Halloween Ends will reportedly feature a four-year time gap following the events of Halloween Kills, but director David Gordon Green is making a mistake by not addressing Michael Myers’ absence from Haddonfield during this time. The third entry into Gordon Green and Danny McBride’s reboot continuity following Halloween and Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends will conclude the conflict between “The Shape” and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). However, comments made by the film’s director hint that the movie will make a mistake by failing to address Micheal’s absence in Haddonfield for four years.
After Halloween Kills ended on a cliffhanger that saw Michael assault Karen Strode (Judy Greer), the franchise teased a climactic battle between Michael and Laurie in the third movie. However, director David Gordon Green surprised viewers by revealing Halloween Ends will be set four years after Kills and the movie would not address Michael Myers’ absence in Haddonfield. Green said of where Halloween‘s Michael Myers goes in between the movies: “We don’t really explain that. It’s like: I don’t want to see where Jaws goes to sleep at night when I’m watching a shark movie. I want to see him when he pops up, and he’s got an appetite!”
Green’s choice to keep where Michael goes between Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends a mystery is a problem from a character point of view. Michael Myers is an unstoppable, possibly supernatural serial killer. As demonstrated in every Halloween movie, he kills almost indiscriminately and endlessly, only making special exceptions such as sparing a baby in Halloween for unknown reasons. As such, if Michael disappears without a trace between films as is hinted, this will feel jarring as Michael seems to have a never-ending urge to kill; this urge would not simply stop for four years unless there was a good, well-explained reason.
Why Halloween Ends Needs To Explain Where Michael Myers Has Been For 4 Years
Halloween director David Gordon Green’s comparison to the titular shark from Jaws is also confused. Though both horror icons, Michael Myers and Jaws are very different: where Jaws is an animal that kills for food, Michael seemingly kills for no reason. While it is interesting to imagine Michael as a primal animal like a shark, comparing the mundane act of a shark resting before its next kill to the potentially major plot hole of where the human serial killer Michael Myers is for four years does not really work. Additionally, Michael is even more far removed from Jaws, as he is the same character in each movie, while each of the Jaws films feature different shark antagonists.
Halloween Ends does not mark the first time that the silent slasher villain Michael Myers has taken a sabbatical from killing between movies. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers sees Michael comatose for 10 years following John Carpenter’s Halloween II (he was absent in Halloween III: Season of the Witch), where Dr. Sam Loomis seemingly kills The Shape. Similarly, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers reveals that Michael is once again comatose, this time only for a year as he is nursed back to health by a hermit. Crucially, both of these movies see Michael taken completely out of action, making his long absence from killing believable. Yet, Halloween Kills ends with Michael seemingly fine, so not explaining his absence in Halloween Ends is even more confusing and problematic.
Key Release Dates
Halloween Ends
Release Date:2022-10-14
