Rohan Campbell: Horror sequel 'Halloween Ends' a love story

NEW YORK, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Rohan Campbell says he sees Halloween Ends as more of a romance than a horror movie.

The last of a series of sequels to 1978's Halloween comes out on DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday.

The film picks up four years after the last sighting of masked and silent serial killer Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney).

It shows local heroine Laurie Stode (Jamie Lee Curtis) trying to live life to the fullest: learning to bake, writing her memoir, attempting to provide a stable home for her orphaned adult granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), and flirting with Frank (Will Patton), the retired deputy who helped her battle Michael Myers.

Laurie's sense of peace is shattered when she and Allyson befriend Corey (Campbell), a young man regarded as an outcast by the citizens of Haddonfield, Ill., after the boy for whom he was baby-sitting dies in his care.

Bullied Corey stumbles across Michael Myers' hiding place and becomes his protégé, enacting revenge on those who wronged him all while trying to sweep Allyson off her feet.

"It's about love without question -- love to the point of obsession and protection and to be two people who are so broken down and have their defenses up so much that, when they do open up, they open up immediately and as intensely as possible," Campbell told UPI about Corey and Allyson in a recent Zoom interview.

"It's not every movie that you get to see people love like that, and what I love about the relationship is the development of it and just watching two broken people hold each other up and try to run away."

Matichak sees Corey and Allyson as kindred spirits.

"They can understand each other deeper and without judgment more than anyone else," she said. "When they do finally make the decision to open up to one another, it catches fire and spirals pretty quickly."

They do each feel quite differently about the third person in their relationship, however.

While Corey sees Michael Myers as a mentor, Allyson hates him for killing her parents and torturing her grandmother.

"It becomes a movie about influence," Campbell said.

Matichak chimed in, "Michael Myers has haunted this town for a long time and even Corey being ostracized in the way that he was is in large part because of the town's response to Michael.

"They needed a new boogeyman so they decided to pin it on this kid," the actress added. "They decided to pin it on this kid. So, that overarching element of Michael is going to affect anyone in the town and, of course, it's going to affect a new budding relationship."

"He's kind of the core relationship," Campbell said.

"In a way," Matichak cautiously agreed.

"He's the glue that holds us together," Campbell said, to which Matichak replied, "Don't say that," before they both dissolved into laughter.

Campbell hopes the movie makes viewers consider more carefully the idea of whether people are born evil or become so in response to being neglected or treated cruelly.

"What excites me about the movie and what I love about it is that we don't have to ask that question as much as the audience does. All of my favorite movies are ones that create questions," Campbell said.

"They're not telling you things. They are showing you things, and it is up to you to question it yourself and, having seen the movie, I think that landed, and I'm really excited for people to see it and see how they feel about it."

Halloween Ends is director David Gordon Green's supposedly last horror movie about Michael Myers. It is the follow-up to 2021's Halloween Kills and 2018's Halloween -- which Green also helmed.

The movie leaves the door cracked open for the series to continue should Green or another filmmaker choose to return to Haddonfield, but Matichak remains mum on whether Allyson will ever be seen again.

"This is a beautiful kind of climactic, epic finale to a 44-year saga that Allyson has been really dredged in for the last four," she said. "It's definitely the conclusion to that trilogy."