Image courtesy of IMDb
Hello, everyone. Although it has been a few months since the Transformers review, and of course there were some movies I wanted to cover in between that movie and this one, there were also some that I was determined to cover as intended.
This was one of them.
As I mentioned in the review for the previous installment, what affected its release date in turn affected this one’s.
With that, it was initially set for release two years after this new trilogy started, but it became three due to the pandemic, and for this third entry, it became four.
That four year gap ultimately seemed rather fitting, due to the gap in between the beginning and the end.
From a narrative standpoint, though, that’s where a difference comes in, which I will get to in a second.
Before I go on with the plot, I have to say something I did last time, and I should probably establish it going forward. This applies to franchises in particular (whether they primarily consist of movies (an example being the Bond franchise) or have even expanded into shows (major examples being the Marvel Cinematic Universe and especially Star Wars))*:
For those who have not seen what came before the newest installment in a franchise (whatever said franchise may be), and are interested in reading what I have to say about it, I highly suggest you go check those out, read my thoughts on them, and then come back, as it is very likely I will have to go into spoilers. Now, when I do have to resort to that, they are very minor spoilers for the latest installment, and what major spoilers there are will be for the previous ones. Regardless, I do it when necessary.
Folks, for this review, we go back to Haddonfield, Illinois, one last time (at least in this timeline**), as we see how Halloween Ends.
The story is set four years after the events of Halloween Kills. Michael Myers has not been seen since his previous rampage through Haddonfield. Laurie Strode is in the process of finishing her memoir while living with her granddaughter Allyson, and is finally able to start having a proper life. That is, until a young man named Corey Cunningham is accused of murdering a child he was babysitting, and is ostracized for what was clearly an accident. This slowly begins a resurgence of chaos in town, enough to bring Laurie out for one last confrontation with Michael.
Now, for this movie, especially given how it’s being received, even with that forewarning, I have to be very (and I mean very) careful with what I say here, as this is going to prove to be one of the most divisive movies I have ever reviewed. This is not the first time, nor the last. In fact, going forward, having to tread lightly while still trying to give well thought out points may prove more difficult than ever, even for me. One could say that divisiveness in the world of entertainment runs more rampant than Michael did in the last movie alone.
Having established that, on with the review.
What Worked: As usual, I’ll start with the performances. Even with very glaring issues in terms of characterization that I will get to later, the cast do fine with what they’re given, although it isn’t much in some cases. Jamie Lee Curtis, in her final performance as Laurie Strode, shows dedication in making it count. She’s very protective of Allyson, especially after what happened to her parents over the course of this trilogy. I appreciated that they kept that intact here.
Andi Matichak is still good as Allyson. While she recognizes that Laurie is trying to look out for her even more now, she, too, is also trying to move on since the events of the last movie.
Also returning are Will Patton as Frank Hawkins, and Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace. Despite not being in the movie that much (more so with Lindsey), they are good for the time they’re in it.
Of course, we have James Jude Courtney once again as Michael Myers himself. Whenever Michael Myers shows up, he doesn’t hold back. Although he’s not quite as brutal as he was in the last movie, he does get some good kills in.
For those wondering, yes, they do also bring back Nick Castle in some capacity, but it’s best I leave it at that.
As for my thoughts on Corey Cunningham, I’ll say this for now: Rohan Campbell does a fine job playing him. The character himself, however, I’m saving for the next segment, which is something I haven’t done since the Halloween Kills review.
The only difference is that I’m sticking with my positives this time before going into it.
With the technical aspects, the standout one is the score, which again brings back John Carpenter, his son Cody, and Daniel Davies.
Something that at this point goes hand in hand with that is how they do the opening credits. I’ve come to appreciate how the openings of these movies are done. It really stands out in this movie because it comes back around to kick off the closing credits as well.
Speaking of that, there is something else I can say that I actually haven’t gone into with the others besides the original. These newer ones are all very well shot, but to varying degrees, with the 2018 film being the best looking one. They’re not quite up to the standards of the cinematography of the original, sure, but they all have some moments that do look very good.
The last major positive I have leads right into the return of the extra segment from the Halloween Kills review.
This is the biggest part where I have to be careful with what I say, because if I spoil anything major, people will likely be madder than they already are with the movie itself.
I thought this movie had some interesting ideas (ideas being the key word here).
