This week on Friday Night Frightfest, we are concluding our journey through David Gordon Green’s blockbuster trilogy with a double feature covering its two most divisive, high-concept chapters! Rather than playing it safe, this era of the franchise pushed the mythos into unexpected, chaotic territory. We are pairing the relentless, blood-soaked mob violence of Halloween Kills (2021) with the polarizing, atmospheric character study Halloween Ends (2022). Grab your crowbars—Haddonfield is tearing itself apart.
Halloween Kills (2021)
Picking up mere seconds after the events of the 2018 film, Halloween Kills trades intimate stalk-and-slash tension for an all-out, chaotic war on the streets of Haddonfield. While Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) recovers in the hospital, a mob of vengeful townspeople—led by legacy survivors like Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall)—unites under the rallying cry “Evil dies tonight!” As mass hysteria consumes the city, Michael Myers cuts an unrelenting, bone-crunching swath through everyone in his path. It’s an exceptionally brutal, high-body-count installment that explores how fear and paranoia can poison an entire community.
Halloween Ends (2022)
Four years later, the trilogy arrives at a surprising, meditative conclusion that subverts classic slasher expectations. Set in a traumatized post-Michael Haddonfield, the story shifts focus to Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), a troubled young man outcast by the town following a tragic accident. As Corey forms a connection with Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), he crosses paths with an ailing Shape lurking in the sewers, igniting a dark transformation. Exploring themes of contagion, inherited trauma, and the nature of evil, the film builds toward a cathartic, final showdown between Laurie and Michael that brings an era of the franchise to a definitive close.
Join us as we dissect these bold, unconventional entries in the Halloween saga! We’ll debate the stark contrast between the wild, frantic momentum of Kills and the slow-burn narrative risks of Ends, analyzing how both films attempted to redefine what a Halloween movie can be.
Spoilers start around 5:45