Michael Myers isn't the only one cutting deep. From human wall hangings to glasses of chocolate
milk, "Halloween Ends" is filled with easy-to-miss details and Easter eggs. Warning: spoilers ahead!
In the movie's tragic and terrifying opening, the hopeful prospective college student Corey
Cunningham babysits local Haddonfield child Jeremy Allen. Before the horror begins,
Corey and Jeremy are hanging out and having a good time.
"It's Halloween. We're gonna have a good time tonight."
Against the wishes of the Allens, Corey is being a little lax and letting Jeremy watch
scary movies with him. On that Halloween Night, it's John Carpenter's "The Thing."
Not only is the scene of these two watching "The Thing" an obvious nod to Carpenter,
director of "The Thing" and the original "Halloween," but it has another layer to
it as well. In the 1978 "Halloween," there is a scene of Laurie and the kid she is looking
after watching "The Thing." Of course, they aren't watching Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece,
since he hadn't made it yet. The movie shown in the original was 1951's "The Thing from
Another World," which Carpenter adapted and reimagined for the '80s. Pretty fitting,
considering the new "Halloween" trilogy is also a reimagining of the Michael Myers story.
Corey Cunningham becomes an outcast after the night he accidentally kills
Jeremy Allen. On the night of the accident, Corey even had a chance to drink a beer but
opts for chocolate milk to accompany his dessert. Ultimately he never got a chance
to drink the milk. Years later, he buys chocolate milk at a gas station. Afterward,
a group of teens asks him to buy them beer, once again bringing Corey's drink
of choice into question. But why exactly is chocolate milk important to "Halloween Ends"?
There are a couple of themes that could tie into why Corey drinks chocolate milk. For one,
it makes him different from others, reinforcing his feeling of being an outcast. But his taste
for chocolate milk, a drink usually associated with children, is the important part here. This
shows that on the inside, he is still more of a child than he is an adult. Corey is a
scared kid who never had a chance to grow up, and Michael Myers preys on this to unleash his evil.
Since this is "Halloween Ends," the story of Laurie and Michael, appropriately,
comes to a conclusion. As such, the movie pays appropriate homage to where the story began. One
visual callback that works on multiple levels is just one of many references to John Carpenter's
low-budget 1978 horror classic, a moment where Corey Cunningham imitates Michael Myers.
Corey becomes a sort of disciple of Michael, enacting murders in Haddonfield after a chance
meeting with Michael in the sewers. But the earliest visual hint that Corey is going down this
dark path is when he imitates the slasher villain, peeking out from behind a bush. Eagle-eyed fans of
the original "Halloween" will recognize this as a reference to an early shot in that film of Michael
Myers in the exact same position. It's one of the first glimpses we get of the character, as Laurie
walks down the sidewalk on an otherwise completely normal fall day. The shot of Michael peeking
out from behind a hedge has become an iconic image from the very first movie in the series.
Sondra Dickerson is a minor character who winds up surviving all three modern "Halloween" movies.
There was some speculation over whether or not Sondra had died in the scene where Michael
attacked her and her husband in "Halloween Kills." In that film, Sondra gets one of the
most grotesque, painful encounters with Michael Myers, watching him attack and kill her husband
and standing in terror as he puts a tube light in her neck. Now, in "Halloween Ends," we see she
has survived, but has been rendered disabled by Michael's attack and is in a wheelchair.
In one scene, Sondra's friend Stacy confronts Laurie in a parking lot
and blames her for her friend's condition and the death of Sondra's husband. Later,
when the town is carrying Michael to his final resting place, we get a brief shot showing us
that Sondra is still around. She survived the events of "Halloween Ends," making her one of
the lucky few throughout the franchise to survive an encounter with Michael Myers.
A great little trick in scary movies is when the slasher or monster is lurking in the background
of a shot, almost imperceptible. Terrifying if done right, this trick can frighten and
foreshadow future events for those who notice. It can also add rewatch value for anyone who
missed it the first time. When it's pulled off in "Halloween Ends," it also has a deeper meaning,
since this is a trope the series uses constantly with Michael Myers.
In one sequence, Corey lures a cop who used to date Allyson to Michael Myers' hiding place in
a sewer underneath Haddonfield. When "Halloween Ends" first pulls this trick, you see Michael in
the background, foreshadowing the man's fate. However, in a similar shot almost immediately
after the first, we now see Corey lurking in the background of the shot in the same way.
