Blogtober 2022 Day 14: Halloween Finally Ends: 44 Years of The Shape
12:00:00 PM
Hi hello ghouls and goblins and welcome to Blogtober day 14! Today is the official release date of Halloween Ends, the final chapter in the Laurie Strode saga. I shared a post for Blogtober 2020 called "Why I Love Halloween (1978)" and it was one of my favorite posts that I've ever written! My blog is a book blog, yes, but when the Halloween season comes around I can never pass up the chance to talk about my favorite horror franchise of all time. So, with the ending of the series (for now?) that impacted my life so much, I'd like to share my thoughts on how we got here, to Halloween Ends. Just as a disclaimer, these are my own thoughts and opinions. Please don't come at me all angry if I say something that you disagree with. With that being said, let's get spooky!
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"On a cold Halloween night in 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister, Judith. He was sentenced and locked away for 15 years. But on October 30, 1978, while being transferred for a court date, a 21-year-old Michael Myers steals a car and escapes Smith's Grove. He returns to his quiet hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, where he looks for his next victims."
I was introduced to my first horror film, the original Halloween (1978) when I was 9 years old. I remember going to Blockbuster, renting the VHS tape, hopping in my mom's king-size bed, and watching it with her. She is the person who got me into horror and I will never forget my first time watching Halloween. I was instantly obsessed and wanted to see more! I'm almost 30 years old now and I typically watch exclusively horror films. Bless my poor husband Jamie for putting up with my obsession because he is definitely not a horror fan and I can only imagine how tired he gets of seeing the same handful of films on repeat every week. I love you, honey! But Halloween remains my all-time favorite franchise so of course, I had to make a post now that the newest trilogy is ending.
There are several different timelines within the franchise, and one of my favorite horror YouTube channels CZsWorld refers to it as the Halloween Express. It's a great way to explain the somewhat convoluted way that all 13 entries of the franchise can connect and he's made a handy little graphic that you can refer to in case you get confused about what stop you're on. There are 4 timelines within the Halloween series, so why don't we start at the beginning? Also, spoilers for most of the entries in the franchise because they've been out for over 40 years at this point. I won't be spoiling Halloween Ends, however, so don't worry about that!
This is what can be referred to as the "original" timeline or the "Thorn" timeline (with Halloween 4-6 being the Thorn trilogy). It starts off with the original Halloween from 1978, moving to the sequel, Halloween 2, which takes place on the same night as the first one. When we get to Halloween 4, it's several years later and we're now following the daughter of Laurie Strode (who is said to have died in a car crash) and her name is Jamie Lloyd. Jamie is now the main character for entries 4 (The Return of Michael Myers) and 5 (The Revenge of Michael Myers) but is eventually killed off in the 6th entry, The Curse of Michael Myers.
This timeline is the one that I grew up watching, and I absolutely loved Jamie's character when I was younger. Not only was Danielle Harris a wonderful actor at such a young age, but I really felt like I connected with her because I was also young when I was watching those films! And I think what really made me so scared of them was that I thought Michael Myers would come after me since Jamie and I were both young. Obviously, that was just my imagination running wild, but it definitely shows how effective these films are! This timeline also has Doctor Loomis and he's such an amazing and memorable character and probably the best part of this timeline.
The motivation that is given as to why Michael kills though, is not my favorite. I enjoy the idea that he's just an evil force moving throughout the town killing with no real reason or clear motivation as to why. With this timeline, it's explained that he's killing off his family members and is controlled by the Thorn Cult. It just makes me think of Michael as someone that can be pointed in a direction and told who to kill instead of a terrifying figure that murders whoever is in his path. While I do love Jamie and the 4th and 5th films are ones I'll always have a special place in my heart because I grew up with them, this timeline isn't high on my favorites list, unfortunately. But it's definitely not at the bottom. That's reserved for a different timeline.
Next, we'll talk about the 20-year timeline, which was my favorite (minus Resurrection because dear god why was that even made I don't understand) timeline for the longest time! In this one, Laurie and Michael are still siblings (as revealed in Halloween II), but the next entry in the series isn't for 20 years, which is where Halloween H20 comes in. And then there's Halloween Resurrection. As with the previous timeline, Michael's motivation for stalking Laurie is the same: she's his sister and he wants to kill her. Again, not my favorite motivation for why he is the way he is, but it's definitely not as bad as him being controlled by an evil cult that wants to harness his "powers" to eliminate his entire family. Although as someone who has siblings, I can kind of understand him wanting to get rid of Laurie. Michael clearly wants to be an only child!
H20 was my favorite Halloween film for years, most likely because it was from the very late 90s and similar to films like Scream, which was a great era for horror. And it's just a fantastic "ending" to Michael and Laurie's story!
With this timeline, most people (myself included) like to pretend that Resurrection doesn't even exist because it's awful. I watched an interview with Jamie Lee Curtis about H20 and Resurrection and she said that she wanted to kill off Michael Myers but couldn't due to a clause in the contract. But she was able to end off H20 with both Laurie and the audience believing that Michael was dead so she was satisfied. And then she had to come back and get killed off at the start of Resurrection which was...a choice. This entire movie is really a choice, to be honest. Imagine if I told you that there would be a Halloween film where Busta Rhymes would use kung fu to fight with Michael Myers while a garage was burning down around them. If you haven't seen it, yes, I'm quite serious.
