The day has finally come for slasher fans: Halloween Ends is in theaters everywhere and streaming on Peacock. The supposed final battle between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode in the Halloween franchise saw many unique twists and turns, and was unlike any Halloween film we’ve seen before. That was by design, as the slasher shares a connection to one of the cult-favorite films in the franchise. Keen eye viewers will notice that in the classic opening credit sequence, director David Gordon Green used blue text instead of the typical orange. The only other film to do that in the franchise was Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

For anyone who hasn’t seen Season of the Witch, it was famous for being the only film in the almost 45-year-old franchise to not feature Michael Myers. Instead, it was an anthology story about an evil mask maker named Conal Cochran, who planned on using his Halloween masks to kill the children of the world and bring Halloween back to its medieval roots. The 1982 film not having Michael is the reason why fans and critics panned it at the time. However, now this creepy psychological thriller is rightfully regarded as one of the best in the franchise.

The blue font isn’t just a visual tribute either, it serves as a warning to every fan that Ends is not your typical Halloween movie. The story shares DNA with Season of the Witch with its slow burn mystery pacing, focus on a new central character, and like that cult classic film, Ends allows the horror to breathe by having the story span about a week leading up to Halloween night. Like Season of the Witch, this is a character driven nightmare. It has Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, but it throws them into the middle of a paranoid thriller and a dark romance. While some fans aren’t going to gel with this film’s new terrifying identity, Green’s trilogy capper took genuine risks that ensured his version of Halloween went out with a jaw-dropping emotional bang. On top of that, John Carpenter’s more industrial sounding score gleefully invokes his work in Season of the Witch.

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Image via Universal Pictures

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This isn’t the first time Green has paid tribute to Season of the Witch either. In both Halloween and Halloween Kills, there are trick or treaters seen throughout that bloody Halloween night wearing the three iconic Silver Shamrock masks from that film. Michael even eventually murders one of them. You can say many things about Green’s legacy trilogy, but you can’t say this director and his crew aren’t hardcore Halloween fans. All three films are loaded to the brim with references from every film in the franchise. The previously mentioned blue font also completes Green's opening credits reference trilogy of sorts. Halloween’s font was the same as John Carpenter's Halloween, Kill’s font was the same as the original Halloween II, and End’s font is ripped straight from Season of the Witch. Even crazier, each time Green paid tribute to the original trilogy in his opening credits, each of the three films were celebrating their 40th anniversary.

Season of the Witch has been getting a lot of love in 2022 given its 40th anniversary and various great clothing collections, but its complex tribute in Ends was the perfect way to cap off its anniversary. While Ends has been receiving mixed reviews by both critics and fans alike, like Season of the Witch before it, in 40 years we could be regarding it as a horror cult classic.

To see how Green infused his love for Season of the Witch into his final Halloween film, you can watch Halloween Ends in theaters and on Peacock now.