Halloween Ends: How David Gordon Green's Trilogy Failed the Strode Women

By Jamie Jirak

The release of Halloween in 2018 was extremely exciting, especially for longtime fans who had been waiting nearly ten years for someone new to take a stab at Michael Myers' story. Not only was the movie scary and fun, but its ending left Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), and her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) with all the power. They all managed to survive (no easy feat on Halloween night in Haddonfield), and they were able to take down Michael in a satisfying and clever way. I still get chills thinking about Greer saying, "Gotcha." When the movie ended, it was hard to imagine how co-writer/director David Gordon Green was going to continue the Strode's empowering story with two more installments. Unfortunately, they never got the ending they deserved. Warning: Spoilers Ahead...

Three years later, fans were finally able to see Halloween Kills, which ended up being much more divisive than its predecessor. While Halloween (2018) earned a 79% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, Halloween Kills landed a 39%. Personally, I enjoy Kills for its humor, brutal kills, and overall chaotic energy. I think it's more entertaining than the majority of the franchise, and I stand by it... until the very end. The choice to kill Greer's character felt like a betrayal of the first movie's strong ending. Yes, this is a horror franchise and survivors of the first film are never safe in the sequels. Yes, I just love Greer in general and wanted her in Halloween Ends. But mostly, it was a disappointment to realize in those last 60 seconds that this trilogy wasn't going to be what the first movie had promised. As Curtis has said time and time again, Green's trilogy is about "trauma" and how that fateful Halloween night in 1978 affected three generations of women. Now, one of those women was dead, leaving Green one more chance to do right by Laurie and Allyson. 

Halloween Ends was released one year after Kills but takes place four years after the events of the first two films. Laurie and Allyson are living together in Haddonfield and doing their best to move past the death of their daughter and mother. However, the town of Haddonfield still treats Laurie like an outcast and blames her for Michael's past destruction. Ultimately, Laurie's story comes to a satisfying conclusion. After all these years, she finally defeats Michael. She'll always carry the burden of her trauma, but at least she didn't die, which was a step up from the last time they tried to conclude her story in Halloween Resurrection. However, Halloween Ends isn't really about Laurie or Allyson. It's about some new guy named Corey (Rohan Campbell) whose mere presence is a complete disservice to the entire trilogy, especially Allyson's arc.

After accidentally killing a kid he was babysitting in 2019, Corey still lives in Haddonfield and is even more of a pariah than the Strodes. The town sees him as a killer, and he's spent the last three years laying low, but everything changes when Corey meets Allyson. They instantly hit it off, but things quickly take a turn akin to a demented version of a '90s rom-com. Not only do Allyson and Corey fall madly in love over the course of three days, but Allyson somehow doesn't see that this dude is one giant red flag. He yells at her, acts manic, and he has new wounds every time she sees him... because he's been murdering people! The way she backs him and turns on her grandmother is wholly unbelievable after everything they've been through together. Maybe it could have worked if Corey's descent into evil had happened over the course of three years instead of three days, but the timeline of Ends is laughable and makes Allyson seem so much weaker than she was in the previous films. Ultimately, Allyson accepts that Corey was the villain, but by the time she realizes it, the movie has already put the final nail in the coffin of what the first movie established for its women leads. 

In the end, we simply have to accept that these movies aren't about the Strode women. Heck, they weren't even about Michael Myers for 70% of Halloween Ends. Green made some bold choices, and ultimately delivered some of the best Halloween content we've ever seen, but what started as a tale of women fighting for their lives and overcoming their trauma turned into the story of some guy failing to deal with his. 

What did you think about Laurie, Karen, and Allyson's arc in the new Halloween movies? Tell us in the comments! 

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