The Halloween reboot timeline has come to a close with Halloween Ends, and it made sure to treat viewers with a bunch of Easter eggs and references to other movies in the Halloween franchise and other horror classics as well. The Halloween franchise was brought back to life with a new trilogy, directed by David Gordon Green, which serves as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 movie, ignoring all the movies that came after it, creating yet another timeline in the franchise.
The first movie in the trilogy, simply тιтled Halloween, took viewers back to Haddonfield to reunite with Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and meet her daughter, Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak). Michael Myers escaped from Smith’s Grove and returned to Haddonfield for a new murder spree on Halloween night. Halloween Kills begins where the previous movie ended, and Halloween Ends is set four years later. The last film features several Easter eggs and references to the now-ignored sequels and other horror classics.
Halloween Ends’ Blue Credits
Halloween III: Season Of The Witch
Halloween Ends’ opening and closing credits leave the traditional orange letters aside and opt for a blue font. This references the forgotten movie in the Halloween franchise: Halloween III: Season of the Witch. David Gordon Green explained this in an interview (via Comic Book):
“Even the font of [Halloween Ends] is blue instead of orange when we’re doing our тιтle sequences, which is a little nod to Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which was its own curveball to the franchise.”
The third Halloween movie is the only one that isn’t part of the Michael Myers universe, and instead, it introduced the audience to Silver Shamrock. This company produces Halloween masks but is linked to ancient pagan rituals with a plan to kill hundreds of children on Halloween.
John Carpenter planned to make a different horror movie each year under the Halloween banner. However, when the studio demanded that he bring back Michael Myers for the fourth movie, he quit the franchise he had helped create. Season of the Witch has become a cult classic, and the previous Halloween movies in the reboot timeline also featured references to it with the appearance of the Silver Shamrock masks. Halloween Ends went for a more subtle nod.
A Villainous Piano Tune
Mr. Allen Plays A Famous Horror Tune
Halloween Ends opens with a scene set in 2019, one year after the events of Halloween and Halloween Kills. In it, Corey Hunningham arrives at the Allen family’s house to babysit their young son, Jeremy. While Mrs. Allen gives instructions to Corey, Mr. Allen is playing the piano, and the piece he’s playing is not only a nod to villains in film history but also a subtle hint at what Corey would become years later.
Mr. Allen was playing Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” which is used to represent villainy in movies, as did classic movies like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932), The Black Cat (1934), and The Phantom of the Opera (1962). It was also played in films like Fantasia (1940), which was terrifying in its own right, and the film Noir Sunset Boulevard (1950), in which its history in horror movies was parodied.
Babysitters Watching “The Thing”
Another John Carpenter Movie Plays On TV
It’s almost a “must” to watch horror movies on Halloween night, and that’s precisely what Laurie Strode did with Tommy Doyle and Lindsey Wallace in 1978 – and so did Corey with Jeremy in 2019. The real reference, though, is in the movies they watched that night: Laurie and the kids watched the 1951 movie The Thing from Another World, based on the 1938 novella Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell, and which got another adaptation in 1982 by John Carpenter, тιтled The Thing.
Since this is a sequel to the original Halloween, they are watching a remake of the same movie Laurie watched in that film.
Corey and Jeremy are seen watching The Thing, a double nod to John Carpenter and the first Halloween movie. It is a fantastic Easter egg since it has multiple meanings. Since this is a sequel to the original Halloween, they are watching a remake of the same movie Laurie watched in that film. However, even more important is that, other than Halloween, John Carpenter’s The Thing is considered his horror masterpiece, even though it took years before fans and critics caught onto its brilliance.
Oscar’s Mom’s Fate
The Fallout From Halloween Kills
In Halloween, viewers meet Allyson’s boyfriend and some of their friends, among them Oscar (Drew Scheid), who confesses his feelings to Allyson while they walk back home after a messy Halloween party. Oscar was killed minutes later by Michael Myers, and in Halloween Kills, his mother found his body at the hospital amidst the riot that was taking place there. Unfortunately, Oscar’s mom never recovered from that loss.
At the beginning of Halloween Ends, it’s shown that she hanged herself in a costume like the one Oscar was wearing when he was killed. This wasn’t so much an Easter egg as it was finishing off one of the many stories of trauma in Haddonfield. While this Halloween trilogy was about Michael Myers’s reign of terror, the final movie was about how a town deals with the trauma the murders left behind, and Oscar’s mother was a perfect example of how it can destroy someone.
