The Halloween Ends novelization explained more about Corey Cunningham’s backstory, and one missing detail could have improved the Halloween franchise villain’s story. Halloween Ends made a few mistakes when the sequel wrapped up the Halloween reboot trilogy that began with 2018’s Halloween. The biggest and most controversial of these missteps was the decision to make a misunderstood teenager, Corey Cunningham, the main villain of Halloween Ends. While this choice took the franchise in a daring new direction, waiting until the last movie in the trilogy to introduce a new antagonist was not necessarily the right decision.
Halloween Ends put off the battle between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode until its closing moments, and Corey Cunningham wasn't a particularly compelling alternative to the original masked murderer. However, Corey’s missing backstory might have changed that. According to DreadCentral's write-up of the Halloween Ends story novelization, Corey’s mother was guilty of murder, suggesting there's darkness in the family even without Michael Myers' influence. In an origin story borrowed from Friday the 13th’s Jason, Corey was originally a villain with a murderous mother whose influence shaped his evil.
Was Darkness Already Running Through Corey's Family In Halloween Ends?
Corey’s mother was very young when she killed her brother, something that underlines the similarities between her, Michael, and Corey. The revelation that Corey’s mother killed her sibling when they were only children brings up a thorny question that the Halloween movies have always been eager to revisit. Since the original movie, the Halloween franchise has asked whether killers are born or made. Unlike Michael Myers, who killed for the first time as a small child, Corey seemed like a normal kid in the opening scene of Halloween Ends. Corey’s downfall appeared to be caused by the town turning against him and him taking his status as a pariah poorly.
How Corey's Family History Would've Made His Halloween Ends Arc Better
However, this reading is complicated by the revelations about Corey’s mother in the Halloween Ends novelization. If Corey grew up with a mother who killed her own little brother during her childhood, this could be a big factor in his eventual decision to use violence as a tool of retribution. Not only that, but Corey’s mother has an uncomfortably close relationship with him in Halloween Ends, which is made even creepier by the revelation that she is a killer. The death of Corey’s mother is one of the Halloween Ends trailer scenes that barely appear in the finished movie, but this pivotal moment could have shed some light on their relationship.
According to the Halloween Ends novelization, it is an unmasked Michael who killed Corey’s mother. However, the brief scene seen in Halloween Ends shows a masked figure rising behind her, meaning her killer is Corey in the movie timeline. Whether Corey knew about his mother’s murderous past is unknown, so his motivations for killing her are murky. He could have wanted to rid the world of evil, which explains why he killed a group of bullies who left him for dead earlier in Halloween Ends. However, the motivations of the Halloween Ends villain aren't entirely clear, since the Halloween franchise entry failed to flesh out his story in the sequel.