There are several divisive entries in the Halloween franchise, and the most recent entry, last year’s Halloween Ends (read our review HERE, pick up a copy HERE), was one of the most divisive yet. Some fans liked that it shook things up and did something different with the idea of Michael Myers. Others were annoyed that the presence of Myers was overshadowed by a new character, Corey Cunningham (played by Rohan Campbell), who takes Myers’ mask from him and goes on his own killing spree (which ends when Michael kills Corey for humiliating him). Especially since this was supposed to be the last showdown between franchise heroine Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and the slasher she’s been dealing with, off and on, for over forty years. The film was so divisive, Us Weekly even asked Danny McBride – who wrote Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends with director David Gordon Green and other collaborators – what he thought of the fan response, and he acknowledged that fans had valid criticism.
McBride told Us Weekly, “I’m a massive Halloween fan as well so you just want to give something that would make the fans excited and not make the fans angry with you. It was fun to try to pull that off for better or worse, and to get to meet John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis. It was kind of surreal to be participating in furthering that story. It was awesome.” Asked directly about fans not liking that Corey overshadowed Myers in Halloween Ends, he said, “I think that is a valid criticism. All three of these movies was really Green’s sort of brainchild. He had a very distinct idea of what he wanted to do with this. And I just felt lucky that he brought me along for the ride to help him where I could and to try to give him anything I could on it. And when he told me his pitch for focusing on this Corey character, I thought that it was cool. I thought it was a smart take on it. I thought that it was a way to avoid repetition and sort of explore something a little different and still tying it into what Halloween’s ultimately about.“
Now that the Green / McBride trilogy has run its course, McBride is looking forward to seeing what other filmmakers will do with the franchise, despite the “Ends” title and the fact that Michael Myers was killed off at the end of Halloween Ends. “I feel like we had a blast creating this and making this and it kind of feels like we have put our thumbprint on it. And I think, I mean, never say never, but I would be interested to see what else is out there, what else somebody can do with this.“
Because of course there’s going to be another Halloween someday. Halloween Ends isn’t really the end of this franchise, just like Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday weren’t the last time we saw Jason Voorhees and Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare wasn’t the end of Freddy Krueger’s story.
What did you think of Halloween Ends, and what would you like to see as the Halloween franchise continues? Let us know by leaving a comment below.