Boy, this is a tough one to review. Not necessarily because I can’t decide how exactly I feel about it as I most certainly do but be able to review it in a way that is able to get you the conscious on what to expect going into the picture that doesn’t reveal any kind of plot details that the trailers and marketing haven’t shown. In the case of Halloween Ends, the overall premise that Universal has been pushing from the beginning with this being Laurie Strode and Michael Myers’s final confrontation. While that is technically true, it’s not really the main focus of this movie, or at least not as much as you would expect for the final film.
I imagine that is going to play a MASSIVE role as to how fans and audiences will response to this latest installment of the Halloween franchise, which even then is a series that’s no stranger to divisive or not well-liked features, save for the original and 2018. There is plenty of the plot synopsis, narrative turns, and surprises that the marketing has completely glossed over that does in fact make Ends more than just the 14th episode of the Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Myers show. As a matter of act, it makes it a complete different show entirely.
If that sounds off putting to you, then I’m pretty sure you are going to leave the movie with a sour taste in your mouth and probably hate it. If not, then you might find yourself fascinated and intrigued as to what is easily the strangest and most subversive of the Halloween movies since the Rob Zombie ones and H20.
Regardless, I will discuss briefly the actual plot synopsis of the movie that won’t reveal too much past the first act, including what the actual central main story is along with the actual central main character. If you want to go into the movie completely blind, then I would advise you click off of this review now and go watch the movie before reading the rest. Again, these won’t be any major spoilers but I can’t promise you won’t read in between the lines with what I describe.
Final warning for potential spoilers! Now, onto the actual review.
Halloween Ends is a movie with quite a bizarre goal that it’s trying to accomplish. It’s ambition is to try to wrap up a series of films that have consisted of multiple different entries, multiple different continuities, and multiple different endings. This is a franchise that has been constantly rewritten it’s own rules, logic, and continuity for what seems like an eternity now that ending it seems like a taunting task. Even so, having Halloween end doesn’t make much sense for the franchise since that practically goes against the moral of the original.
With the way John Carpenter wrapped up the original 1978 masterpiece, it did it in a way that felt abrupted but also open-ended in a very intentional way. It makes it statement about how in the end, Michael Myers will also be how there, literally or figuratively. Evil will always find it’s way and there wouldn’t be much good without it. That is something that the majority of the sequels, both good or bad, has missed the point of and making the franchise keep fighting a never ending battle that they can never win.
In the case of the new Halloween trilogy with David Gordon Green behind the camera, it started off in 2018 as a love-letter to the fans to get Jamie Lee Curtis back in shape transforming the character of Laurie into her Sarah Connor form and have her take on Michael Myers head on. With the sequels on the other hand, it seems to have handcuffed itself after delivering all the goodies they had left and now leaves themselves going, “Okay, now what?” What else can we do with the series that we haven’t done already other than countless gory bloodbaths and Michael Myers reeking havoc on a haunted town over and over again?
As much kills and thrills Kills did provide, it didn’t seem to add much in terms of narrative or any sort of character progression aside from seeing past characters older either being killed off or in their PTSD form. With Ends, it basically has the exact opposite problem. There’s plenty of bold swings and new ideas it wants to tackle upon but it seems like the wrong movie to do it with. I certainly admire it for that and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t engaged the whole way but I can’t say for certain if it actually worked in the end.
Premise: We start off with a shocking opening sequence in 2019 where a young man named Corey Cunnigham (Rohan Campbell) is babysitting a boy on Halloween night. That night takes a sudden turn when a tragedy happens that Corey is accused of being responsible for which ends up turning his world upside down. Fast forward to another three years, four after the events of 2018 and Kills, we see Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) who now lives with her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak) and has moved on from her obsession of Michael Myers. She has gotten over the death of her loved ones, most notably her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), and has made peace with her life by trying to make her remaining years on Earth a happy one. However, people still remember Laurie and blame her for the terrorism of Michael Myers. This eventually leads to Corey connecting with Allyson, who is now a nurse, after an accident, which Laurie sees a bit of Michael inside him. It’s then that the characters must discover who they really are deep inside and whether or not the impact that Michael Myers has had in Haddenfield has affected their clouded mindset.
