Halloween Ends ( 2022 )
Halloween Ends is a 2022 American slasher film directed by David Gordon Green and co-written by Green, Danny McBride, Paul Brad Logan and Chris Bernier. It is the sequel to Halloween Kills (2021), the thirteenth installment in the Halloween franchise, and the final film in the trilogy of sequels that started with the 2018 film, which directly follows the 1978 film. The film stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards, and James Jude Courtney. The plot follows Corey Cunningham, a young man who falls in love with Laurie Strode's granddaughter while a series of events, including crossing paths with Michael Myers, render him a murderous outcast.
Halloween Ends ( 2022 )
Before the release of Halloween in 2018, McBride confirmed that he and Green had intended to pitch two films that would be shot back-to-back, but decided against it, waiting to see the reaction to the first film. Following the success of the first film, in July 2019, the film's title was announced along with Halloween Kills. Green intended to give each film in the trilogy its own unique theme, Halloween Ends being a "love story"; John Carpenter described the film as a "departure" from its predecessors. After being delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, principal photography took place in Georgia between January and March 2022, with re-shoots taking place in mid-2022.
Halloween Ends premiered at Beyond Fest in Los Angeles on October 11, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 14, 2022, by Universal Pictures. The film started streaming simultaneously on paid tiers of Peacock for 60 days. It received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized its focus on the new character Corey[4] and generally deemed it a disappointing conclusion to the trilogy.[5] The film grossed $105 million against a $33 million production budget, making it the lowest-grossing of the trilogy of films by Green.
Corey seeks out Allyson to make amends, and the two go on a dinner date. They are interrupted by Allyson's ex-boyfriend, police officer Doug Mulaney, who harasses them both. Corey later lures Doug into the sewer. Michael emerges and, although in a weakened condition, kills Doug to Corey's delight. Allyson is passed over for a promotion at work, in favor of a nurse who is having an affair with the doctor. Later that night, Corey kills the doctor at his home while Michael kills the nurse. An unknowing Allyson plans to leave Haddonfield with an insistent Corey because of the past trauma, while Laurie becomes increasingly suspicious of Corey. Speaking to Jeremy's father, Laurie realizes Corey is infected by Michael's evil.
Green set out to make each sequel different. For the second film, he wanted an action film and for the finale a love story,[22] in part to subvert viewers' expectations. Green intended to further explore what can make a person turn into a psychopath through Corey Cunningham's character;[23] Green conceived Corey in order to explore and get a perspective of how Michael Myers and Laurie Strode affected the town of Haddonfield, with Corey devised as someone traumatized like Strode that encounters an evil stalker like Myers that ends up "infecting" him into turning evil and let spread his unchecked negative inner entities instead of "wrapping them around their heads, be their own heroes and thus get a chance to fight them".[24] Benefitting from a character arc closely similar to that of Keith Gordon's Arnie Cunningham from Carpenter's Christine (1983), Corey was overall created to mimic how neglected community members can unexpectedly turn to evil. The role was also inspired by real-life perpetrators of school shootings;[23][25] Corey's inclusion allowed Green to orchestrate very different "kills" to those Myers committed in the previous two films, as Corey wants to emulate Myers' violent acts but is somewhat "messy" with his kills, not killing people "well" like Myers does.[24] Carpenter gave Green and McBride his approval for Corey when he was informed he would be one of the film's protagonists, congratulating them of not rehashing the same plotline in every film, which Carpenter himself struggled to do when writing Halloween II (1981).[23]
A casting call took place in late January and February 2022 in numerous Southeast Georgia towns.[37][38] In an interview with Collider, Green hinted that co-writer Danny McBride had requested a cameo appearance in the film, potentially as a character who fights Myers.[39] In June 2022, Nick Castle announced that he would make a cameo appearance unrelated to the role of Michael Myers.[40][41] Following the release of the teaser trailer in July 2022, Omar Dorsey, Will Patton, and James Jude Courtney were revealed to reprise their roles from the previous films.[42] Green cited Courtney's "extraordinary work" in the previous films as the reason for his decision to have him portray Michael Myers for the entirety of the film.[7]
