Director David Gordon Green has responded to the negative backlash over Halloween Ends. The film has been a minor cause of controversy among the horror community for spending most of its runtime focusing on a new character, Corey Cuningham, before Michael Myers enters the fray in the third act. As a result, the supposed last-ever installment in the Halloween franchise has a 39% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, just 1% higher than Halloween Kills.
"It’s funny, when someone says, 'Build your dream house on this real estate using this title and these characters,' everybody is going to find a different little thing that’s meaningful for them and they’ll make it their own," Green told Movie Maker. "That’s what I did. For every bite of backlash, you also get people that are thanking you for taking it to a new place and keeping it alive and full of love."
Green also went on to say that, despite the film being the last in the long-standing Halloween franchise, he had "never once considered making a Laurie and Michael movie." "The concept that it should be a final showdown-type brawl never even crossed our minds," he continued. "I wanted to see where it would go. I wanted one to win, one to die. But we were always more ambitious with that. So how did we want to go out? By doing what no one except us would do: make a love story."
Halloween Ends is in theaters and is streaming on Peacock now. If you're all caught up, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates coming soon, and for much more on the movie, see our guide to the Halloween Ends ending explained.
