HALLOWEEN ENDS

 

“Halloween Ends” is the final entry of the most recent trilogy which began back in 2018 with the imaginatively titled “Halloween”. To say that it is an odd entry in this long running and convoluted saga is an understatement. Nothing seems to gel together with separate storylines feeling like they have come from completely different films. This results in a “final” chapter that feels unsatisfactory, or worse, half-arsed. I should warn upfront that this review will have plenty of SPOILERS so if you want to watch “Halloween Ends” without knowing key plot points, please read this review AFTER you have seen the film.

The film takes place four years after the brutal 2018 Halloween night rampage of Michael Myers, seen in “Halloween Kills”. During this time, Michael has disappeared whilst Laurie has got her life back on track again, moving houses, this time without all the hidden traps, gadgets and weapons. She is focused on looking forward and enjoying her life with her granddaughter Allison, rather than looking back to the past and at the pain caused by Michael. However, as Halloween approaches, evil once again rears its ugly head in Haddonfield, but this time it may not be Michael Myers the residents should fear the most.

The opening scene of “Halloween Ends” immediately indicates that this new film is going to be a very different “Halloween” experience. Rather than focusing on anything to do with either Michael or Laurie, this opening scene instead depicts a devastating babysitting job gone wrong when local teenager, Corey Cunningham, accidentally kills the young boy he is looking after during a game the two were playing together. Although an accident, Corey is forever tainted by the incident with locals turning on him and treating him as if he is some evil being who had committed a deliberate act of violence. There are some sympathetic members within the community (including, surprisingly, the young victim's father), but Corey suddenly finds himself a pariah of Haddonfield, both isolated and bullied in equal measure.

The tone of this opening is completely different to that of any “Halloween” film before. I regularly bemoan the fact that films are all the same lately, so initially I actually really liked that this “Halloween” sequel was going in a different direction than all the others, but after an hour or so, the film lost it's way and became very messy. One of the greatest missed opportunities of the “Halloween” series was not following up on the fantastic ending of “Halloween 4” which saw Michael Myers passing on his evil legacy to his niece Jamie Lloyd. Inexplicably they did not follow through with this at the beginning of “Halloween 5”, basically ignoring that ending totally. It would've seen the franchise go in a bold, new direction, but it was like the producers were scared of straying from a winning formula. “Halloween Ends” is brave enough to try and head down this lost path, as after the anger, pain and frustration has built up to boiling point in Corey, Michael Myers transmits some of his pure evil into the boy which sees him follow down the same murderous path. I was thrilled to see David Gordon Green and his writers attempt this neglected narrative, however sadly, they ended up fumbling the ball and didn't make any of this new material count. It ended up having no impact in the over-riding arch of the whole story, which deemed it all pointless and worse, another totally wasted opportunity. Corey steals Michael's mask from him (I mean, what the !?!) and goes on his own murderous rampage, killing the bullies that tormented him before heading after his girlfriend's grandmother, one Laurie Strode. After a brief fight and cat and mouse chase between the two, Laurie ends up getting the upper hand, before Corey's life is extinguished (I will leave how he dies a secret). Hooray! The bad guy is dead, except it makes everything that has come before it in “Halloween Ends” feel entirely pointless! All the building up of Corey as a sympathetic character, seeing him turned towards evil, and then the importance of his accepting of Michael's evil and becoming the “new” big bad; it is all for nought as it goes nowhere. Even Corey's death itself has no impact; it has a matter of fact quality to it – it just seems to happen, no one really cares and we move on. To be totally honest, I always thought that Corey was going to be a red herring and that the real person that was going to take over Michael's mantle was Allison, Corey's girlfriend and Laurie's granddaughter. We see her totally change in character (and quickly) over the course of the film, where her good-girl persona is replaced by the frustration and anger in how Corey is treated, not to mention the way everyone looks down on their relationship, to the point of her being on the outs with her grandmother over this. Sadly, once again director David Gordon Green (or his producers) failed to follow through on this more interesting plot, instead retreating to the safeness of the same-old, same-old.

