Canceled Sequel Halloween 8: Lord Of The Dead Had A Twist Ending Where Laurie Strode Became Michael Myers

If you've lost count of how many "Halloween" movies there are, we're coming up on unlucky number 13 next year with "Halloween Ends." We're also coming up on the real Halloween holiday this weekend, which means there's no better time to talk about past "Halloween" franchise entries.

Let's be honest: "Halloween Ends" is a title that feels like false advertising, since we all know this franchise — with its unkillable boogeyman, Michael Myers — will never, ever end. Even now, he's out there, doing his murderous thing again in "Halloween Kills." The eighth installment in the series, released in 2002, came together under the title of "Halloween: Resurrection," but there's another version of it that could have been made called "Halloween 8: Lord of the Dead."

All but one of the "Halloween" movies feature Michael Myers and several of them feature the original series heroine, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), but what if those two characters became one and the same? That was the idea behind the potential twist ending for "Lord of the Dead," which screenwriter Daniel Farrands recently discussed with Bloody Disgusting.

Farrands wrote the sixth installment, "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers," which co-starred Donald Pleasance as Dr. Loomis and Paul Rudd as Tommy Doyle. The screenwriter came back in after the seventh installment with a pitch that involved Tommy consulting Loomis' diaries. He explained:

"The twist of my pitch was that, once the hell breaks loose and the murders began and we see all of this mayhem going on, with Tommy sort of taking on the role of Loomis, the big finale when they're going to finally unmask Michael Myers reveals that the killer is actually Laurie Strode."

Farrands continued with his vision for what would have happened in "Halloween 8: Lord of the Dead:"

"[Laurie]'s gone completely bats**t crazy and came back to relive the murders that she barely survived, and she's become like The Shape. It kind of made sense to me, because at the end of 'Halloween: H20,' what you hear, after she chops his head off with an ax, is that she's breathing heavily like Michael at the end of the original movie."

This sounds like a goofball idea to me, but truthfully, I'm not invested enough in the "Halloween" franchise to say whether it would have worked with the elaborate seven-film mythology that preceded it. If I had to swear on a Bible, I could only say for certain that I've seen three "Halloween" movies: the first one by John Carpenter, the 20th anniversary entry, "H20," and the 40th anniversary entry, David Gordon Green's "Halloween," which started this whole new trilogy that's playing out now. I feel like I've seen other random entries on TV or in the theater long ago, but my memory is vague at this point and the franchise has a continuity that's rather convoluted.

You can see "Halloween Kills" in theaters and on Peacock now.