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Warning: The following contains major spoilers for Halloween Kills! Turn back now if you haven't seen the latest chapter in the Halloween franchise!
Michael Myers has come home again, and is stalking the streets of Haddonfield once more – but this time around, the town's residents are fighting back.
If you're caught up on Halloween Kills, then you'll know the movie took some bold steps, with a major death and a surprising delve into the mystery behind The Shape. We've rounded up every last question you might have on the film, from what's revealed about Michael up to who survived his latest bloody rampage, as well as what might be up next in Halloween Ends, too. We've also got some quotes from our exclusive interview with David Gordon Green to help us out along the way.
So, scroll on to have all your burning questions on Halloween Kills answered – and maybe sleep with a light on tonight…
Is Michael Myers immortal?
Halloween Kills once again leaves us with the impression that Michael Myers is no ordinary human being. The residents of Haddonfield come together as a furious mob to attack The Shape, who eventually goes down under the onslaught. But, as we listen to Laurie Strode talk about the nature of The Boogeyman, he gets back up – and starts killing everyone in sight.
Laurie believes that the more Michael kills, the more he transcends. It's not explained what exactly that means, but we're certainly left with the impression that The Shape is near-unkillable. He did survive that Strode house burning around him, after all.
When we sat down with director David Gordon Green, he gave his take on the mythos of Michael, and Laurie's beliefs on The Shape. "In my mind, Michael is a spectacular and resilient human being that doesn't feel pain. If you get shot a couple of times in the shoulder, you're going down, you're going to the hospital. [But] as long as it's not anchoring him to the earth, Michael's going to get back up," he explained. "If something was to take him out entirely, it could, but I think what the movie is trying to say is that, even if he was no more, is that the fear that he's generated, the anxiety that he's created from the actions that he's done, would live forever.
"I like to think the shark in Jaws has kept millions of people out of the ocean in our cultural reality, because of a movie they saw in the '80s. Michael, in Laurie's mind, has transcended from just being a stalker of a little boy that murdered his sister to a community-wide event in Haddonfield. In our mythology, he hasn't necessarily gone nationwide yet. But I think for her, she's just saying that even if you take him down, you can't take him out."
So, Michael Myers: merely a man, or something more? The debate rages on.
Is Michael Myers after Laurie Strode?
While 2018's Halloween did away with much of the established lore of the franchise, one thing that remained is the connection between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. While the original Halloween saw Michael obsessively stalking Laurie, the later movie had The Shape on more of a random killing spree until he came to the Strode compound.
But in Halloween Kills, it's explained that Michael wasn't specifically after Laurie in 2018's Halloween at all. In fact, Doctor Sartain took him to the Strode residence as part of his obsession with Michael. It turns out that The Boogeyman is killing his way back to his childhood home, the old Myers house.
Officer Hawkins remarks on how, as a child on playdates at the house, he used to watch a young Michael stare out of the window in Judith Myers' bedroom, before he eventually killed his sister in that very spot. Whatever Michael's motivations may be, they undoubtedly have something to do with Judith once again, just as they did in the original.
Is Karen Strode dead?
Laurie's daughter Karen Strode is part part of the mob that hunts down Michael. She arrives just in time to save her own daughter Allyson from the wrong end of The Boogeyman's knife, and even unmasks him, luring him outside with that creepy visage. She's set a trap for The Shape: when he gets out onto the street, the mob is there waiting for him.
But Karen makes the fatal mistake of assuming Michael Myers is dead. Once the mob are done with him, she goes back inside the Myers House, and takes up position in Judith's bedroom, looking out the window. You can guess what happens next…
Michael appears in the room, and stabs Karen repeatedly. She falls to the ground and, tragically, dies.
What happened to Laurie Strode?
Laurie spends the entire movie in hospital dealing with the awful abdominal wound she suffered in the previous movie. That means she's safe and sound, far away from Michael's rampage.
Green told us why Michael and Laurie are separated throughout the movie: "Well, the Halloween franchise exists because of our good and evil – our Laurie Strode and our Michael Myers. The idea of this film was to create a portrait of Haddonfield as an entire community. To break apart [Laurie and Michael], essential pieces of DNA, and then see the worlds that spin around those essential ingredients, it was basically a great engine for us to meet a lot of people and bring back legacy characters from the '78 film and reintroduce characters that we'd brought onto camera in the 2018 film.
"So, splitting them apart does two things: it creates those double universes to start revolving around each other, and then creating that anticipation of how they collide."
Did Allyson Strode survive?
