Halloween Ends brings some interesting, innovative ideas to the long-running franchise. If only it fully committed to them. At least we can credit writers Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green (who also directs) for committing to the title; this is definitely the last chapter in this sequel trilogy.
In 2019, 21-year-old Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) is babysitting when a prank goes fatally wrong. Three years later, the whole town of Haddonfield, Illinois harbors a grudge against him. Everyone, except Allyson Nelson (Andi Matichak) - Laurie Strode’s granddaughter. Since Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) vanished four years ago, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) has been rebuilding her life but she senses a familiar evil within Corey.
I’m not sure whether to criticize this film for putting most of its focus on Corey and Allyson. This chapter seeks to create a Stephen King’s It vibe around Haddonfield. The idea is that Michael Myers’ rampages have corrupted the town. Even if he's gone, the evil remains. In the background we see billboards for missing women, Laurie is harassed by people who should sympathize with her, the local radio DJ Willy the Kid (Keraun Harris) is exploiting the tragedies his listeners have lived through and overall, there's this nastiness in the air. That's something new. The first downside is that it makes Halloween Ends feel like it belongs to a completely different franchise. At 111 minutes, you could probably edit out Myers entirely and still get a full movie. Second - and most crucially - is that in the end, director David Gordon Green doesn’t seem to be fully interested in Corey’s story. He eventually gets pushed aside so Michael can come back and have his final showdown with Laurie.
As a final chapter in the franchise, Halloween Ends ultimately disappoints. I’m not sure what I wanted to see. I prefer to believe there is something supernatural (but not Halloween III kind of supernatural) happening in these movies so I guess I wanted the film to acknowledge this without being too obvious about it. I thought it was going to when we hear Laurie say “Evil doesn’t go away, it changes shape.” With Corey taking on the mask and the spirit of Myers possessing him or something. Maybe even that would’ve disappointed because ultimately, it’s much scarier for the story NOT to end, for us to be left forever wondering if Michael is still out there, waiting for us to let our guard down.
I don’t want to seem too negative about the film. As a slasher movie, it gets a lot of things right. The opening scene is fantastic. Several kills will make you flinch. One that involves a blowtorch still makes my skin crawl. Whether we get enough of the characters we came to see or not, Halloween Ends is 2/3 of a great horror movie with interesting ideas and concepts that are either new or have never been adequately explored in this series. Unfortunately, the not-so-great final third is what we see before the credits roll.
In terms of gore and violence, Halloween Ends has enough shocking visuals to satisfy gore-hounds but they’re also the ones who will be most disappointed by the decision to go in a brand new direction. It’s an interesting experiment that doesn’t quite pay off. There's also a pretty cool thing after the credits, though if you skip it, you wouldn’t be missing out on too much, since it’s not really a scene. (October 31, 2022)