This brings me to another point of what is wrong with “Halloween Ends” and that's the unrealistic changes in the characters between the previous film, “Halloween Kills”, and “Halloween Ends”. At the end of “Halloween Kills”, Laurie's daughter / Allison's mother Karen is violently killed by Michael and yet at the beginning of “Halloween Ends” both characters have moved on, and Laurie particularly has changed her outlook on life from the negative to the positive. Whilst it is great having the more carefree and loving Laurie of the original 1978 film back, it really doesn't make much sense from a narrative perspective as we never know what causes this change, and thus feels false because of this. From what we have seen of Laurie in the previous two films, the death of her daughter should've sent her spiralling further down a dark path, particularly in regards to her relationship with Michael. As for Allison, she has always been a bit of a blank void, so a gauge on how she should react after the death of her mother is hard to accurately predict and I guess it has been four years since her demise, so it is conceivable that Allison has grieved and moved on naturally in this time. However within “Halloween Ends” Allison goes through massive character swings that never feel real due to how quickly they occur. From good-girl to Corey's bad-girl companion, it all happens way too fast, but it is even worse when she realises that Corey is a bad egg and reverts back to good immediately, just in time to save Laurie from him. The worst example though is in the treatment of the character of Michael Myers himself. At the end of “Halloween Kills” Michael had essentially massacred half of Haddonfield in brutal, bloody fashion, looking as if he was unable to be killed. However four years later when this movie begins, Michael is a decrepit old man, hiding in the sewers, too weak even to pick up his knife or fight off Corey when he steals his mask from him (did I mention, what the !?!). In fact David Gordon Green's treatment of this iconic character is deplorable. I understand wanting to move away from Michael Myers, but treat the character with some respect and let him go out in style. The “Halloween Ends” version of Michael Myers is like a Covid variant as he spends most of the film isolating from everyone in the sewers (not showing up until forty minutes in) while being weak, struggling to breathe and losing his strength before he eventually dies. There is a loose thread from “Halloween Kills” where it hints that Michael needs to kill to gain his strength which is very briefly explored here, but we never find out why Michael stopped killing for four years which is just lazy screenwriting. David Gordon Green does eventually let Michael loose with his knife, but once again it feels half-arsed especially when one of the series' most iconic kills is repeated here but isn't anywhere near as effective. Do not get me wrong, what few kills there are, they are very violent and well executed but they just do not hold the same weight anymore.

This brings me to the Laurie Strode vs. Michael Myers finale which sadly feels like nothing more than an afterthought. After all the effort of building the Corey Cunningham story arc, the final ten minutes of “Halloween Ends” is all we get for the climactic face off. It never feels organic to the rest of the film and totally feels tacked on or worse, a contracted obligation to had to be included. The battle itself is short, but personally, I actually liked it and liked the fact that Laurie came out triumphant; it would've been sad after everything she had been through to become just another of Michael's victims. However the slow way of killing Michael, by opening his veins in his wrist and neck and letting him bleed out, well that felt a little underwhelming. Personally, it doesn't hold a candle to the fantastic and satisfying ending of “Halloween: H20” which saw Laurie decapitating Michael before John Carpenter's “Halloween” theme pumps throughout the end-credits. “Halloween Ends” has been promoted as the “final” battle between Michael and Laurie and to keep true to this claim, Green has Laurie tear Michael's body to pieces by throwing him into a metal shredder. It's an unceremonious end to an iconic character, and in a sense makes the character lose most of his aura, especially because we know that he will be back in some form or another; whilst we saw his body destroyed, he never see what happens to his infamous mask. Trust me, Michael WILL return!

From a filmmaking perspective, I also felt like David Gordon Green's direction wasn't as tight as the previous instalments, to the point that it now feels like he really had nothing left to say after his 2018 version of “Halloween”; that due to the money that film made, the trilogy was essentially forced upon him, as each new feature has had diminishing returns (from an artistic perspective). In this instalment the writing was very sloppy, the cinematography was less inspired, and even John Carpenter and co.'s music score was nothing special this time. It just feels like no-one's heart was truly into the making of “Halloween Ends” with the exception of Jamie Lee Curtis who is once again great as Laurie, and James Jude Courtney who continues to be an excellent Michael Myers, although has limited opportunities here.

Overall this was a disappointing end to a trilogy that started so strongly back in 2018. The filmmakers appear to have run out of things to say and have lost their passion for Michael Myers. I didn't hate “Halloween Ends”, but it has too many problems to ignore. I initially loved the fact that it didn't travel down the same weary “Halloween” path but was disheartened when they totally wasted its potential and then tacked on the unsatisfying Michael vs. Laurie final fight. It is a very odd entry in the “Halloween” franchise and bound to be polarising, with most people falling on the negative side I feel, but I think most would agree that “Halloween Ends” is definitely a disappointment.

2.5 Stars.