Halloween Ends

It is the sequel to Halloween Kills (2021), the thirteenth installment in the Halloween franchise, and the final film in the trilogy of sequels that started with the 2018 film, which directly follows the 1978 film. The film stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards, and James Jude Courtney. The plot follows the outcast Corey Cunningham who falls in love with Laurie Strode’s granddaughter while a series of events, including crossing paths with Michael Myers, drives him to become a serial killer.

Before the release of Halloween in 2018, McBride confirmed that he and Green had intended to pitch two films that would be shot back-to-back, but decided against it, waiting to see the reaction to the first film. Following the success of the first film, in July 2019, the film’s title was announced along with Halloween Kills.

Green intended to give each film in the trilogy its own unique theme, Halloween Ends being a “love story”; John Carpenter described the film as a “departure” from its predecessors. After being delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, principal photography took place in Georgia between January and March 2022, with re-shoots taking place in mid-2022.

Halloween Ends premiered at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles on October 11, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 14, 2022, by Universal Pictures. The film started streaming simultaneously on paid tiers of Peacock. It received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized its focus on the new character Corey and generally deemed it a disappointing conclusion to the trilogy. The film grossed $105 million against a $33 million production budget, making it the lowest-grossing of the trilogy of films by Green and the third highest grossing film in the franchise.

Just as Jeremy’s parents come home, Corey kicks the door open and accidentally knocks Jeremy over a staircase railing to his death. Corey is arrested for aggravated manslaughter but is cleared by the judge. Nonetheless the citizens of Haddonfield make Corey an outcast.

Three years later, the town of Haddonfield, Illinois, is still reeling from the aftermath of Michael Myers’s latest killing spree in 2018, while Michael has vanished. Laurie Strode is writing a memoir and living with her granddaughter Allyson. Meanwhile, Corey is working at his stepfather’s salvage yard. On his way home one day, he is accosted by high school bullies and injures himself in the process. An observing Laurie brings him to the doctor’s office where Allyson works.

Allyson and Corey develop a relationship and later attend a Halloween party, where Corey is confronted by Mrs. Allen. Corey leaves the party and runs into the bullies who throw him off a bridge. Unconscious, he is dragged into the sewers and later choked by Michael who eventually lets him go. As he crawls out, Corey is threatened by a homeless man. In a struggle, Corey stabs the man to death and flees.

At a dinner date, Allyson’s ex-boyfriend harasses her, leading to Corey later luring him into the sewer to be killed by Michael. Allyson is passed over for a promotion at work, in favor of a nurse who is having an affair with the doctor. Later that night, Corey kills the doctor at his home while Michael kills the nurse.

An unknowing Allyson plans to leave Haddonfield with an insistent Corey because of the past trauma, while Laurie realizes Corey is infected by Michael’s evil. Laurie finds Corey sleeping in the spot where Jeremy died, and offers to help him on the condition that he distance himself from Allyson. Corey retorts by blaming her for the events that have occurred in Haddonfield and says if he cannot have Allyson, no one will.

Corey returns to the sewers where he successfully fights Michael for his mask and embarks on a rampage, murdering the bullies after luring them to the salvage yard, one of whom accidentally kills Corey’s stepfather. He goes on to kill his mother, a DJ at a local radio station, who had taunted him earlier, and presumably the radio station’s assistant. At the Strode house, Laurie fakes a suicide attempt to lure Corey to her, whom she shoots down the stairs.

Corey then stabs himself in the neck to frame Laurie for his death in front of the arriving Allyson, who leaves in distress. Michael suddenly arrives, retrieves his mask, and kills Corey. A fight ensues in Laurie’s kitchen, and Laurie manages to pin Michael to the kitchen table and slit his throat.

After a struggle, Allyson, convinced of the truth behind Corey’s death after receiving a call from Deputy Frank Hawkins, returns to help subdue and finally kill Michael by slicing his wrist.

Laurie and Allyson take Michael’s body to the salvage yard by police escort, attracting the residents of Haddonfield, who follow them in a procession, and dispose of it in an industrial shredder. In the ensuing days, Allyson and Laurie reconcile, and Allyson leaves Haddonfield while Laurie finishes her memoir and rediscovers her romance with Hawkins.