Laurie’s Newspaper Clippings
This References The Original Murder Of Laurie’s Friends In 1978
Jumping to the present year, 2022, Laurie is shown working on her memoir. In her studio, there’s a wall with newspaper clippings of Michael Myers’s past crimes, starting with one that seems to read “Sheriff’s daughter slain,” in reference to the murder of Annie Brackett, Sheriff Brackett’s daughter and Laurie’s best friend in 1978. Next is one from 1963, which reads “6 Year Old Kills Teen Sister In Halloween Tragedy,” along with the obituaries of Laurie’s friend Lynda and her boyfriend Bob.
One of these reports is on the demolition of the Myers house, and one from 2018 reads “Myers Manhunt Underway.” There was some criticism of how the reboot timeline seemed to have forgotten about Laurie’s friends, who were murdered in 1978, so Halloween Ends showed that they were definitely not forgotten, and it also revealed that the original Myers’ house was destroyed.
Samhain & The Cult of Thorn
From Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
The тιтle of Laurie’s memoir is a subtle reference to the Cult of Thorn from Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, one of the most criticized elements of the franchise. Laurie’s memoir is тιтled Stalkers, Saviors, and Samhain, the latter being the link with the Cult of Thorn. Halloween 6 revealed that the reason Michael Myers was evil and somewhat indestructible was that he was inflicted with Thorn, an ancient Druid curse that led him to kill his bloodline on Halloween night.
This Easter egg at least references the ignored films.
However, it got out of control, and Michael ended up killing the leader of the cult and the doctors involved in it as well. The entire Cult of Thorn timeline ran from the first and second films to Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. After that last movie, the franchise rebooted and ignored the latter three, only keeping the first two movies canon. This Easter egg at least references the ignored films.
Allyson’s Boss
He Was Mentioned In Halloween Kills
In Halloween Ends, Allyson works at a doctor’s office. She’s waiting to hear back about a promotion, but, unfortunately, Allyson is pᴀssed over in favor of Deb (Michele Dawson), a fellow nurse who is having an affair with their boss, Dr. Mathis (Michael O’Leary). This is the first time Dr. Mathis is shown. However, he had been mentioned before in Halloween Kills.
Vanessa (Carmela McNeal) and her husband Marcus (Michael Smallwood), a doctor and a nurse, respectively, complain at the bar about Marcus’ boss behaving inappropriately during a Christmas party. Halloween Ends confirms that Dr. Mathis wasn’t exactly the most professional man at his job. This was a nice little callback, not so much an Easter egg but a moment tying all the characters together and showing how small and connected the town of Haddonfield was at this time.
Sondra’s Fate
One Of Michael Myers’s Victims Lived
Halloween Kills has the biggest kill count in the Halloween franchise, but Halloween Ends revealed that not all those who were brutally attacked by Michael in 2018 died. One of them was Sondra Dickerson (Diva Tyler), Laurie’s neighbor, who was attacked in her home by Michael Myers and who stabbed her in the neck with a tube light in one of the most disturbing scenes of the movie.
Halloween Ends revealed that she survived but was left with severe damage, and her sister made sure Laurie knew what happened to her. They accosted Laurie in a parking lot of the supermarket, and she saw that Sondra is now wheelchair-bound and unable to talk – another one of the franchise’s many sad endings. This is also important in showing the residual trauma that the serial killer left on this small town and its residents – many of whom had to carry on after he disappeared.
Nick Castle’s Cameo
Castle Was The Original Michael Myers Actor
In the Halloween reboot timeline, Michael Myers is played by two actors: James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle, the latter the original actor from Carpenter’s 1978 movie. In Halloween Ends, Nick Castle had another role as the weirdo at the Halloween party who “flashes” Corey when opening his trench coat and revealing a costume depicting human guts (and various condoms hanging from the coat).
He also had a small role in the first Halloween in a window scene Easter egg as Michael Myers.
This was a great moment for fans of the franchise, as it was cool to see Castle in the movie as someone other than Michael Myers for a change. On a side note, while Castle played Michael Myers in the original film, he didn’t play Michael Myers in the reboot trilogy. Instead, James Jude Courtney played Michael Myers, and Castle only supplied the breathing sounds for the serial killer. He also had a small role in the first Halloween in a window scene Easter egg as Michael Myers.
