YMMV / Halloween Ends

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Corey always have that evil inside him and his interactions with others brought it out? Or was it somehow magically forced upon him by Michael? Notably, Corey is very passive at first and only becomes confident and aggressive after meeting Michael; Jeremy's dad specifically says he knows Corey wouldn't be capable of something like this and when he ran into Corey recently something had changed; and of course the fact that Michael, normally intent on killing everyone he runs across, kidnaps Corey and doesn't so much as threaten him as if he was searching for a successor. In addition, after lethally wounding himself, Corey still tries to stop Michael from picking up the knife, possibly in an attempt to stop him from killing Laurie.
  • In the same vein, what if Jeremy's original babysitter hadn't canceled? Jeremy would have likely pulled the same prank. Would the original babysitter have faced the same fate, or was it specifically designed for Corey? Or was it just a horrible mix of unfortunate circumstances and Corey's choices?
  • Margo's status as the Token Good Teammate is called into question because she went along with Terry and the others to the scrapyard. However, most of her actions are consistent for a teenager with low self-esteem. Her meek pleas to the others suggests that she's used to being ignored and understands that impassioned speeches about how picking on others is wrong usually will not deter bullies like Terry. It's possible she went to the scrapyard with the others because she had no other way of getting home, and maybe because she felt compelled to look out for Stacy, who at least cared enough to turn back and try to free Margo from the fallen fence.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Corey Cunningham undergoes an entire arc that sets him up as the new Shape of Haddonfield, then steals Michael's mask to go on his own killing spree before targeting Laurie, only to be put down the second he shows his face. His abrupt end illustrates just how things would play out if a Michael Myers copycat tried their luck against the original Final Girl.
• Ass Pull:
  • The film's portrayal of Michael as little more than a mortal Serial Killer who the people of Haddonfield had mystified into a supernatural creature over the decades. While a clear attempt at meta-commentary on the franchise's legacy, the attempt at Doing In the Wizard ignores the climax of the previous movie where Michael was able to take a beating capable of killing a normal man two times over and take out the mob giving him said beatdown. Likewise, up to this point in the previous two movies, Michael had been shot and stabbed multiple times and even run over, yet was still unstoppable. Most people saw this as clarifying that Michael in this continuity is indeed a supernatural killer. To many, trying to play Michael as just a normal human came off as inconsistent with how he has came over in this series timeline up to this point and made no sense.
  • Allyson's Jerkass Realization and subsequent Big Damn Heroes moment at the end can be seen as a little rushed after she strings the audience along by having Took a Level in Jerkass and Took a Level in Dumbass by blaming Laurie for ruining her life with her friends' and family's deaths and having Horrible Judge of Character in regards to Corey.
• Awesome Music:
  • Blue Öyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" serves as a satisfying needle-drop to cap off the final shot of the film and to bring the Halloween franchise full circle.
  • Midnight Monster Hop, playing over the opening logos, is a fun Monster Mash esque song.
  • As always, the film's version of the classic theme, playing both during the opening and end credits which adds electronic bass strings that increase with their pounding over the course of the piece.
  • "The Procession", Carpenter's score that nails the absolutely cathartic denouement of Michael's body being thrown into a trash compactor and finally being gone for good.
• Badass Decay:
  • After being built-up as stronger than ever and slaughtering dozens of people on-screen in Kills, Michael's status as an unstoppable murder machine takes a surprising hit as all the abuse he took over the course of Halloween (2018) and Kills managed to stick. This leaves him so weak that he needs help to kill a man he ambushed, gets beaten up and robbed of his mask by Corey and gets pinned down and killed by Laurie one-on-one. The movie's attempt at portraying him as a dangerous yet very mortal man who was seen as a supernatural boogeyman because of the fear that Haddonfield projected unto him doesn't gel with Kills depicting him as a genuinely supernatural threat capable of enduring a beatdown from a mob before slaughtering them all single-handedly (granted, he did benefit greatly from the mob holding a collective Idiot Ball and only attacking him one at a time), and even this very movie with the scene where he and Corey lock eyes with one another, activating the evil in the latter.
