David Gordon Green knew “Halloween Ends” was not going to give every hardcore fan the version they had built in their head. The filmmaker’s 2022 finale to his “Halloween” trilogy remains one of the more divisive franchise swings of the Blumhouse era, partly because it refused to spend the whole movie on a ferocious and cathartic Michael Myers and Laurie Strode rematch. Instead, Green centered on Haddonfield’s broader infection, the spread of fear and violence, and the corrosive effect of evil on a town after years of trauma (read our “Halloween Ends” review).
Speaking with Mike DeAngelo on The Playlist’s Bingeworthy podcast while promoting Apple TV’s upcoming darkly comedic thriller “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed”—he directed the season premiere pilot—Green said there was never a more straightforward version of “Halloween Ends” built around a feature-length Michael/Laurie war.
“No, I really couldn’t find my end to a showdown movie,” Green said candidly. “You know, everything that I write, I have to make it really personal, or I don’t want to get up in the morning, you know, like that’s what motivates me every day.”
For Green, the way into “Halloween Ends” came from a stranger, more personal set of references than the franchise’s usual slasher expectations. Rather than simply escalating the violence from “Halloween” and “Halloween Kills,” he found himself drawn to movies that helped him think about alienation, obsession, and the strange ways menace can move through a community.
“And so that was a fun movie to be able to find a very unlikely group of film references, like ‘Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker,’ ‘My Bodyguard,’ these movies that triggered me made it personal to me,” Green explained “And, you know, it’s not necessarily doing a fan survey before you dive in, but you try to do what’s meaningful to you and put yourself and your heart into it.”
That approach helps explain why “Halloween Ends” became such a split decision among horror fans. The film did eventually bring Laurie and Michael together for a final confrontation. Still, much of the movie tracked Corey Cunningham’s collapse after a horrific accident and the way Haddonfield’s rage found a new vessel. It was a gamble, especially for a franchise finale marketed around the end of the Laurie/Michael mythology. Still, Green said he hoped time would soften some of the initial resistance.
“So that’s what I did,” Green said. “And that’s, hopefully, anything that I’ve done that’s divisive in one minute, people over time can reconnect or find a different way in when time’s done its thing. So I hope those people who turned away from it or shied away from what I was trying to achieve in the moment, I give it another shot.”
“Halloween Ends” was released by Universal Pictures in October 2022 and grossed $105.4 million worldwide. The film starred Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards, and James Jude Courtney as The Shape.
Green is already looking toward a different kind of genre exercise with “Supermax,” a Miramax thriller scripted by David Weil and “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed” creator David J. Rosen. The project centers on two FBI agents investigating a murder inside the world’s most secure prison, with Green attached to direct and Will Smith starring.
Asked whether “Supermax” would let him try a specific kind of thriller he had not tackled before, Green pointed to one of modern studio filmmaking’s great action stylists.
“One of the things I’ve been wanting to do is find something that has that infused a flavor of drama and action that we haven’t really gotten since we lost Tony Scott,” Green said. “And so this is, you know, the projects that I’m like really drawn to right now, and as I’m revisiting a lot of those classic movies, those brilliant movies, have that kind of grit and substance.”
Green said the script immediately hit the kind of genre pleasure center he has been chasing.
“When Rosen and his writing partner, David Weil, showed me the script, I was like, you know, it was just like triggering all these things,” he continued. “I’m always just looking to reinvent the buffet of the opportunities that I’ve had, the experience, and the adventures that I’ve been lucky enough to have, and try something new. And so this is just another one that we’re hoping to be able to put together here before too long.”
Before that, Green and Rosen have “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed,” Apple TV’s 10-episode darkly comedic thriller starring Tatiana Maslany and Jake Johnson. The series premieres May 20, 2026, with its first two episodes, followed by weekly episodes through July 15.
More from this interview with Gren soon. – Additional reporting by Mike DeAngelo.
