Though Halloween Kills has its share of defenders, it received mixed-negative reviews from critics, and even long-time fans of the legendary horror franchise were forced to admit that it failed to live up to the promise of 2018's Halloween.
Spoilers follow.
The movie concluded on a shocking note with the death of Laurie Strode's (Jamie Lee Curtis) daughter Karen (Judy Greer) at the hands of Michael Myers, setting up a final confrontation between Strode and "The Shape" in next year's Halloween Ends. David Gordon Green has already confirmed that there will be a four-year time-jump, and the director has now shared some new details on his plans for the final instalment of the trilogy.
Kills was basically a showcase for Myers' relentless appetite for destruction, and amped up the gore quota considerably. However, it sounds like Ends is going to take the story in a very different direction altogether.
“It’s kind of a coming-of-age film, and it’s a very different tone,” Green said during Empire's Spoiler Special podcast. “That’s what excited me about it, is to have the three chapters that I’ve been involved in be very different from each other. They are all there to honor Carpenter, but aren’t necessary just emulating him.”
“I sent Carpenter the new draft the other night, and I said, ‘If it feels too [much like] Christine, let me know,'” he continued. “For Halloween Ends, it’s just a love of Carpenter. It’s more than just, ‘Hey, here’s a character and a community that you’ve created.’ It’s, ‘Here’s an appreciation of your legendary body of work.’”
We assume the coming-of-age aspect means a shift in focus to Laurie's granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), but we have no idea what the comparison to Stephen King's Christine, which Carpenter adapted for the screen in 1983, is all about. Maybe Allyson finds herself a supernatural, vampiric car to help her take down the bogeyman?
Halloween Ends is set to hit theaters on October 14, 2022. You can check out our review of Kills here.