*Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD for Halloween Ends*The reviews are in for Halloween Ends and they all seem mixed among viewers. Some are thrilled with the conclusion to Laurie Strode's slasher survival story, while others believe the horror icon could have gotten a better sendoff.
In the film's final moments, Laurie watches as Michael's corpse gets crushed in a metal shredder, then it cuts to Allyson driving out of Haddonfield and Laurie having one last conversation on her porch with her love interest Frank, who tells her he would love to see the cherry blossoms in Japan with her. And with an anticlimactic ending like that, there are plenty of other thrilling ways this franchise could have concluded.
Michael Myers Lives
The most obvious ending - much like every other film in the franchise - would have been for Michael Myers to live to kill another day. That man has survived a lot in eight films, two remakes, and a reboot trilogy, but he couldn't survive his corpse being crushed in a metal shredder.
But even if this was the very last film in this 40-year-long franchise, there would have been something spine-tingling about knowing this iconic slasher villain was still looming somewhere, to possibly come back home for Laurie Strode one day.
Laurie Strode Dies
Probably the most unpopular of the ending options would have been for Laurie Strode to meet her end in this final film. The movie even teased her death several times, from her falsely reporting her suicide to her jumping up on the metal shredder with Michael's corpse to Michael attempting to strangle her from where he lay stabbed on her kitchen table.
No one wants to see a beloved final girl lose the fight, but Laurie's death would have made certain this was the end of Laurie's story in the franchise instead of leaving the opportunity open for a future return.
Allyson Dies
A somewhat appealing option for the film's ending would have been for Allyson to die, whether it was at the hands of Michael or Corey or accidentally her grandmother. Michael had already killed both of her parents, so offing his nemesis' granddaughter would have been icing on his bloody cake.
Due to Allyson's dark turn she took while dating Corey, he could have easily made her one of his victims, especially if she realized he wasn't the man she first met. But Laurie accidentally killing her while attempting to fight off Michael would have been a devastating but weirdly fitting way to end the story.
Corey Lives On As The New Boogeyman
The character of Corey played an integral role in the film from the prologue when he accidentally kills the little boy he babysits on Halloween night in 2019. When the film jumps to 2022, Corey got off for his crime, but the people of Haddonfield never let him live it down, turning him into a madman who finally meets Michael Myers in a sewer and inhabits his murderous ways.
Corey met his demise after plotting to kill Laurie, deciding to stab himself in the neck and bleed out, just to take one final breath as Michael finished him off. But with Michael meeting his end in the film, Corey would have been the perfect way to spin off from the franchise with a new slasher, even if his scarecrow mask was far less scary than Michael's white Captain Kirk one.
Laurie Goes To Japan
Near the start of the film, Laurie runs into her love interest, Officer Frank Hawkins at the grocery store. They catch up, and Frank tells her he's been learning Japanese and would love to one day test it out on locals and see the cherry blossoms.
While the two share a moment during the very last scene of the movie and Frank says he would love to see the cherry blossoms with Laurie, a much more fitting ending for the couple would have been for them to be seen exploring Japan with a beautiful, pastel pink background behind them.
Laurie's Book Publication Day
Throughout the film, Laurie is seen typing away on her computer while she spoke lines from her memoir in a voiceover. Her memoir tells her life story of surviving a stalker, mentioning the boogeyman and ending the book by saying evil doesn't die.
While quite the ominous ending, that memoir is sure to be a bestseller, and the perfect ending to the movie would have been to see Laurie on her book's publication day. She could have held a Q&A, surrounded by Frank, Allyson, and Lindsey Wallace before the final shot pans to her book cover.
It Was All A Book All Along
Laurie works on her memoir a few times throughout the film, but during the final scene after Michael's body is crushed and Laurie's typing away, you've got to ask, was it all a book all along? Was this entire franchise one long horror novel and Laurie Strode is the new Stephen King?
Making the entire franchise simply the creative inner workings of Laurie's mind probably would have been a stretch, but also a simultaneously satisfying and unbelievable ending to the Halloween films.
The Judith Myers Tombstone
Judith Myers was Michael's older sister who he killed on Halloween night in 1963. Years later when Michael comes back home, Judith's grave is dug up and Michael places her tombstone by a flickering jack-o-lantern and Annie's dead body for Laurie to find.
A nostalgic ending to the franchise would have been to pan from Laurie's happily ever after to Judith's tombstone in the Haddonfield cemetery, paying tribute to Michael Myers' very first victim.
Next Halloween
In typical horror film fashion, a suitable ending - especially for one centered around Halloween night - would have been to flash forward to the next Halloween, a year after Laurie and Michael's final battle.
Whether Michael was still alive or not, the ending could have shown Laurie hanging out with Lindsey in a much less horrifying way than she did in the original film, keeping up with the tradition of baking Allyson a pumpkin pie and maybe even carving a unique and familiar face into a pumpkin to finish off the franchise right where it began.
A Quote From Dr. Loomis
Dr. Loomis played a major role in 1978's Halloween and every film after that until Donald Pleasance's death in 1995, not long after filming Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.
Similarly to the way the following film, Halloween H20, paid homage to the legendary actor and character during its opening sequence, a perfect way to bid the franchise farewell would have been to hear Dr. Loomis' voice talk about the Evil one last time.