Headscratchers / Halloween Ends

• So nobody thinks to move away from this town before this movie?
  • Did people leave London after Jack the Ripper's murders? Maybe some people did move out, but if Michael remained underground for four years, it's likely that Laurie was the only one who seriously believed he would still be a problem.
    • Except the whole point of the movie and the last one is EVERYONE believed Michael was a problem to the point that it caused mass hysteria because he wasn’t found, with people going crazy over it and Death happening all over. And moving away from a small podunk town in modern times is different and much easier from moving from a large city in Victorian times.
    • People in this film seem to blame Laurie for the mass murders Michael committed, with people like Sondra's sister and DJ Willy the Kid saying she egged him on and picked on him until he snapped, to the point she's practically the town pariah. Years may have shifted the narrative from "Michael Myers is an unstoppable boogeyman we need to fear" to "Laurie Strode is the reason he killed everyone we know and loved". And if they no longer fear Michael Myers, why would they bother moving away?
    • DJ Willy the Kid might be the reason that Sondra's sister and so many other people believe Laurie is at fault for Michael's killing sprees. His last caller criticized him for using the murders in Haddonfield as entertainment, and it seems that was exactly what he did: repeated the same lies for the past four years to generate controversy and draw in more listeners. For some reason, people took him as an authority on the subject and believed he knew what he was talking about or they liked having their own prejudices confirmed.
• Why does Corey stick around Haddonfield? Seemingly the entire town hates him, and his awful mother is a My Beloved Smother type who infantilizes him every chance she gets. If nothing else, Corey could have changed his hairstyle and/or color, grown a beard, donned some glasses, etc, so everyone didn't immediately recognize him on sight.
  • He was originally set to go to college, that likely got undone by the accident (guilty or otherwise, it's not the image a college wants). His family don't seem particularly well-off. He likely can't afford to leave.
• The movie was originally planned to be a direct, immediate sequel to the borderline-Cliffhanger ending of Halloween Kills, but for some reason the makers thought the best way to deal with COVID-related shooting delays was to abruptly shift the story with a time skip of four years, leading to a lot of these. For example: how exactly did Michael manage to evade everyone in Haddonfield to live alone in a sewer, and why? Why did everyone let him slide and more or less forget about him? Specially Laurie herself, after he killed her daughter. What was his life like, alone in the drains for four years? How did no one notice him in all that time?
  • With no explicit knowledge of those intervening years, there's no way to know how long it took Laurie to give up the search for Michael. As for the rest of the town, if Michael isn't an active threat people are eventually going to stop looking for him and just assume that he died of his injuries after he vanished. Michael might be irredeemably evil, but when he managed to work out how to drive despite a complete lack of practical experience in the first film, he's clearly smart enough to be discreet when he has to be.
  • Besides, after the brutal bloodbath he singlehandedly gave the mob in the last movie, the population probably doesn't have the guts to look for him anymore, knowing what he's capable of. Hate him, wish him dead, hope he never comes back? Sure. Go out looking for him and end up slaughtered? No thanks.
    • Even if the population is scared of Michael after slaughtering the mob of people(which is believable that they would), the police force were not going to just let Michael walk away. By the end of that one night, Michael killed at least 30 people. Regardless of what fear the townspeople might have had, the police would still be on the search for Michael. A major manhunt from even outside police forces including likely the FBI, would be all over Haddonfield and the state to catch at this point a very dangerous murder. At the least, it wouldn't be a simple case of Michael just being able to hide in the sewer because no one would bother to look. Especially after what he did in the last two movies and there would be a high priority demand that he be capture from every available force.
• How come Michael is so weak here compared to the other movies and why did he wait so long to attack Laurie?
  • No real explanation is given, not even in the novelization. The only real explanation for any of the Halloween series comes in part 6, 'The Curse of Michael Myers'. It postulates that Michael is the victim of a curse by the ancient Celtic demon "Thorn" which gives him his supernatural powers and causes him to kill his family and others as sacrifices. It is connected to the "Thorn" constellation that only appears around Halloween on certain years and Michael's abilities are linked to it. So if we apply this scenario to 'Halloween Ends' Michael was waiting for the next appearance of the constellation but Corey forced him to act precipitously. This would also explain why the police are able to capture Michael in 1978, if the constellation has faded at the end of the night so has his strength and invulnerability.
  • It is unknown why Michael did not target Laurie at least till the end. It is possible that after killing Karen in the last movie, he felt that was good enough revenge to get on Laurie and left it at that since he killed her daughter. It is possible that the only reason he had even went after Laurie in the climax was because she just happened to be in his presence when Michael was going after Corey, who Michael seemed to really be after at the time. As for the weakness of Michael in this movie, while it is probably more so bad inconsistent writing, the real reason in universe is likely a combination of two things-age and injuries. Over the course of the last two movies Michael was stabbed, shot, and beaten multiple times. Plus he was also ran down, burned and got part of his hand shot off for that matter too. Combined with the fact too that Michael by this point is in his mid 60s, he would be noticeably weaker for the wear. It was also pointed out under fridge brilliance but keep in mind while Michael escaped by the end of Halloween Kills, it also meant that he never got proper medical treatment for all the injuries he received in the last two movies which would leave lasting lingering effects. He also probably was malnourish since he has had to live in the sewer and eat whatever he could to survive for the last few years which likely don't help. Those two things would seriously weaken even a younger man so no doubt at Michael's older age it would have even worse effects.
    • Presumably, Michael could have known that his protege was romantically involved with Laurie's granddaughter, as well. Having that last family tie severed would leave Laurie emotionally destroyed and more vulnerable, and it would strengthen Michael's odds against her physically.

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