We Need to Talk About Corey: ‘Halloween Ends’ Star Rohan Campbell Breaks Down His Pivotal Role in the Slasher Finale

SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points from “Halloween Ends,” which is now playing in theaters and available to stream on Peacock.

Billed as the finale to a landmark horror franchise, “Halloween Ends” was marketed with little more than the promise of a final match-up between remorseless serial killer Michael Myers and his lifelong victim Laurie Strode, played again by Jamie Lee Curtis. But many viewers were shocked to discover much more than a marquee showdown when director David Gordon Green’s horror film released last weekend. There’s also young love, a bunch of laughs and a fresh threat facing the town of Haddonfield — all courtesy of Corey Cunningham, a new character played by Rohan Campbell.

“David was so adamant on not having me on any press,” Campbell tells Variety.

When Campbell was first circling the project, he had no clue that he was auditioning for a “Halloween” film, much less that he would be asked to play what is essentially the main character of the series’ final entry. The striking cold open of “Ends” introduces Corey as a hapless babysitter. Trapped in an attic on Halloween night, Corey forces a locked door open and accidentally knocks the grade-schooler he’s supervising down a spiral staircase, killing the youngster instantly. Cue opening credits.

“I’m like, ‘Well, let’s see how I die in the opening of this movie.’ I’m a babysitter, which, when you read ‘babysitter’ and ‘Halloween,’ you’re not making it past page 10,” the 25-year-old actor laughs. “But I just kept flipping pages and it didn’t stop. I realized Corey was the attachment point for the audience.”

Corey becomes a pariah in Haddonfield after serving time for manslaughter. Abandoning his promising plans to become an engineer, the young man picks up a job at a junkyard managed by his father figure, Ronald (Rick Moose). But it’s a freak encounter with Michael Myers in an underground sewer that puts Corey on a dark pathway that ends in bloodshed.

Corey’s journey from affable geek to moody, murderous gearhead closely resembles the transformation of a character in another film from “Halloween” director John Carpenter: 1983’s “Christine.” In that Stephen King adaptation, Keith Gordon plays Arnie Cunningham (who shares a surname with Corey), a high schooler that devotes himself to a sentient Plymouth Fury and begins to kill for his vehicular girlfriend. Corey doesn’t fall for a car in “Halloween Ends” though; instead, he’s courting the approval of Michael Myers.

“‘Christine’ is one of my favorite movies,” Campbell shares. “This is so ‘Christine’ in a beautiful way.”

Along with “Christine,” Green pointed Campbell to other horror films about outcasts, like “Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker” and “Willard,” to help shape his performance. An ardent horror fan, Campbell “feels lucky” that “Halloween Ends” marks his first major film role. And after being cast nearly three years ago, he’s relieved that he no longer has to keep the story’s surprises under wraps.

“You want to do it so bad as an actor, but it’s really scary to step into this. You can’t doubt yourself for a second,” Campbell says. “When David offered me the role he was like, ‘I need you to know that a lot of people are going to really, really, really not be happy with what we’re choosing to do here. You’ll probably hear a lot of that.’ Jamie [Lee Curtis] reached out and said the same thing.”

While Campbell acknowledges that some fans have expressed frustration with Corey’s dominant role in “Ends,” he’s proud to be have “took this swing” with Green and Curtis. He especially cherishes a private compliment that Sandy King, Carpenter’s wife and longtime producer, gave to him after the film’s premiere.

“This to me feels like the most David Gordon Green movie ever made,” Campbell says. “Stuff is funny, man. When you sit with certain audiences, they either get it right away or they’re halfway through the movie and you can audibly hear them being like, ‘What is the tone of this?’ and not giving themselves permission to dive into the humor or bizarreness.”

Campbell shares that Green pushed him to access the more extravagant sides of his character, recalling filming the scene where Corey first meets Laurie’s granddaughter, Allyson Nelson (Andi Matichak), after cutting his hand on a chocolate milk bottle. The camera rolled for 16 minutes as Campbell was directed to mumble about how much his character loved chocolate milk.

