Editor’s Note: the following contains major spoilers for Halloween Ends.
Halloween Ends, the latest film in the horrifying saga of Michael Myers that has spanned decades and multiple timelines, has now been released into the world for one more night of terror. The biggest question going into the film was whether or not he would really be killed for good this time. In previous incarnations, the infamous masked killer has been shot, stabbed, blown up, and even (seemingly) decapitated only to come back with barely a scratch on him. However, with a title that includes the word “ends” in it, there was the sense that he may truly be gone for good this time around. In case it wasn’t already abundantly clear, this piece is now going to get into all the possible spoilers about whether this does indeed come to pass in the end. Thus, if you haven’t already seen the film, either come back after you’ve seen it or be prepared to get into all the concluding carnage of this (supposedly) final chapter.
First, some background about where things stand leading into this latest film. After being promised evil would die tonight in the prior misfire of a film that was Halloween Kills, Michael had vanished while still leaving everyone fearful in the small town of Haddonfield that he was always lurking in the shadows. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) had spent years waiting for his return after he initially attacked her decades prior, but spent the majority of the previous film in a hospital while Michael roamed the streets. He ended up brutally killing her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) in the film’s closing moments. Now Laurie has taken on the responsibility of raising Karen’s daughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) as both have tried to build a new life free of fear. Of course, as this is a Halloween movie, that isn’t something that will last.
Integral to this is not actually Michael, but a new character to the series. The film opens a year after the events of Halloween Kills with Corey (Rohan Campbell) who is going to babysit for a local family just as Laurie did all those years ago. However, instead of Michael coming into the situation, it is Corey who accidentally kills the young boy that he is meant to be watching. The moment is shocking and, when the film flashes forward to four years after Halloween Kills, we see how it has inexorably altered the lives of all who were involved. As we hear it from Corey, he has been made into a scapegoat for the community and a new boogeyman since Michael is nowhere to be found. When Laurie helps him after he was being bullied by local teens, she introduces him to her granddaughter and the two then strike up a relationship. The film centers on this for a while until Corey makes a consequential discovery. This moment sets him and the other characters on a collision course that will end in chaos.
After getting tossed off a bridge by the same teens from before, Corey is dragged into an underground tunnel by none other than Michael himself. It seems as though he has been hiding there for years and has sunk into a more reserved state. When the two lock eyes, a series of macabre images flash before us from the past as though they have formed some sort of psychic connection. This begins to create a new version of Corey who starts to kill those who have wronged him. He does so with Michael and their team up seems to give the original boogeyman new life. Eventually, Laurie starts to pick up on what is happening and tries to get her granddaughter away from Corey who wants to run away with her. Her pleas go unheard as Allyson just wants to live her own life and resists any attempts to control her.
This is followed by Corey splitting away from Michael and stealing his mask to go on a rampage throughout Haddonfield. He then arrives at Laurie’s home. She tricks him and shoots him. It doesn’t kill him, but Corey stabs himself in the neck to make it seem as though she did. At that moment, Allyson walks in and is horrified by the sight. She leaves Laurie alone again and the real Michael comes into the home. The two take part in a battle to the death that ends with Michael trapped. Laurie has used a knife to pin each of his hands to the kitchen table and pushed the fridge down on him for good measure. She then proceeds to cut into Michael to ensure he is dead, but he makes a final lunge at her. In doing so, his hand is shredded, though he still has Laurie in his grasp. Allyson then swoops back in and helps her grandmother who ensures Michael is dead by continuing to cut away.
This is when the conclusion starts to get really wild and ridiculous in the most unexpected yet best way possible. The police arrive where they then form a vehicle procession with Laurie and Allyson who drive through town with Michael tied to the top of their car in a grimly hilarious holiday parade. The longer they go, the more people join them as they head to the local scrapyard with the intent of disposing of the killer once and for all. Woven throughout the story was the idea that Michael, even when absent, had instilled such fear in the community that death was basically everywhere. Thus, in finally getting rid of him, the entire town comes out for some sort of ritualistic cleansing that ensures he will never come back. Taking no chances, they all arrive at the scrapyard with the intent of putting Michael straight into a crushing machine typically used for metal. Laurie stands up on top of the machine and, with the crowd watching on, gets the honor of pushing her nemesis in. Michael is then completely obliterated in gloriously gory fashion, making for the most comprehensive killing that any of the films have done to date. He is literally grounded into mush in the blink of an eye. Absent a magical resurrection, there is no way that Michael is going to walk around anytime soon.
Of course, there can always be a timeline reset once again or some sort of narrative trickery to continue on. The films have done it many times before and could certainly find a way to do so again. However, putting that all aside for now, this ending is honestly a pretty spectacular one. On a thematic level, it resolves the still messy aspirations of the prior film about how Michael had maintained such an iron grip on the community. In such a definitive act of destruction, Halloween Ends boldly goes where no other film has gone before in terms of how it dispatched the killer at the center of the story. It is both a darkly comedic and cathartic moment that could not be more fitting of a finale. As the film then unwinds with Laurie finishing the memoir she’d been working on and Allyson leaving home, there is a sense of closure that genuinely works. It is in these quieter moments following the audacious annihilation of Michael that shows life can now go on as all have been freed from his reign of terror. In the end, Halloween Ends went where no other Halloween film has gone before in triumphant fashion.
Halloween Ends is in theaters and streaming on Peacock.