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Halloween Ends
(Universal Pictures/Miramax/Blumhouse Productions)
By Lucas Allen
With 2018’s “Halloween,” you get a very worthy follow-up to the 1978 John Carpenter classic that forges a new path to the Michael Myers legacy. Last year’s “Halloween Kills” tried to continue that path, with mixed results highlighted by some good moments to spare. Now we get “Halloween Ends,” which is touted as the final film in this trilogy, as well as the final cap in a legacy that started nearly 45 years before. Co-writer/director David Gordon Green returns once again to try to finish the path he started on.
Four years after the rampage, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is living quietly with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), while Michael Myers (Nick Castle) remains in hiding. Laurie is writing a memoir about her experiences, while Allyson gets a job as a nurse. The two of them meet a young man named Corey (Rohan Campbell), who became a social outcast after being accused of killing a kid he was babysitting on Halloween night. He and Allyson quickly strike up a relationship, though Laurie knows something’s a little off with him.
After a chance encounter with younger high school bullies, Corey ends up in a sewer, where the Shape has been living in hiding. It’s not long before the two of them connect through both of their dark sides, resuming Michael’s killing spree. Finally, on Halloween night, everything comes to ahead with Laurie and Michael facing off one last time.
The movie sets the tone pretty well with its shocking pre-title sequence plus a cool opening title sequence that uses the same font from “Halloween III: Season of the Witch.” Afterwards, it becomes a slog to watch for its first two-thirds, as Green and his writers seem to be pushing for some creative risk. First of all, it’s commendable, but it’s not something that fans were looking for in a Halloween movie, and it’s bound to get plenty of them up in arms. Instead of a decent slasher flick like the last one, what we get is a laughably gloomy story about the nature of evil and characters talking about it in a dour tone. It gets worse when this film doubles down on the paranoia and ugly mentality of the previous film with some annoying characters.
The love story also feels unnatural when it feels too quickly developed and takes away from the overall terror. Much of the dialogue is cheesy and cluttered like it’s from a completely different movie. These flaws make the film feel less John Carpenter and more like the Rob Zombie films of the late 2000s.
It does get good in the third act with Myers still doing what he does best though the quality of the kills is a huge step down from the previous two films. The actual final battle with Laurie and Michael is very intense and does try to bring closure for the whole series. It should be very satisfying, but everything else before it makes this so-called “finale” feel hollow.
If anything, the acting remains solid as before with Curtis giving back full control of her scenes instead of being stuck in one location like the last film. Her Laurie has come a long way from the 1978 original, and her courageous grandmotherly image is still a major step forward in this series. Matichak plays a more mature Allyson very well, though her characterization in the script leaves a lot to be desired. Campbell’s performance ends up in a gray area, where you have no idea what tone he was going for in his scene, which will leave the viewer confused.
While far from being the worst of the series, “Halloween Ends” is at best, a bad sandwich. It has a great beginning and ending, but the rest of it is a disconnected series of events without a proper chain to fix. You may enjoy it just for the final battle, but if you want a better entry with that kind of conclusion, there’s “Halloween: H2O” to boot.
THE MOVIE’S RATING: R (for bloody horror violence and gore, language throughout, and some sexual references)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 2.25 Stars (Out of Four)