“There’s a certain amount of social cues that Corey misses on. How far can we take that into ridiculous comedy? And then there’s a more serious version that’s really traumatized and emotionally unavailable. How far can you take that?… The best thing you can do as an actor is show up and have seven different versions of something to hand off to editors,” Campbell says before laughing. “They’re usually better at picking than you are.”

Though Campbell and Green discovered new sides of Corey while filming, the writers of “Halloween Ends” also considered the character’s miserable history with his suffocating mother, Joan (Joanne Baron), and Ronald. One of the film’s most stupefying moments — Joan kissing Corey on the lips — was scripted, according to Campbell. The gesture provides an evocative hint of the humorously disturbing backstory that didn’t make the final cut, though Campbell hopes deleted scenes on the home video release can fill in some blanks.

“You should’ve seen the drafts. Corey is tortured by this woman because of how much she loves him,” Campbell says. “That homelife stuff had a deep, deep, deep pool to it that we dove into.”

But Corey spends most of his time with Allyson in “Ends.” Campbell shares that he would make playlists for his co-star — “Nirvana, ’90s punk, a lot of cool guy music, I always called it” — to set the mood. After Laurie introduces Allyson to Corey, the pair of youngsters begin an impassioned, forbidden relationship. Some viewers have expressed confusion about a romance being a primary dramatic thrust in a “Halloween” film; the production was just as puzzled, according to Campbell.

“There were three weeks where the crew was so confused about what movie we were making. It was romance scene after romance scene… I was upstairs shooting an indie movie with Andi — a rooftop romance — while people were getting their tongues cut off downstairs,” Campbell jokes.

Things don’t end well for the two lovebirds. After Laurie recognizes Corey’s murderous intentions, Corey decides to take a knife to his throat in the Strode household, staging his murder in the hopes that it will forever sever Allyson’s relationship with her grandmother. Though even if things went down differently, Campbell doesn’t seem confident that it would’ve worked out between Corey and Allyson.

“Andi was always like, ‘They would have the best three weeks of their lives. They’d have this big burnout casino road trip movie. Then it would just end in flames,” Campbell says. “They would just not be together, or one of them would be dead for another reason.”

But even with their romance, Allyson never becomes as alluring to Corey as the Shape is to him. After being dragged underground into what can best be described as “a Michael Myers hole,” Corey comes face-to-face with Haddonfield’s menace — and is spared. Corey then becomes Myers’ disciple, mimicking his physicality and, at one point, even donning his dilapidated rubber mask.

“Corey can’t handle the idea that Shape let him live,” Campbell says. “That’s the thing that throws a spanner in his brain and short-circuits something.”

Despite his devotion to Haddonfield’s OG menace, Corey never fully resembles Myers. His murders are sloppy at first and extravagant later on — neither of which are characteristics befitting the brutal efficiency of the Shape. One kill involves Corey using a blowtorch to incinerate the face off of a marching band bully. Campbell insisted on filming that stunt himself.

“That’s so not what Shape would do. He’s so artistic with it. Everything’s like a painting for him. Everything’s art. With Corey, it’s just fury and hurt,” Campbell says.

By the time “Ends” ends, Corey has racked up quite the body count. While Campbell purposefully played the character’s sympathetic side, he understands it might be best to pump the brakes on some viewers’ efforts to reclaim Corey’s image: a movement he witnessed firsthand after being recognized at an opening weekend screening in Toronto.

“’I could have saved Corey’ is such a funny thing to say,” Campbell laughs. “I’m so protective of Corey and his choices. When I talk about Corey, I’m like, ‘Yeah, of course he did those things! What do you mean? What else was he supposed to do?’ When I left the theater in Toronto, a group of people recognized me and the only thing they yelled was ‘Corey is innocent.’ Guys, no… He’s not. That’s not the point of the story, man! The story’s about choices, choices, choices.”

“Halloween Ends” is in theaters now and available to stream on Peacock.

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