  • Also, after her being built up as an ideal Final Girl, Allyson is notably less active in this installment, rebuff Laurie's warnings about Corey being dangerous or any danger coming this way and even blame her for the deaths of her friends and family.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Most of the people who get killed, due to their being ginormous Asshole Victims.
  • Everything about Michael's demise and its aftermath:
    • There's something satisfying about watching Michael pathetically struggle but fail to keep Laurie from pulling his iconic mask off.
    • Michael's slow, painful Rasputinian Death, where he is crucified on Laurie's kitchen table, his leg pinned by a fridge, his throat cut open by Laurie, his arm is broken by Allyson, and his wrist is slit by Laurie. Seeing Michael as helpless and in pain as any of his past victims is extremely satisfying, as is the fact that it's Laurie who gets the privilege of killing him once and for all.
    • All of Haddonfield, which includes Julian (the boy who saw Michael kill his babysitter Vicky) and Sondra (who survived Michael's attack but was left mute and saw her husband die), following Laurie, Allyson, and the cops to the junkyard to witness Michael's corpse get shredded and ensure that the man that destroyed so many lives would get the fate he deserves. In Halloween: Resurrection, Michael killed Laurie and now, two decades later, she gets to return the favor.
  • Jeremy's death counts after being a genuine asshole to Corey.
• Complete Monster: Michael Myers. See here.
• Contested Sequel: Probably the most divisive film in the franchise since Rob Zombie's remake. Generally, it comes down to whether or not one finds Micheal being Demoted to Extra and Corey being the main villain an excellent subversion and meta-take on the franchise, or an insulting move to fans and a complete waste of a proper Grand Finale for this continuity.
• Crosses the Line Twice: As brutal as Willy's death was, there's something darkly hilarious about his severed tongue landing on the record player and constantly interrupting the music by hitting the needle, all while still on the air.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Corey Cunningham gets this from some fans for being an attractive, sensitive young man who they see as completely sympathetic in his turn to evil due to being mercilessly bullied by the town for an accident. While he certainly didn't deserve the abuse the town dealt to him, it's no excuse for his choice to embrace his dark side and kill those he deemed against him, which includes helping Michael Myers with some kills and trying to murder his girlfriend's concerned grandmother.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Jeremy's father, who is one of the very few sympathetic and reasonable adults in Haddonfield, who felt sympathy for Corey and was willing to forgive him for the accidental death of his son, and is one of the few people aware that Corey has changed and is someone to be cautious of.
  • Ronald, Corey's uncle who is shown to always be supportive of his nephew, more so than his own sister, giving him a job at his junkyard after the time skip and an old motorcycle to work on and keep, encouraging him to keep going out with Allyson. And even when realizing Corey has lured some bullying punks to the junkyard to kill them in the guise of Michael, he's more confused and worried, trying to de-escalate the situation before accidently getting in the way of a bullet fired by one of the punks, whom he also tried to help before fully realizing the situation.
• Fanfic Fuel: The ending implies that the evil Michael represents will never leave Haddonfield. With characters like Corey committing murders of their own, it almost invites viewers to think of what else might happen in the town that creates an evil like Michael again.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Laurie managed to salvage Karen and Ray's wedding rings and made them into a necklace for Allyson.
  • Laurie going out of her way to help Corey escape from a group of bullies. They even slash the group's tires, which they most definitely deserved.
  • The fact that Michael observed Corey and Allyson having sex and did not attack them. Looks like Michael genuinely saw Corey as a successor and was willing to leave him and his loved ones alone until Corey spoiled it by betraying him.
  • The ending, where, with Michael finally dead, both Laurie and Allyson are free to move on with their lives; Allyson leaves Haddonfield, facing a hopeful future, while Laurie is implied to start a relationship with Hawkins, totally unencumbered by Michael for the first time in 44 years.
  • The fact that this is so far the only continuity in the franchise where Laurie doesn't die or get institutionalized. Earn Your Happy Ending at its finest.
