Halloween Ends London film premiere 2023

1. Producer Jason Blum reiterated that, while it would not be the final film in the series, it will be the last Halloween movie under Blumhouse, with the rights of the film series reverting to producer Malek Akkad following the release of Ends. When Akkad himself was asked about the future after Ends, he half-jokingly quoted his late father Moustapha Akkad, who had always quoted series star Donald Pleasence: when asked how many Halloween movies he was going to make, he laughed and said, "I'm going to stop at 22."
2. In the beginning of the film, the movie that Corey and Jeremy are watching is John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), a clear reference to the original where Laurie and Tommy were watching the original The Thing from Another World (1951) and also a reference to Carpenter who directed both the original Halloween as well as The Thing (1982).
3. Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) is a new character inspired by Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) from Christine (1983). When we are introduced to Corey in Halloween Ends, he is shown to have a similar haircut, an identical blue button-up shirt and a pair of black glasses reminiscent of Arnie's in Christine.
4. Halloween Ends (2022) uses the blue font used in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) for it's opening credits. Halloween Ends was released 40 years after Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982).
5. Laurie is writing her memoir, entitled "Stalkers, Saviors, and Samhain". Samhain is the Celtic festival which eventually became the Halloween holiday we are familiar with, but it's also been referenced in prior Halloween movies. In Halloween II (1981), Dr. Loomis finds that Michael's written it on a blackboard, but there he translates the word to mean "lord of the dead," which isn't quite historically accurate. In Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Conal Cochran is a Celtic witch who plans a mass sacrifice of children on the night of Halloween. The holiday is also central to the plot of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995): the eponymous curse is the Curse of Thorn, which (in that movie's canon) was the force driving Myers to kill.
6. Towards the last act of the film, Allyson can be seen wearing an outfit similar to what Laurie Strode wore during the original Halloween (1978).
7. In December 2021, it was revealed that Kyle Richards would be reprising her role for the film. Initially, the character was not expected to return for the film, but following the positive reception to Richards' performance, the script was rewritten to give her an expanded role.
8. Guitar player Zach Myers of Shinedown has a small cameo during the first diner scene of the movie. His real name is in fact, Michael Zachary Myers. He has been on set of several Halloween movies over the past several years and Halloween is his favorite horror film. He also has several Michael Myers masks, some custom made, and even has several displayed on stage during concerts.
9. The high school kids ride in a black convertible, this is a homage to Halloween 5 and the character of Mike who obsesses over his black convertible in that film. Both cars end up being vandalized.
10. The trailers and promotional material for the film frequently used a shot of Laurie in her house, standing in a doorway with Michael off to her right, a recreation of the famous scare in Halloween (1978) where Michael comes out of the dark and stabs Laurie. This shot, however, is not in the final film.
11. The film also bears quite a few similarities to Halloween II (2009), with Michael having lived as a hermit for a few years by the time of the movie's events, a main character's book being a part of the plot, and perhaps most notably, both this movie and Halloween II are the only ones where Michael is clearly killed at the end (unless you also count Halloween II (1981) where he suffered a permanent death that was retconned in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)), and both times by Laurie to boot, if one takes the theatrical ending of Halloween II (2009) into account.
12. The use of a vehicle (tow truck) to attack and kill characters is a nod to "Christine," which was directed by John Carpenter.
13. There is a scene with Michael trying to put Laurie's hand in a garbage disposal that is very similar to a Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) scene in which Michael tries to put Charlie's hand inside of it.
14. Michael Myers doesn't appear until 38 minutes into the movie.
15. The movie ends on a series of shots of empty rooms in Laurie's house, similar to how Halloween (1978) ends.