It was originally planned to film Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends back-to-back, but did not occur due to the "intense schedule".[43] In March 2020, Blum confirmed filming would take place during the summer.[44] Filming was quietly delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production was expected to take place in 2021 in Wilmington, North Carolina.[45] In August 2021, Courtney confirmed that filming will begin on January 10, 2022.[46] However, filming officially began on January 19, 2022, in Savannah, Georgia under the working title Cave Dweller.[47][48] Michael Simmonds once again served as director of photography.[49] Curtis began filming her scenes on January 25 and wrapped on February 22.[50][51][52] Campbell insisted on filming himself the scene in which Corey kills one of his bullies instead of requiring a stuntman's assistance.[25] Green allowed his actors to improvise to infuse humor within the film's tone.[23] The last showdown between the franchise's main characters was assembled and reassembled throughout filming, having been written "spectacularly" since the film's first draft, forcing the stunt team to try new things occasionally and creating several continuity errors in the process due to returning with new additions to the filming set multiple times.[14] Additional scenes were shot in Sylvania, Georgia.[53] Filming concluded on March 9, 2022.[54][55]
In June 2022, two weeks of re-shoots took place in Savannah.[56] However, these re-shoots only lasted four days and were completed that same month.[57][58] As with most of his films since his very first assembly, Green test screened Ends to see if it engaged audiences or not. After several test screenings, the original final confrontation between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers as well as the ending sequence were discarded, and re-shoots for new scenes took place, four months ahead of the film's premiere. The climatic procession sequence, when Michael Myers' corpse is paraded to all surviving Haddonfielders and disposed of inside an industrial shredder, was a late addition to the film that was shot around August 2022 after Green and his crew concluded that they wished for "something more grand" for the film's ending. It was decided that the film's conclusion should be more "modest" and "intimate" with some story points as opposed to a brawl like the "super noisy and aggressive" ending of Kills, with Green wishing to return the series to its "simple dramatic roots".[14]
In June 2022, Blum confirmed that the film had test screened internally the month prior and that it would be the last Halloween film from Blumhouse.[59] The following month, Carpenter described the film as a "departure" from the previous entries in Green's trilogy.[60] In August, Castle had finished ADR for Michael Myers.[61] By the end of the month, Green stated that the film was still being tweaked despite the film being picture locked.[62] According to cinematographer Michael Simmonds, a practical version of the opening titles sequence, showing jack-o'-lanterns emerging from within each other, was initially created by production designer Richard Wright, but later replaced by a digital version.[63] The film's opening features blue titles in reference to Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), the original second sequel to the 1978 film.[23]
The score for Halloween Ends was composed by John Carpenter, his son Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies,[64] who had previously collaborated on the first two films in the series. The official soundtrack was released digitally on October 14, 2022, by Sacred Bones Records,[65] with a limited vinyl release set for January 20, 2023.[66] In anticipation of the film's premiere, two tracks were released in September 2022, "The Junk Yard" and "The Procession".[67][68] Recorded entirely at Carpenter and Davies's home studios,[69] the score incorporates themes from the original 1978 film and features original music from electronic music group Boy Harsher.[65]
Halloween Ends premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theater, Los Angeles, as part of Beyond Fest on October 11, 2022. The premiere coincided with Curtis's induction ceremony at the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the theater the following day.[70] The film was released theatrically in the United States by Universal Pictures on October 14, 2022,[21][71] playing in 3,901 theaters for a total theatrical run of approximately 3.8 weeks.[2] In addition, the film started streaming simultaneously on paid tiers of Peacock for 60 days.[72] It was initially set to release on October 15, 2021, before being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[73][21]
Halloween Ends is a 2022 American slasher film directed by David Gordon Green and written by Green, Danny McBride, Paul Brad Logan and Chris Bernier. It is a sequel to 2021's Halloween Kills (2021), the thirteenth installment in the Halloween franchise, and the final film in the trilogy of sequel films that commenced with the 2018 film, which directly follows the 1978 film and disregards all other entries. The film stars Jamie Lee Curtis, James Jude Courtney, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, and Kyle Richards, who are all reprising their roles from previous installments. It marks Curtis and Nick Castle's final appearances as Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, respectively. 041b061a72