Is “Halloween Ends” The Biggest Retcon In The Entire Franchise?

The novelization confirms what we saw at the end of “Halloween Kills”, but the conclusion to the trilogy might already be gaslighting audiences about how Michael survived

Come back with me to the first time you saw Halloween Kills. After the tour de force that was the 2018 legasequel (requel?), I couldn’t wait. And you know what?

Halloween Kills delivered. I laughed. I gasped. I screamed as everything good and hopeful about this franchise once again got slaughtered by a descent into the same question that murdered the original attempt to conclude the series.

Why won’t Michael die…?

Magic.

The end of Halloween Kills, as told through the novelization

I felt so damn mad that I went straight to the novelization, hoping for an explanation behind what the **** I’d just seen.

The mob first descends on Michael. They’re going to kill him. According to what happens on screen and in the novelization, they do kill him.

The movie implies it is the evil of the town that in part empowers Michael Myers. Their thirst for vengeance keeps calling Michael back for his own endless quest.

With every kill, he grows stronger.

And so despite the mob literally beating him to death, he rises again, revealed as immortal, and kills first everyone in the mob, then Laurie’s daughter.

And now in Halloween Ends, he’s coming for Laurie Strode

Laurie’s only hope comes from a newly-injected piece of mythology — for Michael to die, so too must Laurie.

Maybe?

Except that’s no longer what the Wikipedia says. That’s no longer what the media coverage says. At some point, history was rewritten to say Michael was almost killed.

Did I just trick you into reading a goddamn article on the Mandella Effect?

Listen Picard, I don’t care if you don’t believe me. I brought receipts.

Just Google “halloween kills how did michael survive” and see for yourself. This absurd retcon has already shown up on at least the first few links. I dare not look further.

Here’s what Wikipedia says: “[Allyson] leads Michael into Tommy’s mob, who swarm, attack, and seemingly kill him. When the mob disperses, Michael recovers and massacres the entire mob.”

Here’s what Distractify says: “Then, at the end of Halloween Kills, a mob attacks Michael, but he fights his way out just before his ultimate demise.”

But let’s review the facts

Here’s that scene with the mob.

Here’s what Laurie Strode says while that scene plays: “I always thought Michael Myers was flesh and blood just like you and me. But a mortal man could not have survived what he’s lived through. The more he kills, the more he transcends into something else, impossible to defeat. Fear. People are afraid. That is the true curse of Michael.”

And if you don’t believe your own eyes, here’s what the novelization says happened.

The end of Halloween Kills: the novel

The pain is an alien sensation to [Michael], one for which he has no name. He does not like it.

His attackers are blurs of motion around him, a series of fragmented images. Hate-filled eyes, bared teeth, hands wrapped tight around weapons.

He hears sounds as well, feet shuffling, rapid breathing, grunts of effort, invectives hurled at him as if they’re weapons themselves.

And of course he hears the sullen, meaty thuds of the blows landing on his body. One after the other without letup.

This dude is definitely about to die. The movie takes a beat more by showing Michael’s inert body lying on the ground while the mob takes their rest after a blood job well done.

But then the movie and the book rejoin. And together, it’s pretty clear that Michael Myers did not narrowly escape death for anything other than supernatural reasons.

[Michael Myers] senses something then. A familiar, welcome presence. He turns himself to the side…and finds himself looking at his other face. His real face lying on the asphalt, forgotten by the crowd.

Blood pools on the asphalt between them. His blood, but it is of no importance. His face is just out of reach, but if he can stretch his hand far enough…

The three fingers remaining on his left hand brush the mask’s edge, fumble at it, finally get a grip…

He yanks his face toward him, drawing it through his blood, and in a single fluid motion, he slips the gore-slicked mask over his head and springs to his feet.

He draws in a deep breath, feeling the pain of his injuries recede. He is strong again. He is whole.

His attackers pull back in surprise, shocked that the killer they’ve been in the process of killing stands before them, pain free and unafraid.

Old woman yells at cloud

I guess at the end of the day, I’m just an old woman yelling at cinematic clouds. Who cares if there’s a retcon?

Maybe I’m just wrong.

David Gordon Green and Danny McBride can easily explain things away by simply telling the truth. At least a piece of it.

See also: Attracted To She-Hulk? You’re Actually Attracted To…

A lot of novelizations are written well before the movie is finished. Sometimes they’re written based off an early version of the script.

It’s possible that’s the case here. Maybe the mask did make him immortal in an earlier script. And maybe they later decided Michael is just human and the mask is merely a perfect replica of William Shatner’s face.

It’s possible that since Halloween Kills the movie didn’t say Michael died, he never did. He’s still flesh and blood, capable of being killed as easily as you or me.

I do kinda buy that the mask is magical, though. Just look at Captain Kirk. Does that guy even age?

Halloween Ends is out in theaters and streaming on Peacock on Oct. 14.

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