16. In keeping tradition with Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills (2021) using the opening title fonts of Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981) respectively, Halloween Ends (2022) uses the blue font titles from Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982).
17. When Laurie sees Frank in the grocery store, the song by the band "Blue Öyster Cult's" "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" can be heard on the stores "Muzak" station. The song first appeared in the first film Halloween (1978) when Laurie and Annie and are riding in her car, and Myers follows closely behind it.
18. There's a shot of Laurie looking down from her home to see Corey near a bush looking up at her from the sidewalk, only for him to disappear, which recreates a similar setup in Halloween (1978) where she sees Michael in her backyard from her bedroom.
19. During a date with Allyson, Corey falls down and does the iconic rise up Michael Myers is famous for doing.
20. Ignoring the retcon of Halloween: Resurrection (2002) that was meant to allow the series to progress, this is the second Halloween film to depict Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) successfully killing Michael Myers. The first was in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), where Laurie decapitates Michael with an axe after he's trapped between a heavy tree branch and a toppled van during a car crash (though it wasn't actually Michael)
21. Sondra (Diva Tyler) somehow surviving getting stabbed in the neck and left to bleed out brings Halloween Kills (2021)' kill count down from 28 to 27.
22. The trailer for this film contained a shot that it perhaps shouldn't have. "Michael" is shown opening a door in Laurie's house with his left hand. In this shot, Michael has all five fingers on his left hand. Fans immediately claimed that this was not in fact Michael, as Laurie shot off two fingers on his left hand in Halloween (2018). Though the trailers pretty much showed nothing of the Corey storyline that takes up a majority of the film, fans figured out that something along those lines would happen in the film. Ironically, this shot from the trailer is not even in the final film.
23. As in Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Michael is reduced to eking out an existence in Haddonfield's sewers, only being provoked back into murder when someone invades what little he calls home.
24. In the climax of the film the character of Laurie hides from the Shape in a closet with a see-through door much like in the original film from 1978. The main difference being that in this film she attacks the Shape by jumping out of the closet and not the other way around. This could be understood as the character of Laurie overcoming her fears and taking control.
25. BODY COUNT: 18 (Dead couple in jeep flashback, hanging victim flashback, Jeremy Allen, homeless man, Officer Doug, Dr. Mathis, nurse Deb, Billy, Stacy, Ron, Terry, Margo, Mrs. Cunningham, Radio station receptionist, Willy, Corey Cunningham, Michael Myers).
26. Laurie Strode and Lindsey are the only characters to survive from Halloween (1978) to the end of Halloween Ends (2022). Lindsey is actually the only character to survive her every appearance in the series, living through Halloween 1, 2, 4, 9, 12 and 13, whereas Laurie was killed off in 4 (stated to have died off-screen), 8 and 10 (Director's Cut only).
27. This is the lowest kill count from Michael Myers in any Halloween film with just three (Officer Doug, nurse Deb and Corey Cunningham). The majority of the kills are from Corey Cunningham. The previous record holder was the original Halloween (1978), with five kills (and one dog).
28. When asked whether this film will be the final film in the series, producer Jason Blum confirmed there will be more films, because Malek Akkad has a clause prohibiting Michael Myers to be killed, and "what he does, only he knows, but we are done." Any future films will likely follow a separate continuity due to Michael's unambiguous death in this film.
29. Halloween Ends continues the accidental (or intentional) motif of characters surviving severe neck injuries: Michael Myers survives a knitting needle to the throat in Halloween (1978); Hawkins is stabbed in the neck in Halloween (2018), only to return in Halloween Kills (2021); Sondra is stabbed in the throat with a fluorescent light bulb in Kills but returns (albeit mute and paralyzed) in Halloween Ends (2022); and Corey survives a self-inflicted neck stabbing in Ends, although he probably would have bled to death if the Shape had not killed him moments later.
30. In a reversal of events from the original Halloween (1978) film, Michael Myers stabs Laurie Strode in the ear with a knitting needle.
