Could ‘Halloween’ (Ends), one of hollywoods most infamous franchises come to a definite end this October? The ‘Halloween’ franchise is synonymous for being one of the most controversial franchises in not only Horror history, but film history in itself by being one of the most beloved, yet one of the most scattered franchises to date. Michael Myers first outing murdering babysitters started in 1978, written, directed, and composed by John Carpenter to become a smash hit and birthed the creation of Halloweens most haunting character.
Credit: Sacred Bones RecordsThe Complicated History
Before David Gordon Greene teamed up with Danny McBride to co-write, what is now known as a legacy sequel to John Carpenter’s first film, while ignoring every film that had come after it. After John Carpenter’s smash hit ‘Halloween,’ studio executives were quick to talk out a sequel much at Carpenters dis-may. October 30, 1981. Just in time for Halloween the sequel dropping. Promising more kills, blood, and action. A choice that an uncredited Moustapha Akkad had suggested when in the films development stage. By the time the fans walked out of the theater everyone had known Michaels, true lineage.
Only one year later, ‘Halloween 3: Season of the Witch’ drops. Why release an almost obvious sequel to the other two previous films, in just under a year from the last? Well – that’s because it is a film totally unrelated to the two previous films by Carpenter. When ‘Halloween’ was originally a concept. Producers thought of the ‘Halloween’ series as an anthology series, almost like American Horror Story. Where each film in the franchise is it’s own, unrelated story to any of the others and all take place on Halloween night. ‘Halloween 3: Season of the Witch’ was the first true anthology film in the franchise, unwillingly becoming its last. After the poor reviews with a 47% Tomato-meter and a 27% for it’s Audience Score. The studio went into panic and made ‘Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers’ a direct sequel of the first two Carpenter films. When failed to get Jamie Lee Curtis back, Moustapha Akkad wanted to lean the story to Michaels niece Jamie Lloyd, played by Danielle Harris. With slightly better reviews, compared to ‘Halloween 3.’ A 33% on the Tomato-meter and a higher Audience score with 53%. Between better reviews and a better turn at the box office. Mr. Akkad turned the ‘Halloween’ franchise as we know it from an anthology series of films. With ‘Halloween: The Return of Michael Myers’ releasing as the sixth film in the franchise. This would be the last film to follow the original storyline before washing the timeline.
Three years later. Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the franchise with a direct follow up to ‘Halloween 2,’ while ignoring everything that had come after in the timeline. They made a short little duo-ology with ‘Halloween H20’ referring to the franchises twentieth anniversary! Even with the return of the original scream queen, that wasn’t enough to bring back audiences to the theater seats as ‘Halloween H20’ and ‘Halloween:Resurrection’ caved with okay to out right disastrous reviews. H20 received a 52% on the Tomato-meter, with a 49% Audience score. While, Resurrection has a 12% Tomato-meter score and a 25% Audience score and went on to become a meme Goliath.
Credit: Universal PicturesAfter the failure to re-launch the franchise with Jamie Lee Curtis, a reboot had been decided on. But, the challenge arose of who could take the place of the legend himself, John Carpenter. The reboot landed on the front door of Rob Zombie. Zombie took the approach of giving Michael, more of an “origin story” per-say. This choice had fans divided on whether this was a necessary change, while bringing something new to the table for the iconic villain. The franchise returned in 2007 with a 28% Tomatometer score, and a 59% Audience score. Showing the vase difference in opinion on the franchises return between fans and critics. Zombie was soon asked to return with a sequel. That sequel dropped, 2 years later in 2009. A sequel that took a full turn and Zombie decided to go towards a more original story. The reception was slightly worse, then his reboot in 2007 with a 23% Tomatometer score and a 44% Audience score. The franchise was laid to rest after the sequel and would return again in just under a decade.
Credit: Universal / BlumhouseLegacy Trilogy
The ‘Halloween’ franchise finally returned in what was almost a decades long wait. David Gordon Green and Danny McBride came along to bring in their own version of what came after the first film only and retconned completely the family lineage connection between Michael and Laurie Strode as brother and sister. An idea that heavily interest fans in hope of getting a refreshing take on the Michael Myers story.
Green and McBride released the first installment of their latest trilogy in October of 2018 to really good reviews. The movie received a 79% Tomato-meter score and a 71% from the Audience score. This was a massive success going on to accumulate $76.2 million dollars opening weekend on a $49 million dollar budget, almost guaranteeing a sequel in the works right after its premiere. Surely enough the studio went on t green light two more films under Greens belt for his own trilogy. This trilogy came at a unique time as with the release of “Halloween” (2018), came a line of legacy sequels came to be and started talks on. We got a Scream movie dedicated to this idea of legacy sequels. We got a legacy sequel to ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ only this February. Currently there are talks for ‘Friday The 13th’ to finally make its comeback in a possible 2023 film, will it be a legacy sequel?
‘Halloween Kills’ released with poor critical reception at a 39% on the Tomato-meter, but a 66% for an Audience score. The sequel to Greens film proved to be quite divisive between critics and fans as this was the sequel that everybody thought they wanted. More Michael, more kills. Yet, it wasn’t that simple. The film itself was a very “middle of the movie” type of film and while it did offer really great and gory kills. The film fell flat on telling any type of intriguing story and never really ever feeling like it had a reason to be there or was trying to expand anything in this Halloween timeline mythology.
Will Halloween Actually End?
Going into the latest entry releasing this October, ‘Halloween Ends.’ A bunch of the community and myself included, are asking how faithful the title actually is. Will Halloween actually end? and if so, for how long? These are the questions that more than likely will be answered in a month and a halves time. For now all we have to go off of is a roughly minute and twenty second teaser and some rumors. But, as too if I believe the franchise will end? no. I do think this will be the final Michael Vs. Laurie storyline and possibly furthering Michael’s story outside of the Strode bloodline. With the newest film we know there will be a new character introduced named Corey Cunningham played by Rohan Campbell. Reportedly Corey will play a big role in the movie and possibly co-leading with Laurie and her granddaughter Allyson.While the storyline isn’t known at the moment, it is known that the main story will revolve around the new Corey character. Which, I find kind odd for a Laurie Vs. Michael finale that they have been promoting since the 2018 one was released and Laurie and Allyson were put on the back burner as characters in ‘Halloween Kills.’ If the Corey character is as important as it is told, then I believe he might be the character furthering the story. Now, I don’t believe that is all set in stone.
Blumhouse owns the rights to the ‘Halloween’ franchise, meaning they can only make stuff using that IP (Intellectual Property). Nobody outside of Blumhouse can make anything ‘Halloween’ or Michael Myers related without their involvement. So, with Blumhouse owning the rights and having David Gordon Greene being hired to do a new ‘The Exorcist’ trilogy for Blumhouse.
With David moving on, the rights being in the hands of BlumHouse, and internal focus shifting to ‘The Exorcist’ trilogy after ‘Halloween Ends.’ I think ‘Halloween Ends’ won’t be the end of the franchise, but I believe we will not see Michael for the indefinite future, unless Ends turns out to be a massive hit and fans are open with continuing with Corey and leaving the Strode storyline to end.
‘Halloween Ends’ releases in Theaters and on Peacock October 14.