Michael Myers’ Goes Pennywise
Michael Myers Sewer Living Pays Homage To It
After killing the Haddonfield mob and Karen at the end of Halloween Kills, Michael Myers disappeared without a trace, but the residents of Haddonfield never forgot about his crimes. Halloween Ends revealed that Michael had been hiding in the sewers of Haddonfield for four years, and, according to the homeless man Corey came across, he took people in there with him, leaving viewers to imagine what he did with the bodies.
This is very similar to what IT/Pennywise did in Stephen King’s novel (and its adaptations) IT, as the creature lived in the sewers of Derry, Maine, and came out to terrorize the town every 27 years. The entire idea of dragging victims into the sewers is straight out of the King story. While one is demonic and the other is just a hulking serial killer, it is still a terrifying proposition and a nice homage to King’s classic tale.
Corey Stalks Laurie
A Scene Very Familiar To One From 1978’s Halloween
After his encounter with Michael Myers in the sewers of Haddonfield, Corey embraces the evil inside of him and starts to mirror some of Michael’s trademark actions and moves, such as stalking Laurie and Allyson. While at her studio, Laurie looks out the window and sees Corey standing outside, looking at her house, very much like Michael Myers did back in 1978.
This time, Laurie came out to confront Corey, who told her he just wanted to see Allyson, but that was enough to raise many red flags. This entire scene was almost sH๏τ-for-sH๏τ the scene from the first Halloween movie, and it was nice foreshadowing to the idea that Corey could become the next Michael Myers, even though he ended up as a much more tragic figure thanks to his past and how the people of Haddonfield treated him over the years.
Deb’s Death
Michael Repeats A Favorite Kill
Having gotten a taste of what killing feels like, Corey teams up with Michael Myers, and they go after Dr. Mathis and Deb at the former’s home. There, Corey goes after Dr. Mathis while Michael targets Deb. Although Michael has killed people in different ways, he has one trademark move: impaling his victims on the wall, as he did with Lynda’s boyfriend, Bob, in 1978, with Dave in 2018, and now with Deb in 2022.
This was a nice callback and brought back memories of many of Michael Myers’s previous kills. While some slasher killers (like Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger) find the most inventive ways to kill people differently each time, Michael is a creature of habit and prefers to kill people in much the same way every time. He isn’t a creative killer – he is just a force of nature, and he showed that in Halloween Ends.
Corey Cunningham Rises Like Michael Myers
Michael Myers Always Did This Exact Same Thing
Corey Cunningham mirrored Michael Myers in different ways, and one of the most disturbing but interesting ones was in how he rose. After falling off the radio station’s roof, Corey rose very much as Michael Myers used to, by only lifting his head and torso and staying in a sitting position before getting up. This is something that fans of Michael Myers have gotten used to since the very first movie in the franchise.
In that film, Myers is down, and Laurie Strode thinks she is safe. However, as she was looking away at something else, Michael slowly sat up behind her in one of the most iconic and terrifying moments in horror movie history. This is so iconic that it has been honored in many different ways, including by one of professional wrestling’s greatest wrestlers. The Undertaker always mimicked this Michael Myers move in his matches, as the “ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Man” sitting up.
Laurie, Lynda, & Annie
Laurie Remembers Her Lost Friends
The newspaper clippings at the beginning of Halloween Ends weren’t the only references to Laurie’s friends who were murdered in 1978. Laurie keeps her friends close to her heart and has a picture of her and her friends together in her kitchen, which can be seen at different points in Halloween Ends, and at one moment, the camera shows it in detail.
This is another great moment that ensures that the viewers don’t forget about the trauma from Laurie Strode’s teenage years when Michael Myers first showed up and terrorized her and left her with great trauma, scarred for life. She lost her best friends to the masked killer, and while she never forgot Michael Myers and always wanted revenge, she also never forgot her friends, and this pH๏τo shows she always remembered the loss of innocence.
Laurie & The Knitting Needle
She Used This In The First Movie Against Michael Myers
When Laurie first encountered Michael Myers in 1978 at the Doyles’ house, she famously used a knitting needle to defend herself and stabbed Michael in the neck, so she knows well that this could buy her some time when fighting The Boogeyman. Luckily, in Halloween Ends, she falls close to her knitting needles and takes one, but as she’s about to stab Michael, he stops her, and their fight turns out to be a lot more difficult than the one 44 years before.
It was a great Halloween Ends Easter egg because it brought back memories of her past success but then turned the tables and showed that these tricks wouldn’t always work twice.
