Halloween Ends: Why Corey Cunningham Is the Franchise's Best New Character in Decades
Last week, Halloween Ends released in theaters and on Peacock, and to call it divisive would be an understatement. The final film in the current Halloween continuity was hardly what anyone expected, and has resulted in a wide range of opinions. A big part of that can be attributed to Corey Cunningham, a new character played by actor Rohan Campbell. Corey played a much bigger role in the film's narrative than most fans were expecting, but the character is easily one of the best new additions to the series in decades.
WARNING: Spoilers below for Halloween Ends
The beginning of Halloween Ends plays completely against what we've come to expect from a slasher film. The movie opens on babysitter Corey Cunningham, a 21-year-old that would seem to be Michael's next victim. Brilliantly, the film challenges that expectation, with a young Jeremy teasing Corey that Michael Myers kills babysitters, not kids (a line that pays off a moment in Halloween 2018 where Michael does indeed spare a baby). Jeremy decides to scare Corey by making it seem like Michael has broken into the house, relying heavily on the killer's past actions to put fear into his babysitter. In a way, Corey acts as a surrogate for the viewer in this sequence, as both the character and viewer are simultaneously searching for Micheal Myers. The twist is that Michael is not actually in the house, but the tension brought on by his past killings leads Corey to accidentally kill Jeremy. It's a moment that subverts slasher tropes, setting the stage for a very different Halloween film.
Where Michael has no tragic event that started him on his path to becoming a serial killer (outside of the Rob Zombie remake), Corey becomes defined by Jeremy's death. Three years pass between Corey's accidental killing of Jeremy and the rest of the film, and we can see how his once-promising life has been upended. The formerly outgoing Corey has become quiet and depressed, desperately trying to avoid fights with those that would label him a murderer. However, after Corey has a chance encounter with the long-missing Micheal Myers, he begins intentionally taking lives.
Halloween Ends does not offer any definitive answers about why Corey goes from tragic figure to a new incarnation of The Shape. Some fans have surmised that Michael's evil transferred to Corey when they first locked eyes. There is some precedence for something like that in past Halloween continuities; at the end of Halloween 4, we see Jamie Lloyd kill her foster mother despite no previous signs of evil (though that act was retconned away in Halloween 5). Halloween Ends is vague about Corey's change, never explicitly telling audiences whether it's Michael's influence that changed Corey, or if their initial encounter simply encourages the man to lean into everyone else's expectations. The movie leans towards the former, but allows audiences to decide for themselves.
While the idea of Michael passing on his evil to others will likely appeal to many series fans, there's something equally terrifying about the other option: that this all happened because of a twist of fate. In Batman: The Killing Joke, the Joker posits that one bad day could "reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy." The role of fate has been a key theme in the series since the original Halloween, so it only makes sense to see it play such an integral part in this story. Viewers will never actually know if Corey was fated to become a murderer after Jeremy's death, or if he might have gone down a different path had the specter of Micheal Myers not been looming over Haddonfield. His mother seems to believe the latter, telling Laurie that the town would have rallied around Corey, but it needed a new Boogeyman to fear thanks to Michael's absence.
One of the biggest complaints about Halloween Ends is that Michael Myers isn't physically prevalent throughout. For that reason, some have compared it to Halloween III: Season of the Witch, a movie where Michael appears for just a tiny cameo on TV. Others even argued that the movie would have been better as a standalone film unconnected to Haddonfield, or Laurie Strode, or even Michael Myers. However, Michael's role in Corey's arc is pivotal, and the villain's impact on the narrative is an important one. Even when he can't be seen, he's the driving force behind everything that happens to Corey. The film is about the different ways that tragedy can impact a community, and Michael's influence on Corey's life begins long before they begin killing together.
In an ongoing horror series, it's rare for characters to get major arcs; the fact of the matter is that most characters simply don't live long enough for that sort of thing. The Halloween franchise has the Strode family, Sam Loomis, and Jamie Lloyd, but few others. The same can be said for the casts of Scream, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Most new characters introduced in these franchises end up forgettable, especially those that die in the same movie they're introduced in. Corey Cunningham is a rare exception, as his impact on the franchise will be talked about and dissected by horror fans for decades to come.
Halloween Ends is an overall unique entry in a series that now spans 13 films and several different continuities. While it's easy to see how some fans might have preferred a movie closer in tone to the 2018 Halloween, director David Gordon Green instead gave us a much different storyline than any we've seen before, while paying off themes and ideas that span both this recent trilogy, and past entries. While opinion on the film is split now, it's not hard to imagine it getting the critical reevaluation that Halloween III received down the line. Of course, Corey Cunningham will play a pivotal role in that discussion.
Did you enjoy Halloween Ends? What did you think of Corey's character in the film? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things horror!