The film is terribly cheesy, but it's also nostalgic for me because I remember being so excited that a new Halloween film was coming out! I heard commercials for it on the radio and couldn't believe that they were making another one and that I would get to see it. And then I saw it and it was a huge letdown, unfortunately. Honestly, if I could remove this film from the timeline, it would be pretty much the perfect trilogy! But that's not how this works so this timeline is more on the meh side for more people. 5 years after the release of Halloween Resurrection, the franchise would be brought back to life in an entirely new direction.
In 2005, Rob Zombie brought the world his version of Halloween. This version holds so much nostalgia and a special place in my heart because it was the first Halloween that I saw in theatres! I love this recreation of Michael because (at the time) it was the most brutal that we had ever seen him. And the motivation/reason as to why he killed was because he had a crappy home life and was bullied was probably the most realistic. Sadly, we've seen that the result of bullying can lead to some terrible events, so the fact that there was a possibility that this fictional serial killer was formed because of a very real thing that happens was terrifying.
Unfortunately, this entry in the timeline was not very well received. And then, with the release of the sequel in 2009, it just went downhill from there. But like I said, this version is special to me and even if it's not the best, it's important to me and the development of my taste in horror films. I loved Scout Taylor Compton as Laurie and when I realized they brought back Danielle Harris (who played Jamie in the original timeline) to play Annie Brackett, it just made it even more special to me! I loved Michael's brutality and the different approach that was taken with the story. It feels true enough to the original but you can absolutely see Rob Zombie's influences throughout.
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And now we've come to what is my favorite and (in my opinion) arguably the best timeline out of all of them! This timeline includes Halloween (1978), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends and is what I refer to as the Laurie Strode Saga. With this timeline, Michael's motivation isn't family or a cult, it's that he's just evil. Plain and simple. And sure, knowing you're related to a serial killer and that he's going to kill you because of that is scary. So is a bully growing up to be a 7ft tall serial killer. Those scenarios are both terrifying in their own way, there's no denying that. But something about a human just being evil with no real idea why he's evil or how it came about? Now that is horror.
Halloween (2018) came back as a direct sequel to the original Halloween and it was fantastic. It showed Laurie dealing with the trauma of what happened 40 years ago and the effect that it had on her daughter, Karen. Generational trauma is a real thing and this film showcased it really well. It had so many callbacks to both the original and little nods to other films in the timeline, and easter eggs are always something I enjoy! This also introduced Allyson, who is Laurie's granddaughter, and set it up for her to be the "new" Laurie. This was a great start to a new trilogy (although I don't think we necessarily knew it would be a trilogy at the time, but don't quote me on that) and the ending was explosive! And then, 3 years later, we got the masterpiece that is Halloween Kills.
Kills has an incredible flashback scene that shows a bit more of what happened in 1978 and it is stunning. It's clear the people that made this film went to great lengths to make it look like it was a scene they pulled from Halloween (1978) and plopped it into this sequel. When I saw Loomis and how well the makeup team did on the actor's prosthetics, it made me cry. You can really tell that a lot of love has been put into this trilogy, and it just keeps getting better with every entry.
With Halloween Ends, the David Gordon Green trilogy has recently come to an end, and what an ending it was. It's probably the most divisive Halloween film that's been released and people seem to either love it or hate it. Personally, I'm on team I love it and it's incredible! But not everyone is going to like it and I can totally understand and respect that. I genuinely feel like it was a fitting ending to this trilogy and that it goes back to the roots of the original Halloween, which was very character driven and more of a thriller than a horror film. It's almost like Ends is going full circle to close out the Laurie Strode story and I love that about this film.
"Four years after her last encounter with masked killer Michael Myers, Laurie Strode is living with her granddaughter and trying to finish her memoir. Myers hasn't been seen since, and Laurie finally decides to liberate herself from rage and fear and embrace life. However, when a young man stands accused of murdering a boy that he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that forces Laurie to confront the evil she can't control."
Without giving spoilers or going too much into detail, this film was beyond what I thought it would be. It's so tonally different from Kills but so similar to the original Halloween as I said above. Jamie Lee Curtis absolutely kills it as Laurie and the final battle between her and Michael was insane! Allyson is also incredible and I loved how they showed her basically trying to find herself after the events in 2018. Both she and Laurie are trying their best to move on with their lives but of course, they can't because this is a Halloween film. As with the previous two entries in the trilogy, there are little easter eggs and even references to other John Carpenter films throughout that are so fun to catch. It makes some interesting choices that people aren't really understanding, but I think a lot of those choices are what really make the film stand out. Is it the ending that everyone thought it would be? No. But is it a fitting end to the trilogy and to Laurie and Michael's 44-year story? Absolutely.
If you want to see some other creators talk about their thoughts on Halloween Ends, here are some of my favorite horror creators on YouTube that you should check out:
Jimmy Champagne
Possessedbyhorror
Zack Cherry
spookyastronauts
3C Films
Jimmy Champagne
Possessedbyhorror
Zack Cherry
spookyastronauts
3C Films
Not that she'll ever read this but to Jamie Lee Curtis, thank you. You showed me at 9 years old how to be a survivor, how to cope with fear, and how to not let the Boogeyman win. Thank you for being my Final Girl. Thank you for Laurie Strode.
New beginnings lay ahead.
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And that does it for my, I guess, love letter to the Halloween franchise. These films changed my life in so many ways and I will always be grateful that they were created. If you've seen Halloween Ends, I would love to know your thoughts on it in the comments below! Did you love it? Hate it? Let's talk about it! And also, let me know what your favorite film from the entire franchise is because I know everyone has a different favorite for one reason or another. Tomorrow is day 15 and I'll be giving you some monstrous book recommendations! Thanks for stopping by and I'll scare ya later!
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