Halloween Ends is very unlikely to live up to that title, but the next franchise reboot only needs to bring back one character to work. The original Halloween is an exercise in sheer simplicity, featuring a small cast of characters being stalked by a killer with seemingly no real motive. It's this setup that allows the film to be so sleek and terrifying, from John Carpenter's taut direction, his menacing score or even the blankness of Michael Myers' mask. The film was never meant to receive a sequel, let alone an entire saga that has run for 12 movies and counting.

The Halloween movie franchise has a famously tangled timeline, as whenever the series got stale or needed reinvention, producers hit the reset switch. There have been remakes, reboots and even a Michael-free outing with Halloween III: Season Of The Witch. Halloween Ends will mark the final chapter of Blumhouse's trilogy, which began with legacy sequel Halloween in 2018. Whether Michael or Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) lives or dies, the sequel will provide closure to that particular story arc.

Related: The Legacy Character Halloween Ends MUST Finally Introduce

Following Halloween Ends, the series will no doubt take a break for a few years while producers figure out the next creative direction. Curtis is unlikely to return, and viewers need a chance to miss Michael once again. The various sequels got themselves tied in knots paying homage to the series lore and characters, but the next Halloween needs to wipe the slate clean and to do so, it should only bring back Michael Myers (who almost had a clown mask).

The Next Halloween Movie Should Only Bring Back Michael Myers

By this point in the saga, it feels like every side character introduced in the original Halloween has been explored or re-explored in the many sequel. Laurie Strode has lived and died in many different timelines, Tommy Doyle has been played by both Paul Rudd and Anthony Michael Hall and even Dr. Wynn - the head of Smith's Grove Sanitarium briefly glimpsed in the original - became an evil cult leader in one continuity. The next Halloween needs to break away from tying itself into the past and put Michael in a new setting with a fresh plate of victims and enemies.

While a broad comparison, the latest Predator movie Prey scaled back on the increasingly tangled lore of previous entries to tell a story that stripped the concept back to its core elements. Outside of a couple of easter eggs, it told its own self-contained story, and Halloween - which almost crossed over with Hellraiser - should do the same. Michael is ultimately the star of the series, and Halloween III proved - despite being a great movie in its own way - that viewers want him front and center. The graphic novel Halloween: Nightdance from 2000 showed he can still be terrifying in a story with no other returning players, so the next outing can embrace the simplicity that made the original work and give Michael Myers a totally fresh start.

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