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Halloween Ends is the final movie of David Gordon Green’s trilogy that started promisingly with 2018’s Halloween and was followed up by the disappointing Halloween Kills in 2021. So my expectations were a bit low when it came to Halloween Ends, but the movie actually surprised me. It’s even worse than my already low expectations are.
I haven’t seen much of the marketing on forehand, I can’t even recall having seen a trailer. But with Jamie Lee Curtis being sidelined for almost all of Halloween Kills, the basic premise of Halloween Ends seemed to be the final showdown between Laurie and Michael. And it is, but only for the final 20 minutes of the movie. The other 90 minutes is an entirely different horror movie.
In the opening scene we meet Corey. A twenty-something with a bright future ahead of him. He’s been hired to babysit a snotty brat during Halloween night 2019. During a game of hide and seek the kid locks him up in the attic. Corey tries to get out of the attic by kicking the door in, not knowing that the kid is just outside. The door slams the kid over the railing down three flights of stairs killing the kid just as the parents come home.
The movie jumps to present day, 4 years after the events of Halloween 2018 and Halloween Kills. While being cleared of any wrongdoing by a judge, Corey now has a chip on his shoulder and a job at his dad’s auto-repair shop. He’s being bullied by local teenagers and most of the people, especially the parents, hold him responsible for the kid’s death.
Meanwhile the Strode family lives a relative carefree live. Laurie is writing a book about all the events in order to process her trauma and grief over the loss of her daughter. Her granddaughter Allyson lives with her and has a job as a nurse. They live in a house in a suburban neighborhood and Laurie seemingly has left the life of a secluded survivalist.
As for Michael Myers, he hasn’t been seen since the events that took place on Halloween night 2018. He vanished into thin air and nobody has any clue about is whereabouts. And nobody seems to be looking as well.
One day Laurie comes across Corey as he’s being bullied. She helps him and sees something in him, prompting her to set him up with Allyson. The two broken souls quickly connect and get into a romantic relationship. But despite fresh love, the constant bullying and guilt tripping by other people send Corey down a dark path. A path that will have him cross paths with Michael Myers and a high body count.
At this point you might be wondering that this sure is a lot of ground to cover in the first act of a slasher movie. But Corey and Allyson’s storyline takes up almost 80 minutes of the movie. Michael Myers feels like a special guest star in his own movie. It was around the 25 minute mark that I started to wonder when he will appear in the movie. I had to wait another 15 minutes for him to appear in a scene that lasts a mere seconds, only for him to disappear off-screen again for another 15 minutes. The amount of screen time of Myers is comparable to that of Jason Voorhees in Jason Goes To Hell.
I appreciate David Gordon Green trying to bring something new to the franchise. I don’t think many people would be happy if this was just another generic slasher with just a definitive end to set it apart from the rest. But Corey’s story feels like something that belongs in a movie of its own. It’s a story about someone becoming like Michael Myers, but in that regard his story isn’t much different from that of most real life serial killers. The only difference being that they didn’t have a Michael Myers as a teacher.
I can’t help but feel that the character of Corey and his descent into darkness seems to be the result of commercial choices. With Myers being a 65 year old man the end of his terror was nearing. What better way to keep the franchise alive than introducing a character who can take over the mantle?
While Corey’s demise seems pretty definitive, slashers have often shown people to walk off stab and bullet wounds should the script require it. So there is a probable chance that Halloween Ends sets up a new reign of terror for the coming decades.
Halloween Ends promises us the final installment of the franchise. As if we haven’t heard that before. But the movie is conclusive in its final scenes as it will be near impossible to have Michael Myers come back from what happens to him. You can tell they really felt the need to make it as abundantly clear as possible there is no coming back from this and that it is actually him. Not some other guy that just so happens to wear his mask. I’m looking at you Halloween: Resurrection.
And while the movie redeems itself somewhat during its final showdown between Laurie and Michael, it was too little, too late for me. Especially considering the fact that Laurie for some inexplicable reason seems to have lost all of her survivalist skills and now only owns one small hand gun while she’s still aware Myers is somewhere out there.
I’m happy to see that Halloween Ends provides us with a Michael Myers that is actually dead at the end of movie. Too bad it isn’t in a better movie.
