March 29, 2024

(from left) Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers (aka The Shape) in Halloween Ends, co-written, produced and directed by David Gordon Green.

This final chapter in David Gordon Green's HALLOWEEN saga serves to frustrate, more than thrill.

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

HALLOWEEN ENDS

Rated R, 1 hour and 51 minutes

Directed by: David Gordon Green

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Nick Castle, James Jude Courtney

It’s fairly obvious what audiences are in for from the jump with HALLOWEEN ENDS, which opens on a babysitter experiencing a grave mishap on the job one fateful Halloween night. And, while that doesn’t initially sound so bad, what follows is an abysmal failure to deliver the goods that have gestated in the two previous installments. Director/ co-writer David Gordon Green’s third and final film in the revived series sidelines both our perturbed protagonist and her perpetual pursuer in favor of a loosely connected story about a different, unrelated character, whose years of abusive degradation have led him to become the town’s new boogeyman. Filled with baffling creative choices, unearned thematic closure and no terrifying tension, this dreadful dud sputters to its conclusion.

The story picks up 4 years after the events of HALLOWEEN KILLS. All of Haddonfield blames Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) for awakening a sleeping demon to wreak havoc on their tight-knit community and their lives, many of which were sacrificed that night. It doesn’t matter that she too lost her daughter (Judy Greer), who’s barely treated as a footnote in terms of the Strode women’s ensuing character development in this chapter. Granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and Officer Hawkins (Will Patton) are the lone people with whom she finds solace and sympathy.

That is until she spots Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell, who channels Crispin Glover’s quirky awkwardness with aplomb). Years prior, a deadly mishap occurred while he was babysitting a young charge, causing him to become a social pariah and his shrill, shrew mother’s punching bag. Laurie empathetically takes pity on him, setting him up with Allyson, who rather insatiably flirts with and seduces him, feeling the need to fix him. Yet just as he’s experiencing some semblance of a happy life, a cadre of bullies appears, driving Corey into the clutches of Michael Myers (Nick Castle and James Jude Courtney), who’s been hiding in the sewer for a few years. Evil then breeds anew as Corey implores Michael to become his mentor.

(from left) Allyson (Andi Matichak) and Corey (Rohan Campbell) in Halloween Ends. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.

The narrative fashioned by screenwriters Green, Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier and Danny McBride swings for the fences and very little of it works. The story thread that Michael – a serial killer who slaughters without compunction – takes on a protégé is certainly outlandish. On paper, it may sound like fun to have two brutal killers in masks, terrorizing shitty suburbanites. In execution, however, it’s ridiculously insulting to the audience’s intelligence, defying everything we’ve seen of this character’s fundamental makeup.

Similar to we just went through with JURASSIC WORLD DOMINION, this too delivers a farewell that frustratingly chooses not to focus on the franchise’s main attraction. It pivots from Laurie and Michael’s decades-long battle for survival, to a tale centered on Corey and his plight. A bold move, for sure, but it too struggles in its attempts to incorporate both stories into one, deflating compelling momentum.

Though never explicitly stated, Michael has been somewhat of a physical manifestation of mental illness’ unrelenting nature. He’s the monster that haunts in the daylight, not just under the cover of night where he can fade into the shadows. In Laurie’s final chapter, she’s in recovery, healing from trauma, keeping her darkness at bay, and so Michael too is now hiding in the recesses. Still, the meshing of this idea with story logistics serves to derail. It gives viewers ample time to ponder plaguing questions like why Michael would choose to hide in the sewer in the first place, why he’s all of a sudden too shy to slay anyone – let alone why he’s not still stalking Laurie 24/7. The rule books have clearly all been thrown out, which is admirable, but so has common sense, which isn’t. 

Character motivations for Laurie and Allyson also waver, crumbling at the behest of contrivance and convenience. Even though Allyson’s given sexual agency, and her role is beefier than ever before, she’s drastically underserviced, used all-too-briefly to demonstrate how insidious thinking can pervert and pollute. Her role up until this point has always felt a bit perfunctory. She’s there to represent a concept – trauma’s echo in a third generation – rather than function authentically.

Laurie’s progression over Green’s trilogy has been most disappointing. There’s sparse connective tissue linking the initial “badass, survivalist Laurie with a cocked shotgun” we relished and cheered to the reserved-yet-resilient one here. Extensive leaps have been made in between each film and the emotional through-lines are drastically dulled. Almost a third of her already sparse screen time features her at a desk at dawn or dusk, writing a heavy-handed memoir that we hear in voice-over, littered with preachy self-help babble and a quote by Nietzsche. The climactic showdown between her and Michael isn’t earned so much as it’s expected.

The filmmakers struggle to create a spooky mood, failing to orchestrate a modicum of tension or fear into the action. The foreshadowing of the industrial grinder is as clunky as its operation as it grinds up and spits out metal. One shot recalling HALLOWEEN (1978), now a combo platter homage of Laurie looking down from her upstairs window, seeing her perpetrator in broad daylight peeking out from a hedge, does not a fun atmospheric draw make. Kills are uninspired, lacking innovation and ingenuity. Pay-offs that show lousy denizens getting their rightful comeuppance aren’t the least bit satisfying. It’s all low stakes and little rewards.

Green and his cohorts’ prevailing sentiment – that society creates and nurtures evil in man just as easily as some souls are born evil – is certainly an astute observation. But this cutting commentary, as well as the handful of cheap jump scares that go along with it, is wielded with a dull blade.

Grade: D-

HALLOWEEN ENDS debuts in theaters and on Peacock on October 14.

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