It may seem a bit early but on October 13, Halloween ends – or at least it does for Laurie Strode. Halloween Ends is allegedly the last stand for Jamie Lee Curtis’ iconic final girl, which culminates a 44-year journey for the actor.
It’s also the end of a journey for David Gordon Green, the writer and director behind the trilogy of Halloween reboot films. In an interview with Gizmodo Australia, Green revealed what audiences can expect from Laurie Strode and Michael Myers’ final fight in Halloween Ends.
Halloween Ends picks up four years after the events of Halloween Kills, which saw Michael Myers embark on a murderous rampage through the town of Haddonfield. After setting Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills in the space of a few days, Green said Halloween Ends needed some breathing room for practical reasons.
“Laurie was so bedridden in Halloween Kills after being stabbed in the stomach that you really couldn’t engage her with too much physical activity,” Green explained.
“The downward spiral of Haddonfield was really interesting to me as well,” he added, revealing the community has since processed the events of 2018 and that audiences will see the “after effects” of that trauma on the town.
This time jump sees Laurie living with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and writing her memoir. Following the tragic death of her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) in Halloween Kills, Green described Laurie’s journey in Halloween Ends as a “second chance at motherhood”.
“It began for me as an exploration of a different side of Laurie than we’d seen before, one that was based on her guilt of her previous parenting experience,” Green said.
“Her raising of Karen was very different, it was very overprotective, very burdened with paranoia. So here she’s baking pumpkin pies, decorating the house for Halloween and focusing on optimism and opportunity and encouraging Allison to go on a date and find someone.”
Allyson does in fact find someone in Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), an elusive lonely figure plagued by a tragic accident from his youth. Green said Corey’s character allowed him to explore the “manifestation of evil”.
“You can only go so far with your exploration of Michael Myers because you don’t want to expose too much of his back story and there’s no real motive he has. He can’t talk, so you can only go so far,” Green said. “So I wanted a character that could kind of plant seeds of conversations of things that I’ve been curious about, through another character that could not only bring those stories into a little bit of the spotlight but also illustrate Laurie Strode’s instinct as she’s putting together some of her concerns about Corey’s growth.”
Speaking of the manifestation of evil, Michael Myers hasn’t been seen in Haddonfield since that fateful October night in 2018, but it wouldn’t be a Halloween movie without him.
Trailers have revealed that the iconic serial killer will return to haunt Laurie again in Halloween Ends, but this time their fight will be a finale to almost half a century of pain. Green explained to us the process of coming up with a fight sequence that could live up to such expectations:
“On the page, it was kind of a rambunctious brawl and then we sat around with the actors and our stunt coordinators and said how do we infuse some emotion, some storytelling, some intimacy to this?” the director said.
“These are two characters that are in their own life survivors and have gone through 44 years of pain. What is it like when they look each other in the eye and say only one of us will survive.”
Michael Myers has racked up some pretty spectacular kills throughout his time on screen, but Green pointed to one murder that always stuck out to him from his trilogy.
“The one I really love is in Halloween Kills when he stabs Little John in the armpit…” Green said. “No matter how many times I viewed that movie in the editing room every time I’d see an armpit stab I’d get pretty squeamish. A lot of the ones I get pretty desensitised to because it really is arts and crafts, but that one just always hurts my feelings.”
When it came to getting inspiration for every one of these kills, Green said he would rewatch Bob Clark’s Black Christmas before each of his Halloween movies, a film that was also pivotal for John Carpenter when he made the original Halloween.
“There’s a murder sequence with Christmas carollers coming to the door and it’s intercut with blades and knives and screams and angelic children singing outside. So it’s outside of the linear narrative of the film and I love when a movie can be bold and haunting in that respect,” Green reflected.
Michael Myers has also been known as quite an enigmatic presence since his debut in 1978, with many debating whether the serial killer is really just a man in the mask or fuelled by something supernatural.
Green said he hopes that Halloween Ends will add to that conversation, saying he’s placed characters that “feed some of those curiosities” in his trilogy. But as for his personal stance:
“I don’t think he’s supernatural, I think that he’s spectacularly resilient,” Green said.
Will that resilience see the iconic serial killer survive another Halloween night? You’ll be able to find out when Halloween Ends releases in cinemas on October 13.