This was a welcome callback to that first movie and a nice way to remember how Laurie fought Michael Myers before. It was a great Halloween Ends Easter egg because it brought back memories of her past success but then turned the tables and showed that these tricks wouldn’t always work twice. Luckily, Laurie was ready to keep fighting and found other ways to take it to the Boogeyman.
Michael Myers’ Reflection on The Knife
This Pays Homage To An Older Movie Poster
When Laurie has finally immobilized Michael by pinning him to the table and throwing the fridge over him, she takes a knife from a drawer and prepares to stab him. As she raises the knife, Michael’s face is reflected on it, and this is a subtle nod to some of the now-ignored sequels. This is mostly a reference to two of the Halloween movies that are no longer canon and specifically to the posters and promotional materials from those movies.
The posters of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, and Halloween Resurrection all show Michael Myers’s face next to his knife. Specifically, the one in Halloween: Resurrection has the main cast’s “reflections” on the knife. None of these movies are canon in the new timeline, with one being the last of the Cult of Thorn movies and the other two being the ones where Laurie died, and the film franchise tried to move on with new victims. This, at least, remembered them.
The Haddonfield Procession
Survivors Go To Watch Michael’s End
Once Michael Myers is killed, Laurie, Allyson, and Hawkins (Will Patton) tie his body to Laurie’s car and take it to an industrial shredder. This attracts the residents of Haddonfield, who follow them in a procession, and among them are a couple of survivors of Michael’s past murder sprees, as are Sondra and Julian (Jibrail Nantambu), the young boy Allyson’s friend was babysitting in Halloween and who managed to escape from The Boogeyman as he killed Vicky and her boyfriend, Dave.
This is very important as not everyone Michael Myers attacked died. Many people saw loved ones and friends die at his hands. While so many people lashed out at Laurie Strode, it was Michael Myers who traumatized this whole town. Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends are movies about the trauma that Michael left on Haddonfield and not so much about the Boogeyman himself. These surviving victims had to be there to help them mark an end to the terror that engulfed their community.
Laurie’s Outfit
She Dressed Similar To How She Did In 1978’s Halloween
Halloween Ends lived up to its name and saw the final confrontation between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers. Along with the nod to the original movie through Laurie using a knitting needle to defend herself, she wore a similar outfit to the one in Carpenter’s Halloween. In her first and final battle with Michael Myers, Laurie wore dark pants with a blue blouse, in a heartwarming nod to the original film, with the big difference being that she got to defeat The Boogeyman this time.
The idea of having Laurie Strode dress in a similar manner – 40 years apart – was not just an Easter egg. This was a way for the film to visually and thematically show that she was completing her journey as the heroine. She was in the same place she was in as a teenager, fighting an unstoppable monster, but this time, she was able to defeat her Boogeyman and take him down for good. This was the same person, only older, and she finally achieved her victory.
Stills Of Laurie’s House
These Scenes Wrap Up The Story
The original Halloween movie ends with stills of the Doyles’ house, where the first encounter between Laurie and Michael happened, and then it cuts to the credits. Halloween Ends follows those same steps and ends with stills of Laurie’s house, the final one being a still of her studio, with boxes all over and Michael Myers’ mask on the table in the middle of the room.
Having Michael’s mask there on the table is nice symbolism that reveals she has won and claimed her prize.
These sH๏τs were important to show that the story had ended. The sH๏τs in the Doyle’s house showed the start of the battle, where Laurie fought to survive as a teenager and where her trauma began. It moves to her studio, showing the final spot where she ended up winning her battle and surviving. Having Michael’s mask there on the table is nice symbolism that reveals she has won and claimed her prize. She took the mask, and the Boogeyman is ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.
Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper”
The Same Song Played In The 1978 Movie
Last but not least, Halloween Ends includes one last reference to the original movie and Laurie’s deceased friends. In Halloween, when Laurie and Annie are driving to the Doyles’ and the Wallaces’ houses, the song playing on the radio is Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper,” which feels like a dark moment of foreshadowing for both characters. That was the truth, as Michael Myers soon showed up and started killing everyone and the 40-year battle began.
Halloween Ends also used this rock classic, but it plays over the end credits, giving it a whole new meaning as now Michael Myers is gone for good, but as Laurie said, evil just changes its shape. With the idea of the тιтle, it sounds like the evil in Haddenfield has finally pᴀssed over the town, and the words say not to fear the reaper, and with Michael ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, they no longer have to worry about the Boogeyman sending them to the reaper because he is finally ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and gone.
