No matter how many times you shoot, stab, or burn Michael Myers, he keeps coming back. However, just because slasher films' endings are predictable doesn't mean they need to be stale. Fortunately, the Halloween franchise has mostly avoided unsatisfying third acts.
With another climax just around the corner in Halloween Kills, there's no better time for a retrospective on the many ways in which Myers has been put down (even if just temporarily). While not all of them hit the mark, the Halloween franchise has had several installments with killer endings.
8 Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers (1995)
The producer's cut of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a convoluted mess that delves far too deep into the Cult of Thorn. Look no further than the scene where Paul Rudd's Tommy Doyle (a re-cast character from the first installment) is laying stones around Myers, which apparently restricts his power.
Unfortunately, the re-shot theatrical ending isn't much better. It falls more along the line of a standard Halloween third-act chase but is far more satisfying than expounding on the Cult of Thorn (which ruins Myers). The killer chases Doyle and Kara Strode through a sanitarium until Doyle faces him one-on-one with a pipe. Then, Doyle gets Strode away from the facility, which leaves only Myers and Dr. Loomis (in what would amount to his final scene).
7 Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers (1989)
Halloween 5 is the installment where they finally locked him up again. It's just unfortunate that it took a poorly-edited mess of a third act to get there.
The third act of this installment mostly takes place in the Myers home. Dr. Loomis, using Jamie as bait, lures Michael back in hopes of finally capturing him. He manages to do so with a chain-link net and the killer is incarcerated. Like everything else in Halloween 5, there are gaps in logic (if Jamie could appear in the jail scene, so should Dr. Loomis, who was in the shot just before), but it plays fine enough overall. Then, a mysterious figure enters the station, kills the police, and frees Michael. The fact that there's some sort of a cabal out there supporting Myers' deeds is ludicrous, but the incarceration angle worked while it lasted.
6 Jamie Picks Up The Mantle – Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers (1988)
It may be a plot twist that made no sense, but the scene showing Jamie Lloyd's newfound murderous tendencies is one of the scariest scenes from the Halloween franchise. What holds the shocker of an ending from being towards the series' best is a two-parter.
The first is that it was not followed up in any way, shape, or form in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. This film found success because it brought back the franchise's primary character, so immediately disposing of him again wouldn't have worked. The second is logistics. Namely, the question of whether it's Myers spirit within Lloyd, or if murdering her step-mother was done by her own volition.
5 Michael In The Basement – Halloween (2018)
The trailer for Halloween Kills reveals that the authorities don't "let him burn." Regardless, trapping Myers in a fortified basement and setting it ablaze was a unique way to take the supernatural killer down (until next time).
Viewers got the sense that Myers would return, but it's still a thoroughly effective ending because it ties in with Strode. She has turned her home into a structure that could survive the apocalypse because she's been traumatized. Trapping Myers in the structure is her trapping in the very reason for its existence.
4 Blind & Burning Michael – Halloween II (1981)
Halloween II's final minutes are the best of the film, by far. It finally gives Jamie Lee Curtis the chance to speak (which she doesn't for the majority of the film) and Michael Myers is killed in a fully satisfying way.
This was intended to be the end of Myers (hence the Myers-less Halloween III). His getting shot in both eyes by Strode was a great touch. But his blindly swinging a scalpel around was even better (and the film's best scene). Then, Doctor Loomis sacrifices himself and embroils both himself and Myers in a sea of flame. Myers then exists the room and approaches Strode, only to fall down midway. Had the series stopped as a double feature, it still would have still been satisfying.
3 Goodbye, Michael – Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later hasn't aged as well as other installments, considering Strode and Myers have been back in a more recent and overall more well-received movie. Even still, H20 is fun and amongst the best of its type released in the wake of Scream.
It's also the installment that satisfyingly killed Myers and concluded Strode's arc. Michael is pinned and helpless. Then, in a rare moment of humanity, he awkwardly extends his hand. Strode, clearly in conflict, forces herself to swing an axe and behead her brother. Halloween: Resurrection however sloppily retconned this movie's ending and thoughtlessly killed Strode within the first 10 minutes.
2 Screaming Into The Phone – Halloween III: Season Of The Witch (1982)
The second-best ending of the series may not involve Michael Myers, but it involves a lot of nihilism. Dr. Daniel Challis has done everything he could, yet has still failed to inform the world of Silver Shamrock's plan to eliminate as many children as possible.
Myers attacked young people in the first two movies, but never kids. Halloween III not only put the lives of children on the line but went so far as to kill them (both on-screen and off). Dr. Challis screaming into the phone feels both realistic and extremely tragic.
1 As A Matter Of Fact, It Was – Halloween (1978)
Laurie Strode meets neither Doctor Loomis nor Michael Myers until Halloween's final reel. Even still, that one scene alone is enough to solidify the poignancy of their triangle. It's also bolstered by two terrific lines. Shaking on the floor, Strode says: "It was the boogeyman." Loomis replies with: "As a matter of fact, it was."
If this exchange didn't seal the final scene's effectiveness, the next shot does. Having shot Myers six times, Loomis watches Michael fall backward off the second-story balcony. He goes out, expecting to see the body of his patient, only to find a squished patch of grass. It feels like a subtle final scare (Haddonfield will never be safe) as opposed to the set-up for a sequel.
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