Unlike plenty of other Haddonfield residents, Allyson Strode is lucky enough to escape the wrath of Michael Myers. All hope seems lost for her when The Boogeyman is only seconds away from plunging a knife into her chest, but Karen arrives just in time and unmasks The Shape, leading him outside to the waiting mob. Allyson is injured from her tumble down the stairs, but not so badly that she won't pull through.
Who is Lonnie Elam?
We meet the older Lonnie in Halloween Kills, but he's actually a returning character from the '78 original. One of the young boys making fun of Tommy Doyle near the beginning of that movie is, in fact, Lonnie – and we learn in Halloween Kills that he's the father of Allyson's boyfriend Cameron, too.
What happened at the Myers House?
Back in 1963, a young Michael Myers dressed as a clown, picked up a knife, and killed his sister Judith. All these years later, he's returned home again.
Michael makes short work of the couple who've moved into his childhood home, and the Myers House becomes the setting for part of the film's climactic showdown. Allyson, Lonnie, and Cameron head there to face Michael themselves, but Lonnie insists on going in alone. Earlier in the movie, we learned that Lonnie survived an encounter with The Boogeyman on Halloween night 1978 – this time round, he's not so lucky, and is found dead and stuffed into the attic doorway.
Cameron and Allyson then venture inside, and Cameron meets the same fate as his father: he is very brutally murdered by Michael. Allyson watches helplessly after taking a bad fall down the stairs.
Why didn't Officer Hawkins kill Michael Myers?
We met Officer Hawkins in 2018's Halloween: when he tried to take down Michael, Doctor Sartain attacked him. Cameron saves his life early in Halloween Kills, and Hawkins ends up in the same hospital room as Laurie. In a flashback, we learn that he had the chance to kill Michael back in '78 not just once, but twice.
The first time, The Shape grabbed hold of another police officer, and Hawkins accidentally shot him instead of The Boogeyman. The next time, Doctor Loomis – Michael's doctor in the original film – was about to execute Michael on the street, when Hawkins, struck by a sudden bout of sympathy for the man behind the mask, intervened and prevented the killing.
What happened to Lindsey Wallace, Tommy Doyle, and Marion Chambers?
These three survivors of Michael's '78 rampage all returned for Halloween Kills, and while two of them met grisly fates, one survived.
At one point in the movie, Lindsey and Marion find themselves facing down Michael at a playground. Michael attacks their car while Marion is inside, calling back to the beginning of the original movie – but this time round, she isn't so lucky, and is killed. Lindsey, though, makes a run for it and hides from Michael in a nail-biting hide-and-seek sequence. Luckily, The Shape doesn't spot her, and she ends up in hospital for the rest of the movie, successfully surviving the night.
As for Tommy Doyle, he is one of the driving forces behind the mob pursuing Michael. He participates in the group attack on The Boogeyman outside the Myers house, but when Michael gets back up, Tommy is killed before he can so much as swing his baseball bat.
Who were the doctor and nurse couple?
You might have recognized the doctor and nurse couple, AKA Vanessa and Marcus. They were in 2018's Halloween for just a few moments, avoiding Michael's bloody rampage by sheer luck. The duo are seen getting into their car, right as The Shape is mid-killing spree. He watches them drive away, before turning his attention to another house.
In Halloween Kills, they're at the same bar as Marion, Tommy, and Lindsey. They end up in the car with Marion when The Boogeyman attacks again – and like Marion, they aren't so lucky this time. Both of them end up victims of Michael Myers.
Who was the other escaped patient?
Two patients are shown on the news as having escaped Smith's Grove Psychiatric Hospital – one of them is Michael, and another has nothing to do with The Shape at all. The other patient escaped at the same time as Michael, though, and so finds himself caught up in the chaos as the mob hunts The Boogeyman down.
Sadly, despite Karen's best attempts to save him, the other patient ends up jumping to his death after the mob mistakenly identifies him as Michael Myers, and pursues him through the hospital.
What will happen in Halloween Ends?
Karen's death is surely going to have huge repercussions on both Laurie and Allyson, though what happens next is a mystery for now. What we do know, though, is that the next chapter won't exactly be a straightforward, one-on-one showdown between Laurie and Michael. "We're heading in a very different direction for our third chapter," Green told us.
Jamie Lee Curtis has also shed some light on the third film. "I would say, given what I know about the next movie, I think it will be the last time that I will play [Laurie]," she told our sister publication Total Film. She added: "And I'm not saying something like, 'Oh, because I die!' It's nothing to do with that. I'm talking about emotionally what they have constructed. I think it will be a spectacular way to end this trilogy."
Halloween Kills is in theaters and streaming on Peacock in the US now, and is currently in UK cinemas. If you're all caught up, check out our guide to all the upcoming major movie release dates of the next few months.