Although most of the time, using a time jump can be considered a cheap way to move the plot along, I did like the idea of showing Laurie and Allyson try to move on since the last movie, so it made sense here, at least for me.
Since they do use a time jump here, you’d expect there to be a “calm before the storm” type of thing that would allow for narrative progression, and they would address certain elements that have not been touched on that much, if at all. An example would be how other residents have been affected by these events, only perhaps exploring it even more. They actually do just that here. I also thought that was a very clever idea. Halloween Kills did have a little of that, but they expanded upon it even further in this, and it was nice how they did it.
Without giving too much away, the majority of the third act is really good. All I can really say is this: You do still get what you came to see, but I have an issue even with that.
What Might Not Work For Everyone: Now we come to the one major character that is going to be an issue for a lot of people, and that is Corey Cunningham. As mentioned earlier, I thought Rohan Campbell did a fine job playing him, but one of the biggest issues in terms of characterization is with him. I do get what they were trying to do, it’s more so how it plays out that is not going to work for everyone, and it didn’t entirely work for me, either.
What Didn’t Work: The biggest issue for me with this movie as a whole was in terms of overall writing. There are major narrative inconsistencies in this. One example is how I just said that Corey was one of the biggest issues with the characterization here. He actually wasn’t the biggest for me. Some could argue for Laurie as well, but for me, she wasn’t, either. Her development across the trilogy was mostly consistent. The biggest victim of it was actually Allyson. It’s a similar case to someone in the 2018 film, and those who have seen that and read my review will know what I’m talking about.
There were opportunities to allow for character growth, but because of how they chose to do the overall story here, there aren’t nearly enough.
This is particularly evident within the script, which sees David Gordon Green collaborating with Danny McBride again, and it disappoints me to even say that, because I do love what they had contributed to this franchise prior, especially with the 2018 film. It felt like they put a lot of passion into that one because they had set a very clear goal, they had their focus entirely on trying to achieve it, and they did.
I even really like, if not love, some of Danny McBride’s work outside of the franchise, because he can also be really funny. Shockingly, there’s little to no humor in this one, even with him still among the writers.
As a result of all that, the script (and by extension, since he was also among the writers, David Gordon Green’s direction) is the weakest of the three, because it feels so much like the opposite of what they set out to do. Not only that, it feels like they wrote themselves into a corner after Halloween Kills, especially regarding the kills, and had to find a way out of it. Although what kills we get here were good, I couldn’t help but notice throughout how it felt like they held themselves back with them compared to that.
My point is there are so many things here that could’ve (and should’ve) been given more attention and more time.
One more thing I should mention before I give my overall thoughts: There are strobe lights in one scene, so if you are sensitive to that, look away until they stop.
Overall: Despite my numerous problems with it, I didn’t hate Halloween Ends like a lot of people have. If anything, I’m very much mixed on it. There are things that work really well, and then there are things that had potential, but weren’t utilized properly, weren’t utilized enough, or even a bit of both.
I appreciated that they wanted to go in a different direction in this, but with this being the epic finale, so to speak, it was the wrong time to do it. It gets to the point where the story felt so inconsistent because of so many ideas.***
With this trilogy, and therefore this timeline, having come to its conclusion, I can now say this: I had a fun time watching each entry, and while the very end of this one I felt was a good enough note to end it on, I can’t say the same for the rest of it. Although I did have fun while I was watching this one, I still couldn’t help but feel this could’ve been so much more to make this trilogy go out on a genuine high note.
Next time, we go from the end of an official trilogy to the end of an unofficial one.
*Yes, I know those examples have been expanded further to include stuff like novels, comics, and video games. A lot of franchises have and still are. It was just better to address this here.
**There’s multiple ones. For those wondering why I haven’t covered the entries in between the original and the 2018 film, there’s three reasons for that:
1: The 2018 film was said to be a direct sequel to the original that negated everything in between, and it was, thus making this timeline easier to follow for everyone.
2: I knew I wouldn’t have time to find the rest and review them because I didn’t have access to them.
And 3: I also knew I wouldn’t have time to look into where I could access them.
***As disappointed and outright mad as people are with how this ultimately did turn out, I feel it’s also worth noting that this could’ve been a whole lot worse. The biggest evidence of that is how there was something that was revealed publicly while they were still working on the movie, and that was a setting they actually did consider, but ultimately did not use (thankfully).
One version of the plot would have had it set during COVID… and no, I am not making that up. I don’t even wish I was, either.