Halloween Ends was the capstone on director David Gordon Green's reboot/revival trilogy of Halloween. One aspect of the film that has audiences divided is the inclusion of Rohan Campbell as Corey Cunningham, who falls in love with Laurie Strode's (Jamie Lee Curtis) granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), which Green has now addressed.
Corey Cunningham is introduced in Halloween Ends as a babysitter who gets locked in a room by his young charge (Jaxon Goldberg). In a bid to get out of the room, he kicks the door down, which unfortunately sends the boy off a railing as his parents return home. Corey is exonerated due to the accidental nature of the death, but suffers ostracizing from the citizens of Haddonfield thereafter. This eventually leads him to forming a bond with Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney/Nick Castle) and embracing killing while his possessiveness over Allyson grows.
During an interview with AV Club, Green explained the reasoning for including Corey in Halloween Ends. "I knew that I wanted to center the second film around a lot more action and aggression,” Green said. “And then I wanted the third film to be a love story that felt more grounded and intimate.” He further elaborated that he is of the belief that Michael Myers should remain an enigma that cannot be understood, saying, “you're not going to go into a Michael Myers backstory because as far as I'm concerned, that's forbidden territory. I don't want to know his motivation, what inspires him."
Since Green was militantly uninterested in exploring Michael Myer's backstory and motivation, he had to create a new character to tell that story through. "I do ask a lot of questions about evil and community that have been left in the aftermath of the Haddonfield massacres," he said. "So trying to find a way to ask these questions, but not [doing that] through Michael Myers insisted I bring in a new character to give a perspective of Michael and his behaviors, Laurie and her insights, and then Haddonfield as a whole."
Reactions to the character have been mixed. In a film like Halloween Ends, which is designed to not only give closure to a trilogy but also to the forty-plus years-long story of Laurie Strode and her trauma, it’s more than a little disappointing that the one doing most of the killing is a new character whom audiences have little reason to care about and no emotional investment in. And Green's reasoning comes off as wanting to have his cake and eat it too.
It has long been series lore that Michael Myers and Laurie Strode are brother and sister, and while some dislike this aspect (which was introduced in Halloween II), the series at least committed to the idea for many sequels. Green's desire to explore Michael-Myers, but not really, lacks this commitment. Instead, audiences are left with a final film that promoted Michael Myers as being more dangerous than ever only to place Myers on the back burner and focus instead on Corey. It’s easy to see what Green was going for: a sort of foil for Myers and Strode, a babysitter on a killing spree, but whether that comes through in Halloween Ends is undergoing some strenuous debate.
Halloween Ends is available to watch in theaters and on Peacock.
Source: AV Club