Halloween Ends

Did You Know?

• The film premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles as part of Beyond Fest on October 11, 2022, coinciding with Jamie Lee Curtis's Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony the following day.
• Halloween Ends was released digitally on November 15, 2022, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on December 27, 2022.
• James Jude Courtney affirmed to Screen Rant that he feels 'done' with the franchise, having decided to retire as the character triumphantly.

Plot

In 2019, Corey Cunningham was babysitting a boy named Jeremy Allen on Halloween. Jeremy locked Corey in the attic as a joke, but when Corey kicked the door open, he accidentally sent the child over a railing to his death. Though a judge cleared him of aggravated manslaughter, the people of Haddonfield, Illinois, shunned him. Three years later, the town is still recovering from Michael Myers's 2018 rampage, and Michael himself has disappeared.

Laurie Strode is writing her memoir and living with her granddaughter Allyson. Corey works at his stepfather's salvage yard. After bullies harass him and he gets hurt, Laurie takes him to the clinic where Allyson works. They start dating and attend a Halloween party, but Jeremy's mother confronts Corey there.

He leaves, only for the bullies to throw him off a bridge. Unconscious, he is dragged into the sewers where Michael chokes him but then lets go. Crawling out, Corey kills a homeless man in a struggle. At a dinner date, Allyson's ex-boyfriend—the officer who arrested Corey—harasses them.

Corey later tricks the officer into the sewer, where Michael kills him. When Allyson is denied a promotion because of an affair between her boss and a coworker, Corey murders the doctor while Michael kills the nurse. Allyson, unaware of these killings, wants to leave Haddonfield with Corey to escape their past. After talking to Jeremy's father, Laurie concludes Corey has been "infected" by Michael's evil, but her suspicion drives a wedge between her and Allyson.

Cast

Jamie Lee Curtis portrays Laurie Strode, a survivor of Michael Myers' 1978 killing spree and Allyson's grandmother. Andi Matichak plays Allyson Nelson, Laurie's granddaughter and a survivor of Michael's 2018 spree. Rohan Campbell appears as Corey Cunningham, a young man who accidentally killed a child while babysitting and becomes a serial killer after encountering Michael Myers. Will Patton plays Deputy Frank Hawkins, who arrested Michael after his 1978 spree.

Kyle Richards appears as Lindsey Wallace, a child Annie babysat in 1978 who survived an encounter with Michael in 2018. James Jude Courtney portrays Michael Myers / The Shape, the masked figure who carried out a massacre in 1978 and returned in 2018. Nick Castle, who portrayed the character in the original 1978 film, provides voiceover work for Myers' breathing and makes an unrelated cameo in a party scene. Other cast members include Jesse C. Boyd as Officer Doug Mulaney, Allyson's ex-boyfriend; Joanne Baron as Joan Cunningham, Corey's overbearing mother; Rick Moose as Ronald Prevo, Corey's stepfather; Michael Barbieri as Terry Tramer, leader of a gang of bullies; Destiny Mone as Stacy; Joey Harris as Margo; Marteen as Billy; Michael O'Leary as Dr. Mathis; Michele Dawson as Deb; Keraun Harris as Willy the Kid; Jaxon Goldberg as Jeremy Allen; Candice Rose and Jack William Marshall as Theresa and Roger Allen; Tony DeMil as Robert Tramer; and Omar Dorsey as Sheriff Barker.

Production

In June 2018, Danny McBride confirmed that he and David Gordon Green had originally intended to pitch two Halloween films shot back-to-back but decided against it, waiting to see the reaction to their first Halloween film. In September, producer Jason Blum said a sequel would happen if the movie performed. After the 2018 film's opening weekend, McBride confirmed early development on a sequel. Green, McBride, and Jeff Fradley planned a two-film story arc but opted for a trilogy after realizing they had more material.

As soon as Halloween was released, McBride and Green started devising stories for two sequels alongside writers Scott Teems, Chris Bernier, and Paul Brad Logan. In July 2019, Bloody Disgusting reported a third film was in development with Green returning as director, and the studio considered releasing both films in October 2020. The film was originally titled Halloween Dies before Universal retitled it Halloween Ends. Universal revealed the titles and release dates of the two sequels in July 2019, with Halloween Ends set for 2021.

Green was announced to direct both films and co-write with McBride; Logan and Bernier were co-writers of Halloween Ends. The writing team completed a first draft in 2019, and the final script was completed in 2021 pending John Carpenter's approval. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Universal delayed the release dates of both sequels by a year. Principal photography took place in Georgia between January and March 2022, with re-shoots in mid-2022.

Reception

According to Samba TV, the film was viewed by 920,000 households in its first week of streaming on Peacock, down from Halloween Kills' 1.7 million. It ranked number eight overall and the top film for the week of October 10–16, 2022, in Nielsen streaming rankings, making it the first Peacock program to rank in the weekly Nielsen top 10. Halloween Ends grossed $64.1 million in the United States and Canada and $41.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $105.4 million, making it the lowest-grossing of Green's trilogy.

In its opening weekend, it debuted with $40.1 million from 3,901 theaters, topping the box office but finishing below projections, blamed in part on its simultaneous Peacock release. The film dropped 80% in its second weekend, finishing fourth with $8 million, with an 88% drop from its first Friday to second described as a near-record decrease. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 40% approval rating based on 266 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10.

The site's critics consensus calls it a "frequently befuddling installment" with "frustrating missed opportunities." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100, indicating mixed or average reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a "C+" grade, the lowest of Green's trilogy and the lowest since Halloween III: Season of the Witch. PostTrak gave it a 64% overall positive score with an average 2.5 out of five stars.