31. At the end of Halloween Kills (2021), Laurie Strode suggested that Michael Myers has some supernatural qualities, in that he seems to thrive on the fear of the people, and becomes stronger with every kill. This seems to be confirmed in this movie: when Corey finds Michael, he seems substantially weakened, but after he brings him officer Doug to kill, Michael becomes noticeably more energetic and powerful.
32. Laurie has a framed photo of her and Annie and Lynda in her house that was a promo photo from the original Halloween.
33. The film's novelization, written by screenwriter Paul Brad Logan, reveals Terry, the main bully of Corey Cunningham, is the grandson of Ben Tramer, Laurie Strode's unseen crush from the original Halloween.
34. The guy who flashes Corey in the bar room scene says "See anything you like?" This is clearly a reference to P.J. Soles's character in Halloween (1978) saying the same thing to whom she believes to be her boyfriend Bob, but in reality is Michael Myers under a blanket. Having this said to Corey foreshadows that he is going to be the antagonist, and a partner of The Shape himself. Furthermore, the man saying it is Nick Castle, who played multiple iterations of Michael Myers over the years, thus symbolically passing the torch from one killer to the next.
35. Corey and Allyson discuss a metaphorical desire to burn Haddonfield down to be free from their bad experiences there. Corey takes this idea literally; after killing Kid Willy, he sets fire to the shock jock's radio station. Seeing the blaze as she drives away from Laurie's house is what makes Allyson realize just how twisted Corey had become.
36. During their final confrontation, Michael's face is reflected in Laurie's knife. This is a bit of a visual callback to the posters for Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), and Halloween: Resurrection (2002).
37. Corey's villainous turn is foreshadowed by his dismissive attitude when it comes to babysitting. Previous representations of this relationship (Laurie, Vicky, etc.) showed the babysitters and their charges getting along quite well, with the worst being some snarky banter between Vicky and Julian. However, in comparison, Corey puts on an obviously inappropriate movie for Jeremy and the kid is nothing less than a complete ass toward Corey. Later, Corey also slowly walks up to the attic when he hears screams, a stark difference to when Vicky frantically ushered Julian away in Halloween (2018).
38. Corey primarily uses Michael's killing methods to take revenge on people who have tormented or intimidated him. However, two characters he does not kill in this manner are Mr. and Mrs. Allen (Jeremy's parents), even though Mrs. Allen confronts and berates him for being at the party following Jeremy's death.
39. Originally, it was presumed that the major events of David Gordon Green's Halloween trilogy would take over the place of a single Halloween Night with Laurie Strode killing Michael Myers finally at morning. Obviously, that didn't happen, as there is a four year time jump between Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, but Michael is still killed in the early morning by Laurie Strode and then his body is disposed of around dawn.
40. Michael's death at the hands of Laurie Strode at the climax of the film with him bleeding out from major arterial wounds to his arms is a near-copy of the death of the head nurse from Halloween II. The real difference, though is in Halloween II the head nurse's caused by Michael off-camera tying her to a gurney and bleeding her out with an IV line, while in Halloween Ends Michael Myers dies from an intense fight with Laurie Strode that ends with Michael Myers pinned by his hands to a table and he receives several stabbings and cuts to his body that make him bleed out to death.
41. This movie seemingly puts to rest the debate over who Frank Hawkins is to Laurie Strode by confirming that he wasn't one of her two failed marriages that happened between the events of the original Halloween and Halloween 2018, but is certainly a love interest for her who cares about her and her family. However, this causes some continuity trouble with Halloween Kills, which seemed to imply he was Karen Strode's father. * Halloween Kills implied that Laurie and Frank had a one night stand that Laurie didn't remember clearly due to alcoholism. It never implied Frank was Karen's father. You assumed that.

Genre

Horror,Thriller

Cast

as Laurie

as Allyson

as The Shape

as Corey

as Frank

as Officer Mulaney

as Terry

as Stacy

as Margo

as Billy

as Joan

as Ronald

as Nurse Deb

as Willy the Kid

as Lindsey

as Dr. Mathis

as Jeremy

as Mrs. Allen