Halloween Ends Movie Review: Nearly 40 years later since Michael Myers first brought his evil to Haddonfield, it all comes to a head in Halloween Ends as David Gordon Green puts a final nail in the coffin of this long running franchise. Taking some wild swings, with much of it being a miss, there is something to be commended about Halloween Ends, yet there is a strange feeling of emptiness that this finale wasn’t able to fill. A fair warning, this review will contain mild spoilers for Halloween Ends, so read at your own risk. Halloween Kills Movie Review: Jamie Lee Curtis’ Sequel is One of the Year’s Biggest Disappointments (LatestLY Exclusive).
Taking place a year after Halloween Kills, where evil sadly didn’t die that night (Yes David, we will never forgive you for that phrase) and Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) has gone into hiding, we are introduced to Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), a bright kid with some great prospects who gets engulfed into a life of suffering after accidentally killing a child on Halloween night. From there on, we are treated to another time jump where Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a surrogate mother to Allyson (Andi Matichak), and is working on her trauma by writing a memoir.

Just trying to live her life like a normal woman by let going the ghosts of her past, Laurie seems more relaxed over here. Having a new found confidence and enjoying an occasional flirt with Deputy Frank Hawkins (Will Patton), Halloween Ends lets Curtis loosen up. After meeting Corey, she sees the pain this child has dealt on witnessing him being bullied by a bunch of band geeks. When he is injured in the beating, she brings him to the medical clinic where Allyson is working and a rushed love story begins that never really takes its time to settle.
You might be wondering, this doesn’t sound like a Halloween film, or a slasher film too for that matter, right? Well, Halloween Ends doesn’t feel like that at all, and that’s where many of the issues start showing up. Corey can almost be understood as the main character of the film with Rohan Campbell bringing a good sense of grief to the role, yet his addition to the movie feels like a hindrance. His story is something that will make you feel for him, yet it lacks tension to it.
Watch the Trailer:
While the first two films in the new trilogy focused on how grief can cause an obsessive sense of ignorance to your own close ones, Halloween Ends focuses on the disastrous implications that come along with it. Corey’s story is a direct metaphor for it. Being wronged by the town and being heckled by bullies once more, he gets pulled into a sewer by the Boogeyman himself, Michael Myers. Shockingly underused in this movie, Michael sees a vision of what Corey has gone through and lets him go free. This is where their partnership starts with both going around the town and murdering folks with kills that fail to impress.
One of the biggest issues with the new Halloween trilogy was that it can’t decide if Michael is supernatural or not. Taking bullets like a tank with blunt force trauma not really being a factor, this old man is simply indestructible and it still is a bit weird to see. Comparisons to Rob Zombie’s ill-fated Halloween II will definitely be made here, yet the characterisation of Michael takes a complete step back in order to set up Corey as the big bad of the movie. Michael never really cared about people, so what makes him so compassionate towards Corey?

From a conceptual point of view, there needs to be some respect given over here with taking the franchise mascot and featuring him for no less than 10-minutes in the film to hype up a brand-new antagonist. It could have worked, unfortunately in trying to execute it, they executed whatever bit of quality this film could have retained.
Corey’s relationship with Allyson, as mentioned previously, feels extremely rushed. With both falling in love the moment they met, it’s rather just there to give a paranoid Strode a reason to go after him. While the big battle at the end does deliver on the much-needed fan service this film needed, it’s too little and too late while having the impact of a foam tile hitting your face. But hey, no one was screaming “Evil dies tonight!” constantly, so Halloween Ends does get a bit of an edge in that regard. Halloween Ends Review: Jamie Lee Curtis' Final Battle With Michael Myers Receives Mixed Reactions, Call It the Most Divisive Film of the Franchise.

However, whatever you need to say about the plot, there is just one constant that the Halloween franchise will never fail to deliver on. The sun will set in the West, mothers will love their children, and John Carpenter will always deliver a noteworthy soundtrack. Truly a shining star of the film, the creator of this franchise brings his a-game to the music with his synth-laden score never failing to give you goosebumps.
Yay!
The Soundtrack
Nay!
Michael Myers is Underused
Feels Underwhelming
Final Thoughts
Halloween Ends is definitely more consistent than Halloween Kills when it comes to coherent storytelling; however the various contrivances of the story make for an underwhelming end while never letting its themes be fleshed out. While the filmmakers need to be commended for taking a huge swing with this iconic horror romp, it ultimately falls flat in delivering a satisfying battle between Laurie and Michael. Halloween Ends is playing in theatres right now.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 14, 2022 03:04 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).