• Jerkass Woobie: Corey Cunningham is a remorseless serial killer who brutally murders the DJ's receptionist and Margo, two people who never hurt him. However, it's clear to see why as nearly every interaction he has with someone not named Allison or Laurie results in him getting called a psychopath when he accidentally killed his babysitting charge, sending his life on a downward spiral and driving him to become bitter and pessimistic.
• Moral Event Horizon: While Corey killing people that inadvertently contributed to his fall into darkness is understandable, to a certain extent, his killing of Willy's receptionist and Margo, neither of whom wronged him in any way, plus his complete non-reaction to his kind stepfather Taking the Bullet for him, is what emphasizes Corey's point of no return.
• Narm:
  • At one point, Lindsey is pulling Jeremy's mom away from confronting Corey during a party in a bar. While it is a tearful moment of a mother grieving for her son, Kyle Richards ends up inadvertently performing her famous meme◊ from The Real Housewives.
  • At another point, Corey's uncle Ronald says "I hope you find love" as a message of support to his troubled nephew. This line would be fine if the movie didn't immediately Smash to Black before moving on to a "Halloween 2022" title card in a dark and dramatic fashion, making it seem sillier as a lead-in to that.
  • Corey stealing Michael's mask for just how anticlimactic it is, as he simply walks up to Michael with little warning and demands the mask while wrestling with him. The camera angle also does not help, since some of the struggle is left offscreen with both Corey and Michael going out of the view.
  • The DJ's tongue causing the record to skip is a ridiculous and over the top moment for not only the film, which focuses less on Black Comedy than Kills, but also silly for Corey, since he's a more serious and feral killer.
  • After Corey and Michael kill Allyson's boss and co-worker, it cuts to Corey and Allyson on the former's motorcycle, but since it comes immediately after the murders, for a second the audience might expect to see Michael sitting behind Corey on the bike, getting a ride back to his sewer.
  • Margo's final words to Terry — "You're dead, too." — are supposed to be dramatic, but they come off as ridiculous since it sounds like she prioritized sounding cool over yelling at him to run or telling him that Corey was still there.
  • The jerk jocks that bully Corey being band kids.
• Ron the Death Eater: Allyson is often reduced to this by audiences, mainly for ignoring Laurie's legitimately valid concerns that her new boyfriend is becoming increasingly dangerous (even outright blaming her for the events of the previous films in a heated moment). Despite coming to her senses relatively quickly, some viewers still could not get over Allyson's newfound selfishness and ignorance, claiming that it led to Corey killing more people and nearly getting her grandmother killed by Michael.
• Spiritual Successor: Oddly enough, to Halloween III: Season of the Witch. While Michael is actually in this movie, he's not the main threat this time around, with the focus of the narrative being on Corey. As such, Ends feels the most like an anthology of sorts out of any of the movies. It even goes down to the title font resembling that of Halloween III.
• Squick: Just about everything involving Michael in this movie. He's spent the past four years living in a sewer wearing the same sweat- and blood-soaked coveralls that he stole in 2018 (that now has white moss growing on it), resorted to cannibalism just to survive, and is covered with infected wounds from head-to-toe, with the makeup department placing special emphasis on making his burned face and mutilated hand look as disgusting as possible. His body is so wrecked from the wounds that he accumulated over the past two movies that his iconic breath is shaky when he's simply walking. Add the fact that he hasn't showered at any point since Kills, and you've got a killer stinky enough to rival zombie Jason.
  • Not to mention the fact that Corey willingly wears the same moss-covered mask that Michael's been wearing for four years straight, and that Laurie kills him by bleeding him out on her kitchen island — I.E., where she cooks.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The shift from Michael as the main villain to Corey was immediately criticized as a weak move. Those more complimentary of the twist were critical of the fact that it was introduced in the final film, which was advertised as a swan song to both Laurie and Michael.