That might see like an awful lot of plot for the premise to describe but trust me, I barely scratch the surface on it. The filmmakers behind Ends knew damn well that strictly having a entry with just Laurie and Michael Myers duking it out one last time is as thin of a premise as you can get with an hour and 45 minute long feature film and needed to find something that can fill up the runtime and connect to the franchises overall themes. I can’t say for certain how much of this was planned for the beginning or made up on the fly but it is quite distinct for not just the entire franchise but especially this trilogy of films.
Thankfully, Jamie Lee Curtis gets much more to do here as Laurie than in Kills and seems to be having more fun here than ever before. While the previous two movies felt too wrapped up in the depressed mental state that Laurie was in along with some ham-fisted, preachy dialogue in the form of Shakespeare, she is allowed to be more expressive and joyful here. She seems like the fun-loving, care-taking mother (or in the movie’s case grandmother) that she has always wanted to be but never allowed herself to be until now. You can clearly see this is a version of Laurie that is clearly able to move on from her depression and trauma and only got back into that mental state if she had too, which she unfortunately has to later on. When it comes to her granddaughter, Corey, and Michael Myers, oh boy!
I won’t go too deep into Corey’s role in the story as I plan to have a spoiler piece for that sometime next week but I found myself intrigued but also baffled by the way his character is presented here. It seems to be flirting with the ideas of a poor young boy being misunderstood, no one believing you, and have the whole turn against you because of it. It even seems to hint of the idea of how the effect of Michael Myers can turn good folks into psychopaths and turn them into their own version of the Boogeyman. Those are very intriguing ideas and concepts that hasn’t been brought up much in the Halloween franchise. Unfortunately, none of them worked as well as they can because I don’t think it’s ever clear what we are suppose to feel about Corey as a whole. The film never gives us a good indication as to whether or not Corey was an actual good person before performing these dreadful actions and if he is a character worthy of sympathy.
This all makes matters more complicated when he is in a relationship with Allyson. Again, the movie hints at the idea of a potential member of the Strode family turning into her own version of Michael Myers but it doesn’t amount of much of anything aside from creating some drama between Laurie and Allyson. It makes Allyson come across a kind of a creepy weirdo by hanging around with a guy who may or may not have killed a child. Are we suppose to be on her side or against her? I’m not quire sure and I don’t think the movie does either.
And if you are wondering why I’m hardly talking about Michael Myers himself in the movie, that’s because there’s not a whole lot with him in the movie. His role matters more in a thematic and literary sense than it does with the amount of screen time he has. His purpose amounts to how the folks of Haddonfield have had to deal with him over the years and how his presence has brought the worst out of anyone, including Corey himself. He’s still fine and scary here but you would think he would have more of a role in what is suppose to be the last official movie with that character.
For those that come to a Halloween movie for the genuine scare and the sloppily, brutal kills, you get enough of those here but I don’t think they stand out as some of the particular best in the franchise or even of this new trilogy. Mostly consists of the kind of bloody kills that you’ve seen in nearly every single Halloween movie or even just slasher movies in general. The final fight between Laurie and Michael Myers is brutal and intense in the moment but it’s goes by faster than you can say, “Happy Halloween!” It doesn’t quite compare to the showdown between the two in 2018 or even is as impactful (albeit abrupt) as the one from Kills as well. It’s all serviceable here and gets the job done but they often feel like an afterthought here as Green and his crew are clearly more interested in thrown whatever batshit crazy idea they can think off.
In the end, Halloween Ends, much like a good chunk of the sequels, is a movie that seems destined for intense discourse and mixed responses. It takes the kind of chances that you normally wouldn’t expect for a movie that was intended to be a crowd pleasing finale. For that, I respected it and was mostly intrigued by it. However, I can’t say it all worked because of how muddled it is in it’s execution, how there isn’t much resolution to those ideas, and how it’s quite strange to have this being done in the literal last movie where the main storylines from the previous two movies has to be wrapped up. Much like the kills in this franchise, it’s sloppy, brutal, and all over the place but still can be seen as effective.
Overall, I probably give this a 2.5 stars. That might be a bit generous just for the risks it takes but yeah. Now, enter the discourse!
Other comments:
- Film buffs are no doubt gonna find strong Christine vibes with this one!
- The remix of the Michael Myers theme here is kinda off, especially compared to how bleak and angry the 2018 remix sounded.
- I would NOT want to be on social media for the next couple of months if I’m Rohan Campbell.
- I can’t be the only one that had Anakin Skywalker’s vibes with Corey’s arc in the movie.
- You should check out Christine btw.
- Also, this movie is on Peacock now for those that don’t want to go to the theaters.
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