+++ Warning! Massive spoilers follow for the end of “Halloween Ends+++
Four years after David Gordon Green, together with the production company Blumhouse, was able to deliver a sensational success at the box office with “Halloween”, theHalloween Ends” now the grand finale of the new trilogy, which starts directly on John Carpenter’s ultra-classic “Halloween – The Night of Horrors” from 1978. As most will have already noticed, not everyone agrees which ways “Halloween Ends’ to find a conclusion to the bitter battle between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. But is there really an end in sight?
Well, in a way it is: I guess it’s definitely fair to say that Michael Myers in “Halloween Endsdies. Laurie Strode not only makes sure of that with a knife when she cuts Michael’s throat and an artery in his wrist in her kitchen after a hard fight. Michael’s motionless body is then strapped to a car roof and taken in a procession to the local scrap press to be mashed into a pulp in a metal grinder (a giant shredder for metal parts). It feels like all of Haddonfield is there to bid farewell.
But is Michael Myers history, or does his dark presence live on? The last shot of “Halloween Ends’ sheds light on this: Once again we return to Laurie’s house and see a succession of different shots of each room, only to then realize: Michael Myers’ mask is still lying on the living room table.
An image that has a nice metaphorical added value: Michael may be dead, but he’s never really gone. For years to come, people will be talking about the horrific acts that would forever change Haddonfield and keep him alive.
This also fits quite well with the narrative approach that David Gordon Green uses in “Halloween Ends” engaged. Michael Myers himself is only a supporting character, instead the myth is transferred to the disreputable outsider Corey (Rohan Campbell), who proves to be a worthy successor in Michael’s eyes and then not only ensures that Michael picks up the knife again, but also himself in some extremely sadistic ways, causing fear and terror in Haddonfield. Evil always finds a way, even if Michael is gone.
A very exciting mind game, with which David Gordon Green in “Halloween Ends’ is not always free from inconsistencies. In any case, the last shot is coherent in itself and brings the ideas that Green had previously established in a courageous way for a kind of reorientation of the “Halloween” series to an appropriate conclusion.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Michael Myers will never appear on screen again in the future. Just probably not directed by David Gordon Green anymore. He is currently working with the team of his “Halloween” films with a new trilogy that ties in with William Friedkin’s shocker milestone “The Exorcist”.
It will certainly also be related to how “Halloween Ends’ performed at the box office. But you can be relatively sure that Michael will return again – that has not only been proven by the past, but is also simply part of the myth. It remains to be seen whether it will be a reboot, sequel, prequel or remake. Either way, the horror returns. It’s only a matter of time.
In the latest issue of the DashFUN podcast on the screen love, the editors Julius and Pascal got together to talk about “Halloween Ends” to speak. Find out if they liked the film and how uniquely David Gordon Green’s trilogy finale fits into the rest of the franchise in the podcast.
