Halloween Ends Continues A Bad OG Character Trend With Tommy Doyle
David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends ruined many of the original characters from the Halloween franchise, and Tommy Doyle is a perfect example. A crucial character from Halloween Kills, Tommy was completely ignored in Ends, and it continues the recent trend of original characters from 1978’s Halloween having a disappointing ending in the H40 trilogy. Doyle is not the only character who suffered from this, but he also had a great storyline that was seemingly forgotten by the next movie.
Halloween Kills saw Tommy Doyle form a mob to take down Michael Myers once and for all. While it wasn’t the smartest decision, it was certainly noble. But shortly after the mob brutally ambushes the killer, Myers gets back up and attacks them, stabbing Tommy several times and apparently killing him. The Kills mob mentality story wasn’t executed well, but Doyle was important for that film’s story, and he ultimately sacrificed himself. Yet, he wasn’t even mentioned in Halloween Ends. It was as if the character never existed. Ignoring his demise and what it should have meant for the franchise adds more weight to how Ends wasted other people like Lindsey and continued to push Laurie Strode aside.
Why Wasn’t Tommy Doyle Mentioned In Halloween Ends?
As frustrating as it was that Tommy Doyle was never mentioned in Halloween Ends, there was also a four-year time jump after the events of Halloween Kills. Enough time had passed that the citizens of Haddonfield believed that Michael Myers was gone for good, and they likely just wanted to move on with their lives. Ends also wanted to shift focus on a random new character with Corey Cunningham. Mentioning Doyle could have worked, but the filmmakers probably wanted to switch enough gears that a completely new story was focused on instead of a previous one.
How Halloween Ends Wasted The OG Franchise Characters
The returning characters in Halloween Ends were utterly wasted due to the change in narrative. Similarly to Laurie in Halloween Kills, Michael Myers had very little screen time and only got his due in the third act. Focusing on a new character like Corey instead of the older characters disrespects the legacy of the franchise since Ends was meant to wrap up Michael and Laurie’s story. Sidelining a character like Lindsey, who had a larger role in Kills, tells the audience they didn’t know what to do with the character and only included her because she was a character from the original film. It was genuinely touching to see Lindsey have a more supportive role, but the final Halloween film was a great opportunity to develop her character more instead of wasting her.
Halloween Ends doesn’t just ruin the legacy characters by sidelining them. It sees many of these characters acting out of character. Michael Myers had his most embarrassing moment when he was easily defeated by a young man in his 20s. Myers is meant to be practically unstoppable, and it didn’t even really seem like he was trying to defend himself against Corey. To top it off, Halloween Kills sees some of Michael’s most brutal kills yet, and Corey ends up getting the best ones in Michael’s final appearance in a Halloween movie. Tommy Doyle and the rest of the Halloween legacy characters deserved a better ending.
