Halloween Ends has finally been released, bringing a potential close to one of the longest-running horror franchises of all time. The finale of the series isn’t the bloodiest entry in the franchise, but it does feature fifteen kills that provide plenty of violence for the audience to enjoy.
Laurie and Michael’s final battle was the major selling point of this movie, but much of the runtime dealt with a different story. Many of the kills in the movie were enacted by new killer Corey, who ended up being something of a protégé for Michael and helped revive his killer instincts after four years living in the sewers beneath Haddonfield. Nevertheless, Corey’s kills were just as brutal as Michael’s and made for some great scenes.
7 Jeremy
The opening scene of Halloween Ends features Corey babysitting an irritating child, Jeremy, in a call back to Laurie babysitting Tommy Doyle in the first Halloween movie. The night takes an unexpected turn when Jeremy pranks Corey, making him think somebody has entered the house and locking him in the attic just as his parents get home.
Corey, not taking his imprisonment lightly, kicks down the door but unfortunately kicks it into Jeremy, who manages to fall over the banister and break his neck upon landing, right in front of his parents. This brutal kill began the movie with one of the surprises the franchise loves to pull out, and set the scene for the journey Corey would undertake in the movie.
6 Deb
One thing the Halloween franchise has reveled in throughout the last forty-five years is introducing annoying characters purposefully, so they can be killed off in brutal style by Michael Myers. Halloween Ends is no different, and Deb is a character that works as a nurse at the same hospital as Allyson. She gets promoted above Allyson by sleeping with Dr. Mathis and is obnoxious about it.
After arriving home with Dr. Mathis, Deb goes into the bedroom and is about to get in the shower when she hears a noise. After finding Corey killing Mathis, she runs inside and is caught by Michael. Myers lifts her and stabs her with a knife that holds her up against the wall. This is a satisfying call-back to the original Halloween movie, as the kill is a carbon copy of how Michael killed Lynda’s boyfriend Bob.
5 Willy The Kid
The obnoxious radio host Willy the Kid is heard often over the radio throughout the movie. He might have had great taste in music, but his manners were less than desirable, and he proved how rude he really was when speaking to Corey and Allyson and mocking their pasts. It was only a matter of time until Corey’s murderous tendencies led him back to the radio station.
When he comes, he picks off the receptionist at the radio station and Willy manages not to hear him over the loud music. Both the song and approach of Corey are excellent, and the brutal smashing of Willy’s face is a particularly grisly kill visually and an ironic one, given that his death was brought about by his loud mouth. To emphasize this point, Corey cuts off Willy’s tongue before leaving.
4 Officer Mulaney
Some Halloween movies have featured entire police stations being emptied by Michael. This time, only one police officer perished as they were marginalized throughout the movie. However, Allyson’s horrible ex-boyfriend was picked off in a huge scene as he followed Corey into the sewers and was caught off-guard by both him and Michael.
This was Corey’s gift to Michael, as he tried to get him back into killing by leading Officer Mulaney all the way to him and beating him down before offering him as a sacrifice to Michael. It has been mentioned that Michael gains more power with each kill, and his weakened state did seem to improve during the movie with each fresh murder. This scene was a taking of power, and the kill featured more stabbings than any other in the movie.
3 Corey
The eventual demise of Corey was one of the more surprising aspects of the movie. Many fans would have been expecting him to survive and to truly take the mantle from Michael Myers for future possible movies in the series. Instead, Corey is shocked by Laurie when he goes to her house, as she pretends to commit suicide before shooting him.
Corey then surprises her back by choosing to stab himself in the neck, framing Laurie for his murder in the eyes of Allyson. It nearly works, but the final bit of satisfaction is that Michael also takes part in the killing, taking his mask back and breaking Corey’s neck to ensure that he won’t be getting up to any more tricks.
2 The Marching Band Teens
Bullies getting penance is a common feature of many horror movies. Regular evils paling in comparison to real, true evil is always a fun murder scene. It was particularly satisfying to watch Corey, having completely snapped, go after the four teenagers who had been bothering him and had even pushed him off a bridge earlier in the movie.
Corey kills the first off-screen, shocking the others. He then traps a second under a chain link fence and beats a third to death with a wrench before the fourth accidentally shoots Corey’s uncle in the face. The best is left to the last in this savage scene though, as Corey brutally murders the leader, Terry, with a blowtorch, setting his entire face on fire as he screams. This satisfying, harrowing scene was almost the best kill of the movie.
1 Michael Myers
That’s right. Unlike in previous movies, where Laurie has died, or Michael has appeared beaten, at last, Halloween Ends features a first for the franchise. An unequivocal, sure-as-anything killing of Michael Myers. The most emotionally charged and possibly the most brutal kill of the movie goes to Laurie for trapping Michael to a table by stabbing knives through his hands, pushing a fridge onto his leg, and then, with Allyson’s assistance, slicing his neck and wrists, so he finally bleeds out and dies.
If this wasn’t enough, because viewers can never be sure with a man like this, the Strode girls take a trip with the police and bring the town out to see Michael put to rest once and for all. They put his body into a grinder and the audience gets to watch as his body is destroyed in the most absolute fashion possible. Whether this is the true end of the Halloween franchise remains to be seen, but it does at least seem to have finally brought an end to Laurie Strode's story.