Halloween, the holiday, is almost upon us and what better way to welcome the best holiday of the year than by talking about the final entry in the most famous slasher franchise of all-time. For the record, John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) is my favourite movie of all-time. It is one of the reasons why I became a horror writer. When this new trilogy began in 2018, I was really excited … only to be let down by David Gordon Green’s sequel/reinvention. It just didn’t do it for me. Sure, I was thrilled to see Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers back on the big screen, but I had a lot of issues with the film. Then, part two came out last year, Halloween Kills (2021) and I had zero expectations. In the end, I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. A definite step up from the previous entry for me. I really dug the angry mob aspect of the movie in which Haddonfield strikes back at Michael. Still, I had a lot of issues with the film, the major one being that we didn’t get enough of Laurie Strode. And now the time has finally arrived to conclude the trilogy with Halloween Ends, the 13th entry in the series since 1978, after many sequels and reboots and what not. I caught a showing of Halloween Ends at the theatre last night, having only watched the film’s final trailer once, having not read any reviews prior, keeping myself away from reading/watching any fan reactions. I literally had no idea what to expect going in.
Here’s the synopsis of the film taken from IMDb: “Four years after the events of Halloween
Kills, Laurie is living with her granddaughter Allyson and is finishing writing
her memoir. Michael Myers hasn't been seen since. Laurie, after allowing the
specter of Michael to determine and drive her reality for decades, has decided
to liberate herself from fear and rage and embrace life. But when a young man,
Corey Cunningham, is accused of killing a boy he was babysitting, it ignites a
cascade of violence and terror that will force Laurie to finally confront the
evil she can't control, once and for all.” This sums it up pretty well.
This will be a spoiler-free review/musing and I strongly recommend going into
the movie with as little knowledge of what happens as possible. The first
twenty minutes or so had me captivated and fully in. Could it be, they actually
made a swan song worth remembering to this lengthy franchise that I’ve enjoyed for
the most part? Well, yes and no.
The more the story unfolded, the more I was applauding
the writers/director for taking a ballsy approach and going for something
completely different than what we’ve seen countless times: Michael going after
Laurie, large body count, a few twists, climax, the end. Not so with this
movie. My biggest gripe—and from what I’ve now seen having watched/read some
fan reactions—is why don’t we get to see Michael more than the small amount of screen
time he gets? He’s seldom in the film but when he does show up, they really
make it count. Although, it does make sense after the events that transpired in
Halloween Kills for him to need to
retreat and gather his strength again. What angers people is the fact that a
large part of the film is dedicated to Corey’s story arc. Here is a character
that is being introduced late in the game, in the final film for the first time,
and the plot’s focus is heavily geared towards him. But you know what? While it
wasn’t perfect, I quite enjoyed this arc and how they went about it. It was different. Is that so bad? Rohan
Campbell gave a terrific performance as Corey, with all the nuances of his
character’s progression. At least we get to see Laurie a lot more and Jamie Lee
Curtis shines in her portrayal of the character (as she always does). This time
Laurie seems to be more optimistic about the future and is doing her best to
live on the side of grief rather than letting it overwhelm her completely. It’s
a nice change of pace from the two previous entries.
When we finally get to the third act, the last twenty minutes
or so of the movie, it’s a thing of beauty! The kills are original for the most
part, the violence level is amped up, Michael shows up and we get the best
fight between Laurie and Michael that we’ve ever witnessed on film, in my
opinion. The film’s climax is also excellent all the way to the epilogue which
felt fresh compared to the way the Halloween
movies typically end. Again, this film, like the other two, is not without its issues.
It does feel like two very different movies spliced together. I’d be willing to
bet a lot of dough that this wasn’t the initial script they had in mind back in
2018 when they announced it would be a trilogy. I’m almost sure that the
pandemic that sidelined production (and the entire planet for that matter) had
something to do with it, pushing shooting schedules back and having to work around
that. Still, the end result is satisfying enough for me.
So, what’s my final verdict? I found Halloween Ends quite compelling. It threw us all a curve ball, and of course, most die-hard fans will be angry and hate it. Not this fan. It’s actually the film I’ve enjoyed the most out of this trilogy. It’s far from a flawless movie, but it does give us glimpses of greatness at times, turning out to be a good, not entirely great movie. It feels a lot more like a standalone film rather than the conclusion to this new trilogy. Is it the sendoff I was hoping for? More or less because its climax was near pitch-perfect. Sure, I miss Michael and there’s far too little of him and that’s a shame. But the story we got was one that kept me entertained and on the edge of my seat on a number of occasions. I’m glad this saga finally comes to an end and I’m completely fine with the way they ended it. Of course, it could’ve been better executed, but whenever I finish watching a movie and I think to myself, “I could watch that again”, it’s always a good sign. I didn’t feel that way with Halloween (2018) and wasn’t sure if I’d wanna revisit Halloween Kills when it was over. I’d watch Halloween Ends again in a heartbeat. If I were to give it a rating, I'd give it a 7 out of 10. If you’re a fan of the series, then I urge you to go see it at the theatre and make up your own mind about it. Who knows, you might have a really good time! Thank you to everyone involved for 44 years of Halloween movies. It’s been a fun ride.
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