Just like last year, this October I did a marathon of the entire Halloween franchise, from the one that started it all in 1978 to the one that’s supposedly the very end. As I was rewatching Halloween Kills, I started to think about why I believe it would’ve been a good idea if a certain character in the film wasn’t killed off. I wanted to write down my thoughts on this while it was still fresh in my mind. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think! (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR HALLOWEEN KILLS AND HALLOWEEN ENDS!!!)

So, the overall theme of the new trilogy was centered around how the town was affected by Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) slaughtering its residents. To me, it became a sort of story about monsters creating monsters and I think the theme would’ve really hit home if the character, Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) wasn’t killed.

Let me spin a hypothetical right now: Let’s say after Tommy witnessed Michael brutally slaughter the group he brought together, he tried to get Michael and was stopped. Now, what if Michael chose not to kill Tommy because he sensed the same darkness that was in him? What if Tommy survived and Halloween Ends was centered around his character change rather than Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell)? Tommy was all too confrontational and all too ready to bash some heads in with that baseball bat, so a little bit of that darkness was already shown in him.

In this hypothetical, the rest of the town residents turned their back on Tommy because of the fear he caused that led to an innocent man’s suicide and a hell of a body count at the hands of Michael. They of course would deny their own roles in it and make Tommy a scapegoat. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) tried her best to reconnect with Tommy because of the guilt she felt encouraging him and the residents turned their backs on her too, but she failed. With most of his friends either dead or hating him, the darkness in him slowly grew over the 4 years of Michael’s absence so by the time he faced Michael again, they didn’t kill each other. They saw themselves in each other.

Every person that Michael killed in Halloween Ends would’ve been with Tommy instead of Corey. To me it would’ve been a better example of monsters creating monsters. Tommy started out a hero in Haddonfield trying to kill the monster only to later become the town pariah who learns from the monster and attempts to become him. This would’ve also made Laurie’s fake suicide more believable as the guilt inside her grew over the years as well.

Another reason I think this change would’ve worked is because even though I really enjoy Halloween Ends, it feels disconnected from the other two films because it’s mostly centered on an entirely new character. The rest of the characters sort of took a back seat and that was a major issue with the fans. If it was centered around Tommy’s downfall, it would’ve felt more like a complete trilogy. (Don’t worry, in this hypothetical, Tommy and Allyson wouldn’t be in a relationship. This hypothetical has nothing to do with Allyson.)