MOVIE REVIEW: HALLOWEEN ENDS

 

Four years after her last encounter with masked killer Michael Myers, Laurie Strode is living with her granddaughter and trying to finish her memoir. Myers hasn't been seen since, and Laurie finally decides to liberate herself from rage and fear and embrace life. However, when a young man stands accused of murdering a boy that he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that forces Laurie to confront the evil she can't control.

Director: David Gordon Green

Cast:  Jamie Lee Curtis, James Jude Courtney, Rohan Campbell, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Kyle Richards

Release Date: October 14, 2022

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Rated R for bloody horror violence and gore, language throughout and some sexual references.

Runtime: 1h 51m

Review:

Halloween Ends should have been a rousing finale for the revitalized franchise serving as a swan song for Jamie Lee Curtis's iconic role.  Instead, David Gordon Green delivers a cofounding misfire which decides to move the focus from the primary pair onto a new character.  Gordon's previous entry, Halloween Kills, made the mistake of sideline Curtis's Laurie for the better part of the that film, here he doubles down on that mistake by taking both Laurie and Myers off the table for large spans of time.  It would have been a daring gamble if the script provided an intriguing storyline and characters to make it worthwhile but it fails on both points.  The film's storyline is a nonsensical hodgepodge of a dollar store serial killer plot points paired with an utterly unbelievable "love story" between Andi Matichak's Allyson and Rohan Campbell's Corey.  Rohan Campbell is essentially the main character of the entire film and to his credit he does his best to deliver a layered and nuanced performance.  The film moves at a snail's pace in its early acts before moving into overdrive in the final act.  The film is kind of enough to finally deliver the big showdown between Laurie and Michael which is fun but almost feels like an afterthought when you consider the preceding hour and forty minutes of unrelated garbage.  Halloween Ends finishes the new trilogy with a definitive thud after such a promising start with 2018's Halloween refresh.  

D-