  • The revision of Allyson's character from an ideal Final Girl to a selfish, ignorant brat is also disliked, with her blaming Laurie for failing to protect her family and loved ones and also making dumber decisions and judgments than before, including accusing Laurie of killing Corey. She also brushes off Laurie's warnings about Corey crossing over to the dark side, while cruelly and unfairly calling her out for ruining her life and disowning her as her grandmother so she wouldn't have to be constantly and publicly humiliated by the association of being related to Laurie anymore. Sure, she redeems herself by having a Jerkass Realization and pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment by saving Laurie from being strangled by Michael, but it can still ring a little hollow to the point that it can be seen as an Ass Pull.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Michael Myers basically squats in a sewer for two-thirds of the film, only coming out to kill Nurse Deb and in the final confrontation, with most of the kills performed by Corey instead.
  • Jeremy's parents re-appear after the Time Skip to have reactions to Corey's new life. Neither of them show up later to see him commit a series of murders or show up as kills themselves.
  • There's no real payoff to Lindsay Wallace having survived the previous film, as she doesn't factor into the plot of this film whatsoever and is essentially a cameo.
  • Hawkins spent the previous films crusading against Michael and swearing he would help to destroy him. Despite this, his only plot-important contribution to the story is approving of Laurie wanting to destroy Michael's corpse.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Copycat Killer subplot easily could have been an interesting movie on its own since it features Corey as an Arc Villain for Haddonfield to overcome and Michael in a unique position as another killer's mentor. The problem is that said subplot is awkwardly inserted into the trilogy finale, which also promised a final showdown between Michael and Laurie. As a result, the movie is unable to properly flesh out Corey's Protagonist Journey to Villain and his connection to Michael, and the subplot itself ends in an anticlimactic fashion to accommodate Michael and Laurie's grudge match.
    • For that matter, the movie spends so much time on Corey's story that when it reaches the big final battle between Laurie and Michael, it almost feels more like an afterthought even though this is the conclusion of the series.
  • Related to the above, Laurie's As Long as There Is Evil closing narration pretty much directly says the legacy of Michael Myers will continue even though Michael himself is gone now, and most of the movie's runtime is spent on Corey's Protagonist Journey to Villain just like Michael. It would be a perfect Sequel Hook/Bookend if Haddonfield never found Corey's body.^note Reportedly, this was going to be the case originally, but negative test screenings lead to Corey being given a more definitive death in the final film.
  • Laurie Strode was shown to be a heavily traumatized woman, who spends her life in fear of a man who she knows to be locked up behind bars, and knows her entire life is leading up to a confrontation with him. At the end of the previous movie, Michael is on the loose once again after killing her daughter, and she's more dedicated to killing him than ever. So in this movie... she seemingly just "got better" offscreen and is doing a good job of pretending Michael never existed. Even though, once again, he's still out there. She spent 40 years in Crazy Survivalist mode even though he was locked up tight and hadn't killed anyone in all that time, but now that he's actually running wild and killed her daughter, she seemingly forgot all about him. Michael doesn't even cross paths with her until the last 20 minutes of film, almost as an afterthought, even though this conflict is what the previous two movies had been building to.
  • Michael taking on Corey as a protégé could have been really cool and interesting, possibly leading to a conclusion where the two of them take on Laurie and Allison together. Instead, Corey rather spontaneously decides to betray and usurp Michael, which doesn't do either character any favors and ultimately leads to a final battle between Laurie and Michael that is completely disconnected from any of the Corey stuff.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: Regardless of how you feel about the film, Rohan Campbell definitely believes in his role as Corey, giving a legitimately convincing performance as a traumatized yet kind-hearted man being driven to insanity, a performance that's convincing at both aspects.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Margo is supposed to be portrayed as the Token Good Teammate amongst Terry and his bullying cohorts because she protests whenever her friends bully Corey and doesn't outright bully him herself. Problem is, she never does anything to stop them, either. When Terry accidentally pushes Corey over a bridge (which could've seriously injured or killed him and even horrifies Stacy), Margo doesn't call the cops, apologize or show sympathy to Corey afterwards, or disown her friends, and even goes along with following Corey to his job at night so she, Terry, Stacy, and Billie can wreck Corey's motorcycle. While she absolutely did not deserve to have her head caved in and be run over by a truck, it's easy to understand why Corey didn't bother sparing her. We Hate Movies put it best:
  "You know what? Choose your friends better. Don't fuck around."

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