The final entry in the new Halloween trilogy (beginning with Halloween (2018) and then Halloween Kills (2021)), Halloween Ends was once again directed by David Gordon Green and released in 2022. Four years after The Shape returned to the town of Haddonfield, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is recovering, living with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak). As Halloween approaches, Allyson begins to date Corey (Rohan Campbell), who was accused of murdering a young boy in a babysitting incident several years earlier.
+ I quite enjoyed the first half hour to 45 minutes or so, but as with almost every movie these days, the set up is far more interesting than the payoff. I never felt attached to any of the characters, despite Matichak being an absolute cutie pie in this movie
– this ends up with a convoluted and confusing plot with perhaps my most hated horror movie finish of all time. For all of its faults (and there were a lot of them), at least Kills was connected to the 2018 Halloween. This movie feels like the kind of thing that would come out ten years after the previous film for a quick buck. This wasn’t scary, nor was it even particularly interesting for fans of the series
– both of the first two films of this trilogy have made reference to Michael Myers’ obsession with the window of his childhood home including where Laurie’s daughter, Karen (Judy Greer) was killed at the end of the second film, but nothing comes of that. The notion of ‘is he or isn’t he’ a supernatural monster was made reference to in that second film as well, but that thread is also completely dropped
– all throughout, character emotions and motivations flip on a dime. I struggle to comprehend how Laurie Strode would be a reclusive gun nut scared of Michael Myers for 40 years… and then after he comes back she’s now fine? It just made no sense. I said something similar about Kills, but I don’t think there was a single victim in this movie that didn’t deserve it
– I really felt there was an over use of music, akin to something like Guardians of the Galaxy. A radio host is a bit player in the story, so it made sense that you might get some exposition dumps now and then, but this style of incorporating music was a big misfire
– I mentioned how much I loved that extended, single shot from the 2018 film and how it would have been great to have something similar in the sequel, but now it appears that first film was just a fluke. There is no fun directing in this movie, with not a single extended shot or ‘off screen moment’ to be seen. There was only one moment happening in the background, which immediately had a light shone on it to remove all ambiguity
– my understanding was that this whole new trilogy was supposed to take place on one night? Even with COVID getting in the way of some filming, surely they could have stuck to that plan and introduced Corey in the second film just to make this one feel like it was part of the same story
> early on, some of the characters watch The Thing on TV. I promise you’ll have a much better time if you skip Halloween Ends and watch that instead
Should you see this film: Absolutely not. The difference between the 2018 remake/reboot/sequel and then Kills and Ends is night and day, and if you told me that these two sequels were made by school kids on their first ever shoots, I’d believe you. Watch the 1978 original, then watch the 2018 movie and pretend it ended there.
MoshFish Reviews 