Is "Halloween Ends" really the end?
And why does its star think the film will make fans "very angry"?
Here's all you need to know before the big premiere.
The official release date for "Halloween Ends" is October 14, 2022, just in time for the holiday.
Filming for "Halloween Ends" initially began in January 2022 and concluded a few months later in March.
Pre-pandemic, Blumhouse Studios had planned to release "Halloween Kills" in October 2020,
and "Halloween Ends" one year later in 2021.
Of course, delays due to COVID-19 threw a wrench into production, so the pair of sequels
were pushed back by a year.
Studios generally like to release "Halloween" films, well, around Halloween — which seems like a no-brainer.
"You know it's Halloween.
Everyone's entitled to one good scare, huh?"
This was the case for the first five original "Halloween" films, which all debuted theatrically
in the month of October.
The sixth just barely squeaked in with a September 29 release date.
This trend was surprisingly dropped in favor of summer releases for "Halloween: H20" and
"Halloween: Resurrection," as well as Rob Zombie's duo of reboots.
However, with the appearance of David Gordon Green's new trilogy, "Halloween" has returned
to its classic fall schedule, with "Halloween Ends" wrapping up the tradition by releasing
around the same time of year as its predecessors.
The 2018 "Halloween" film brought Jamie Lee Curtis back to the iconic role of Laurie Strode,
and introduced two new generations in Laurie's daughter Karen (played by Judy Greer) and
her granddaughter Allyson (played Andi Matichak).
Though this central trio survived that film and made it to the climax of the follow-up,
"Halloween Kills" ended on a shocking note as Michael murdered Karen just before the credits started.
"So many people are dead!
We're not equipped!"
Curtis and Matichak are back one last time in "Halloween Ends," with James Jude Courtney
and original actor Nick Castle joining forces to bring Michael Myers to life, as they did
on the two previous entries.
Kyle Richards is also back once again as Lindsay Wallace, Laurie's 1978 babysitting charge
who managed to again narrowly escape Michael's knife in "Halloween Kills."
Trilogy mainstays Will Patton and Omar Dorsey round out the returning cast members.
Joining the cast is former "Guiding Light" star Michael O'Leary as Dr. Mathis, a character
mentioned but not seen in "Halloween Kills."
Rohan Campbell of Hulu's "The Hardy Boys" will also provide a fresh face as a new character
named Corey Cunningham.
The official synopsis for "Halloween Ends" explains that, rather than picking up exactly
where we left off in "Halloween Kills," the story will resume four years later.
Laurie Strode and her granddaughter Allyson are living together, and there's no Michael Myers in sight.
We can assume that the movie will have Laurie and Michael locked in a final showdown of
sorts — at least, a final showdown for this iteration of the franchise.
As for the fate of these two characters, who can say for certain?
In an interview with Total Film Magazine, Jamie Lee Curtis, producer Malek Akkad, and
director David Gordon Green gave a few hints as to what audiences might expect from the
final film in the trilogy.
After "Halloween Kills" focused on the town of Haddonfield at large, it seems like we're
in for a shift, with Akkad revealing that the final film in the trilogy will be, in
his words, "way more contained."
"What the hell is happening?"
"It's Michael.
It's gotta be."
As for Green, he went on to elaborate slightly, suggesting that the final "Halloween" film
— which was originally planned to take place on the same 2018 Halloween night as both its
predecessors — may be something fans won't expect.
He told Total Film,
"I get engaged by doing something different.
If I was just going to be repetitive, I would hand the reins off to someone else.
When you have that opportunity within an established franchise, it's really fun to think about
how you can show different tones and perspectives and evolve."
The iconic not-so-sleepy town of Haddonfield, Illinois, is one of the most infamous movie
towns in horror history, and also one of the deadliest.
While the original John Carpenter film was shot in Los Angeles County, the most recent
"Halloween" trilogy traveled to the opposite coast to film.
The 2018 "Halloween" was mostly filmed in the low country of South Carolina.
The second installment, "Halloween Kills," was filmed mostly in North Carolina.
Interestingly, "Halloween Ends" was shot primarily in and around the Savannah, Georgia area,
though not exclusively.
According to the film's IMDb page, photography for "Ends" also took place in part around
Salt Lake City, Utah, a vast departure from the east coast locations and the film's midwestern
setting, leaving fans wondering just where the final installment might take us.
The new "Halloween" trilogy, beginning with the 2018 film, is largely the brainchild of
filmmakers and longtime collaborators David Gordon Green and Danny McBride.
Though Green and McBride were both new to the horror genre, they were longtime fans
of John Carpenter and Debra Hill's original 1978 "Halloween," and opted to ignore all
previous sequels and remakes.
Green went on to direct all three films in this new trilogy.
Evidently, even though they ignored all the previous installments in the franchise, it
still reportedly took Green and McBride more than 80 drafts of the screenplay to "get it
right," with rewrites happening as late as one week before production, according to
The Hollywood Reporter.
"Michael Myers, loose, with a bunch of nutbags in Haddonfield on Halloween night?!"
The duo of Green and McBride returned to write the screenplay for "Halloween Kills" alongside
Scott Teems, resulting in a sequel that proved more polarizing than its crowd-pleasing predecessor.
Green and McBride also co-wrote the screenplay for "Halloween Ends," this time alongside
Paul Brad Logan and Chris Bernier.
When 2018's "Halloween" was released, it was a simpler time.
The film arrived in theaters and then quickly made its way to home video soon after, with
the second and third films in David Gordon Green's planned trilogy being greenlit almost
immediately following its success.
