Summary

• Quentin Tarantino's concept for a Halloween sequel involved Michael Myers on a road trip killing people.
• While Tarantino's exact idea was never executed, echoes of it can be found in the plot for Halloween Ends.
• Halloween Ends featured the divisive subplot of Corey Cunningham teaming up with Michael Myers, contradicting the established "Shape" character.

Quentin Tarantino was once on deck to write the sixth movie in the Halloween horror franchise, and while that never came to be, his core concept resurfaced in the last chapter of the reboot trilogy, Halloween TV show) since the original, with different lines of continuity. While Rob Zombie's Halloween reboot from the late 2000s stands on its own, all other sequels and reboots (except Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which is a separate anthology) can be traced back to Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981).

While there have been 13 Halloween movies made since the franchise began, none of them have ever come close to the quality of the original. Following the abysmal reviews for the four immediate sequels to the original, the (at the time) up-and-coming Quentin Tarantino was tapped to take on Halloween 6. Obviously that never came to fruition, and instead of a Tarantino-written sequel, audiences got Halloween: The Curse of Micahel Myers, which is the worst movie in the franchise by Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer. However, Tarantino's main idea for the sequel wound up in the franchise anyway.

Quentin Tarantino's Halloween Idea Was Used With Michael Myers & Corey Cunningham

The concept of giving Michael a partner was at the center of Halloween Ends

At the end of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, a captured Michael is set loose from prison by a mysterious man in black who decimates the police station Michael is being held in. It would have been for Tarantino to figure out who the man in black was, and why he freed Michael from prison. Per Indiewire, Tarantino would have had the man in black and Michael start the movie on a road trip down Route 66, during which Michael would kill people at every stop they made.

Tarantino's idea for Halloween 6 is regarded as an inspiring element for Natural Born Killers, the 1994 Oliver Stone-directed romantic crime film that features a couple committing a series of murders on a road trip.

The concept of giving Michael Myers a partner wound up being a key subplot in Halloween Ends. In Halloween Ends, a young man named Corey Cunningham who is an outcast in Haddonfield discovers Michael hiding in the town's sewers, is subsequently infected by Michael's evil, and commits a series of murders at first with Michael's help, and then using Michael's mask himself. It's not a direct execution of Tarantino's original idea, but the echoes of his original concept are definitely present.

Why Michael Myers & Corey Cunnigham's Connection In Halloween Ends Was So Divisive

It contradicts everything that's been established about "The Shape"

The connection between Corey Cunningham and Michael Myers was one of the most controversial elements of the much-maligned Halloween Ends, with many fans pointing out how unrealistic and impossible the connection was. Michael Myers began as "The Shape" in Halloween (1978), a faceless evil who attacks Laurie Strode seemingly at random, as they were not revealed to be siblings until Halloween II. Having Michael Myers obey Corey's wishes and work together with him as opposed to murdering him immediately was an affront to everything that Michael Myers is supposed to be.

Furthermore, Corey is established as the main character, and is even able to overpower Michael Myers and steal his mask. Die-hard franchise fans found that borderline insulting, and while Michael did eventually kill Corey and reclaim his mask, the damage was done. While the idea of Michael's murderous legacy being ed on to a new person in Haddonfield might have been effective, Corey's story was in the wrong movie; it needed to occur well before Halloween Ends in the Blumhouse continuity so that it could be properly built up.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, Indiewire