If there’s one thing that frustrates the most about this Halloween, it’s the dedication to the knowledge that Michael Myers is an unstoppable, ethereal force that simply can’t be destroyed by anything. Stick around for the post credits reveal, which has an eerie breathing sound that suggests that Michael Myers survived the massive destruction of Laurie’s house, and you’ll realise that the entire film was for naught. The climactic battle that has the three generations of Strode’s joining up to take on Myers together has the wind taken out of it when you know that come the next film there’ll be a magical revival of Michael in some unknown way.
If Myers is to retain the terror that makes him a fearful character, then he needs to be permanently conquerable. He needs to be a force that can stay dead. The eternal nature of Michael Myers works against the pain and suffering of Laurie Strode. While Myers exists, Strode is never able to actually thrive and be her own person. Which is where viewers and filmmakers are left with a conundrum – do they leave Myers dead, and in turn, leave the mammoth money maker that is the Halloween series on the table, or do they do the honourable thing and respect the heroine and her journey and allow her to live in peace with the knowledge that the thing that has caused her a lifetime of fear, that has caused a wealth of intergenerational trauma, is no longer going to hurt her anymore.
I fear that Myers will return unscathed in the sequel, but I’m not entirely convinced. A closing shot motif that leaves an extremely subtle suggestion that maybe the legacy of Michael Myers will pass on to that of Allyson, as she sits alongside her mother and her grandmother in the tray of a ute (a nice nod to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), her hand holding the bloody handle of Michael’s iconic kitchen knife, leaves me feeling extremely excited about the possibilities of the Halloween franchise going forward.
