Warning: Spoilers Ahead For Halloween Kills
As the slasher trilogy wraps up, Halloween Ends must dial backs the callbacks, nostalgia bait and easter eggs that weighed down Halloween Kills and its 2018 predecessor. While 2018’s Halloween reboot was well-received, few reviewers singled out the movie’s constant slew of easter eggs as a high point. By and large, 2018's Halloween was seen as a success because of its compelling story and restoring a sense of menace to Michael Myers, in addition to returning to the stripped-back style of John Carpenter’s 1978 original horror movie.
There were plenty of callbacks for franchise devotees and anyone obsessed with the Halloween series to catch. Even casual viewers could get a smirk out of Laurie bemoaning rumors about her being related to Michael Myers, and as a whole, the 2018 legacy sequel was not above featuring playful nods to the lore of the series. However, Halloween 2018 worked first and foremost as a fast-paced slasher - something that cannot be said of its sequel Halloween Kills.
A constant stream of callbacks, easter eggs, and pointless returns from legacy characters bogged down Halloween Kills, and in the end, these much-vaunted returns only served to highlight how thin the movie's plot was. Despite featuring the Halloween franchise’s highest body count ever, Halloween Kills had precious few characters to truly care about and instead focused much of its energy on reintroducing characters from the 1978 original, mostly for the sake of nostalgia bait. This nostalgia was particularly misplaced given how brutal the Halloween franchise is, with most of the returning characters being killed in short order after having their connection to Carpenter’s movie explained. As such, Halloween Ends needs to shed the fan baiting and focus instead on crafting a satisfying ending.
The success of the 2018 reboot made it clear the creators can tell an engaging story without complicating the Michael Myers mythos, and some of Halloween Kills’ weirder scenes subverted slasher cliches in promising fashion. However, much of the sequel's action was bogged down by bringing back everything from the Myers house to the retired Haddonfield sheriff and the kids Laurie babysat in the original Halloween. The efficacy of Myers was blunted as a result, and the mob’s obsession with killing the villain was rendered a little silly by the lack of internal logic in the story. If the sequels - and their ever-climbing body count - never happened, it's strange that Haddonfield at large would be so terrified of Michael Myers after four decades.
As such, the plot of Halloween Kills relied on viewers both ignoring these sorts of plot holes while also being invested in the return of minor characters who had little to no effect on the original 1978 Halloween's story. This resulted in an uneven sequel, meaning Halloween Ends needs to focus on crafting an engaging final chapter as opposed to pandering nostalgia bait for franchise super-fans. Halloween Ends could shed this issue by not reintroducing more returning characters, but instead focusing on the few survivors left alive by the last sequel. With the reboot trilogy's heroine Karen now dead, Halloween Ends can mine character drama from how this loss affected the surviving Strode women, whether it leads them to give up hope or redouble their determination to defeat Michael. With the director confirming that a time jump will take place between Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, this should provide the perfect opportunity for the series to drop the returning characters gimmick, the endless stream of in-jokes, and instead zero in on Laurie, Allyson, Frank and the few other reboot trilogy characters who are still left standing.