It's another hint of where his arc is going and the similarities he is developing with Michael.
"Show me how to do it."
Every slasher movie needs a character who exists just for the purpose of being
senselessly murdered. That appears to be the purpose of Nurse Deb,
Allyson's annoying coworker in "Halloween Ends." When it's shown that she is sleeping
with their boss, Dr. Mathis, which is why Deb received a promotion over Allyson,
Michael Myers and his protégé show up for some good old-fashioned slashing.
While Mathis is taken care of by Corey outside, Deb is trapped inside the house with Michael.
When she is killed, Michael pins her to the wall. It's a direct callback to a kill from
the 1978 original. In "Halloween," Michael kills Bob by stabbing him and pinning him to
a cabinet with a kitchen knife. Deb meets a similar fate, albeit stabbed in a different
place. "Halloween Ends" even puts the cherry on top by having Michael childishly cock his
head to the side in wonder or curiosity the same way he does in the original.
In the original "Halloween," during their first encounter,
Michael slashes Laurie on the arm, which causes her to stumble and fall over the
banister on the top floor of the Wallace house. Bleeding and dizzy from the fall,
Laurie barely manages to escape. But "Halloween Ends" reverses the roles and changes the outcome.
In the finale of David Gordon Green's trilogy, it's Corey who falls over the
stairway banister. He is dressed, at this point, in full Michael Myers attire after stealing the
mask. At the end of the movie, Laurie fakes her own suicide to lure Corey to her. Then,
she reveals her trap and shoots Corey, sending him over the banister of her house. The shot of him
falling echoes Laurie's fall in the original, but this time the roles are reversed. Even if
Corey is not actually Michael, the visual imagery of him dressed as Michael Myers serves as a role
reversal for these characters, showing how much Laurie has grown since the 1978 "Halloween."
One of Laurie's biggest moments of victory in John Carpenter's "Halloween" is when she stabs a
knitting needle into Michael Myers' neck after he breaks into the Doyle home. After she stabs him,
he goes down for a brief moment, incapacitated. Viewers at the time surely thought maybe he
was dead, but "Halloween" fans these days know he was just resting up for round two.
In another reversal of Laurie and Michael's roles as predator and prey,
it is not Michael who gets stabbed when "Halloween Ends" eventually references the
knitting needle scene. During their final scuffle in Laurie's home, Michael grabs a knitting needle
and stabs Laurie. Maybe it's payback from over 40 years ago. Of course, maybe Michael
is just looking for the most convenient way to kill his rival. Regardless of why it happens,
this moment is a fun twist on a callback that would otherwise be a bit too obvious.
If you watched David Gordon Green's 2018 "Halloween," you may remember Julian. He
is also known as the hardest kid in the world to babysit. A hilarious addition to
"Halloween," is that Julian managed to survive an attack by Michael Myers. His babysitter,
Vicky, and her boyfriend were not as lucky. Though babysitters rarely are.
"You go up there, you're gonna get killed, Dave!"
Julian was confirmed to have survived Myers' killing spree in "Halloween," but he doesn't
show up in "Halloween Ends" until one of the final scenes. In that scene,
the movie confirms that Sondra lived and shows other minor characters from the trilogy,
like Lindsey Wallace, getting their final vengeance on Michael. In this montage of
the people of Haddonfield accompanying Laurie in a procession, we get a glimpse of Julian. Just
knowing he survived all the horrible nights in Haddonfield is enough to warm our hearts.
Pumpkins and pumpkin pie are pretty universal symbols for fall and especially the Halloween
season. The same can be said of the "Halloween" movies. Pumpkins
are often a symbol of the series as well, appearing in the opening credits sequences
of all the David Gordon Green movies as an homage to the opening credits of John
Carpenter's original film. This pumpkin imagery comes full circle at the end.
Early on in the movie, Laurie burns a pie. She tells Allyson she's trying to bake her a
pumpkin pie because it is her favorite dessert during this time of year. After all the stress
of Michael's final killing spree, the serial killer is supposedly dead and disposed of,
and we see a period of peace in Haddonfield. Allyson recovers from the trauma and prepares
to begin her life anew; in the background of the shot sits a delicious-looking slice
of pumpkin pie. A fitting bit of closure to her terrifying story.