The 2018 "Halloween" soft reboot ended with final girl Laurie Strode, her
daughter Karen, and granddaughter Allyson trapping the notorious Michael Myers
in Laurie's rigged basement, leaving him to burn alive. Nevertheless, the
original cut featured a more contained showdown between the four characters and
an ambiguous finale that didn't pass test screenings.
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The original ending.
Instead of the “cat-and-mouse” chase inside Laurie's house, the two engaged in
a direct knife fight right outside the house. In this version, Michael managed
to seriously wound Laurie, stabbing her in the shoulder/chest and knocking her
out for a moment.
Seeing her mother in danger, Karen (who at that moment was called Shanan and
was hiding inside the house) appeared with a crossbow from Laurie’s practice gear. Karen shot
Michael in the back, causing him to stop. However, Michael didn’t die; he
simply staggered and retreated into the darkness of the forest.
Laurie, Karen, and Allyson, wounded, flee toward the highway as they watch
Michael disappear into the trees. The trio flag down a truck that agrees to
take them to the hospital. Meanwhile, Michael returns to Laurie’s house and
sits on the shooting range as he bleeds out.
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Discarded.
The main reason this ending was ultimately rejected was its poor reception
during test screenings. Apparently, the test audience felt that the ending was
unsatisfying and anticlimactic compared to the tension built up throughout the
film.
Because of this, the filmmakers had to do reshoots in which they filmed the entire fire sequence, which ended up becoming the official and far more iconic ending we all know.
"Halloween" 2018 original ending script pages.