Unfortunately, it would be another three years before "Halloween Kills" would be released
due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the sequel's initial release of October 2020 being shifted to October 2021.
"Halloween Ends" began filming not long after the release of "Halloween Kills," with a set
release date for October 2022.
With only a year between these two films, Green's two sequels will follow an '80s slasher
movie tradition of immediate back-to-back entries.
The earlier "Halloween" series even sporadically followed this pattern for a while — "Halloween
II" was released in October 1981, continuing the story from the first film, with the largely
unrelated "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" coming out a year later.
In October 1988, "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" was released, which brought
Myers back from his comatose state, leading into "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael
Myers" the following October.
"Halloween Ends" is set to arrive in theaters on October 14, 2022 and — as with "Halloween
Kills" before it — will also be made available on Peacock for the first 60 days of the film's release.
The "Halloween" franchise is a bit complicated, but most long-running horror series are.
Including "Halloween Ends," there are 13 total films in the saga, though not all of them
are necessary to enjoy this final trilogy installment.
The only movie in the anthology that every other film tends to stem from is the original
1978 "Halloween," which introduced the world to both Michael Myers and Laurie Strode.
This masterpiece has become an icon over the past four decades, and no matter how many
new "Halloween" sequels or reboots hit the screen, none can escape the shadow of the original.
The original "Halloween II," "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers," "Halloween 5:
The Revenge of Michael Myers," and "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" all follow in
the timeline begun with the original.
The third installment, "Halloween III: Season of the Witch," has nothing to do with the
overall continuity, beyond the original movie playing on TV within its story about killer Halloween masks.
Then, in 1998, "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later" was released to commemorate the anniversary
of the original "Halloween," thus ignoring all the sequels except "Halloween II."
This film would spawn a sequel of its own — "Halloween Resurrection" — which would
soon be ignored by Rob Zombie's two "Halloween" reboot films beginning in 2007.
"Michael, you know I'm not really here."
"Halloween Ends" fits in a timeline composed of the original 1978 film, the 2018 "Halloween,"
and "Halloween Kills."
This effectively sets aside all the convoluted sequel plot threads concerning secret familial
relationships and ancient cults, instead focusing in on the pure slasher element of an unknowable
killer and his tenacious prey.
There's no doubt that David Gordon Green's take on the "Halloween" mythos isn't for everybody.
Removing the brother-sister connection between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode was a gutsy
move, especially given that the vast majority of the franchise has kept that part of their story intact.
This makes sense, given that John Carpenter himself made them siblings while working on
"Halloween II" and the expanded TV broadcast of the original film.
Carpenter admitted to ComicBook.com in 2019,
"I came up with this brother thing.
It was awful, just awful.
But I did it."
Nevertheless, the 2018 "Halloween" revival disregarded this plotline completely, with
Carpenter's blessing, opting to start anew with only the original 1978 film remaining
a part of the story.
This alone was frustrating for some fans, though for others it was a new beginning,
and one that sparked new life in an otherwise aimless franchise.
According to series star Jamie Lee Curtis, many fans might not love "Halloween Ends,"
the final installment in this rebooted trilogy of slashers.
She told NME,
"It's going to make people very angry, and it's going to be shocking because it asks
a lot of questions.
So that's all I can tell you."
Wherever the conclusion to this modern "Halloween" trilogy takes us, it seems it will be somewhere
we've never gone before.
This might be scary to some longtime Michael Myers fans, but the possibility of an unprecedented
and surprising conclusion may be just the kind of uncertainty the "Halloween" franchise needs.
For more than 40 years, Jamie Lee Curtis has come and gone from her role as the iconic
"final girl" Laurie Strode, continuously escaping the clutches of Michael Myers.
Now, "Halloween Ends" promises, well, an end to all that.
"Evil dies tonight!"
This means that either Laurie is set to die in combat against Michael, or live happily
ever after once he's six feet under.
Whichever ending befalls our horror heroine, it will surely be thrilling to see her story
get a definitive conclusion here.
Jamie Lee Curtis has implied in a video promoting "Halloween Ends" that this is her last time
playing Laurie Strode.
She went on to explain to Total Film,
"I'm not saying something like, 'Oh, because I die!'
It's nothing to do with that.
I'm talking about emotionally what they have constructed.
I think it will be a spectacular way to end this trilogy."
With a title like "Halloween Ends," there are some pretty serious implications attached.
No doubt, this is the end to David Gordon Green's sequel trilogy of "Halloween" films,
meant to be a love-letter of sorts to the original John Carpenter classic.
With Jamie Lee Curtis evidently satisfied with the film's conclusion and the plot seemingly
wrapped up here, it sounds like "Halloween Ends" might actually be the final chapter
of the "Halloween" saga.
And what better film to end on than the 13th!
Of course, John Carpenter has his own thoughts on the continuation of the "Halloween" brand.
Carpenter told ComicBook.com,
"If you take a dollar sign and attach it to anything ... it will live.
If the dollar sign is not big enough, no matter what, it will not live.
This time, I do not know.
They really want to end.
They're going to shut it off, end it.
It's what David has in mind.
That's fine."
In an interview with ScreenRant, producer Jason Blum went on record and reminded us
that this is Blumhouse Productions' last "Halloween" movie, and while that doesn't necessarily
mean that Michael Myers won't return someday, their work on the franchise is complete.
Blum said,
"This is our last one and I think people will be very happy."
So it looks like "Halloween Ends" is the culmination of the franchise as we know it currently,
but that doesn't mean it's the end for "Halloween" as a whole.