, it somewhat removes this finality that the trilogy has been teasing for these characters. Michael would still be free to possibly get Laurie again or continue to haunt others. If they both died, that would be a really big move by the filmmakers that could work, but would majorly depend on how it's executed.
While there are a few endings here that could possibly make Halloween Ends work, overall, I think it’s going to be a miracle if the filmmakers are able to bring closure to the horror franchise with the final face-off between Laurie and Michael Myers. I think a lot of us have felt like the trilogy has dragged out a story that could have ended in 2018’s Halloween, following over 40 years of keeping Michael Myers story alive with a lot of movies and a super convoluted timeline that makes it rather confusing to figure out what the Halloween movies are trying to say. That being said, the Halloween movies are a staple of the horror movie genre, and I’m excited to see how it all plays out.
Halloween Ends hits theaters and will be streaming with a Peacock subscription on October 14.
