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The Good and Bad of Halloween Ends
Image Credit: Universal Pictures
The Good and Bad of Halloween Ends
I was not looking forward to the third and final movie in the Blumhouse Halloween trilogy, Halloween Ends. I didn’t like the first two movies, Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills, and I had little hope that director David Gordon Green and company would somehow make a satisfying or even good trilogy capper. I was always going to see it, though, because, as a B-movie and Halloween franchise nerd I was invested just enough in the whole enterprise to see how it would end. And so I checked it out on the Peacock streaming service during its simultaneous theatrical/streaming release on October 14th, 2022. After watching it, I can say that Halloween Ends is easily the best of the three Blumhouse Halloween movies.
Yes, Halloween Ends is the best of the three Blumhouse Halloween movies. That doesn’t mean, though, that Halloween Ends is any good.
In fact, Halloween Ends fucking sucks.
It’s yet another flaming garbage pile of a slasher franchise sequel.
It’s just awful. I’m glad the trilogy is over.
If you feel the need to, check out my reviews of the first two movies below:
And now, I’ll explain what’s good and what’s bad about Halloween Ends.
Warning: This review contains spoilers
The Good
–Another great soundtrack from John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies:
The best part of the Blumhouse Halloween trilogy has been the soundtracks put together by John Carpenter, his son Cody Carpenter and his godson Daniel Davies. All three have been fantastic, and I think that the main theme for Ends is probably the best. You can listen to the soundtrack online, but I think it’s well worth it to track down the full movie soundtrack on CD. It’s definitely something you’ll want to listen to over and over again. If only the actual movie was as good as its soundtrack.
Man, after the three Blumhouse Halloween soundtracks and the soundtrack they did for the horrendous Firestarter remake, why the hell aren’t we getting more John Carpenter movie soundtracks?
–The opening scene: The opening scene, where babysitter Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) ends up accidentally killing the kid that he was babysitting, Jeremy (Jaxon Goldenberg), was very well done and surprising. I really thought that we were going to see Michael Myers pop up at some point and kill either Corey or Jeremy, or that we were going to see Jeremy’s parents get killed in the driveway (or maybe Corey was going to find out that Jeremy’s parents were killed and then have to protect Jeremy or fend off Myers or something). I had not anticipated seeing Jeremy get accidentally knocked over that railing and then splat on the ground. Why couldn’t this event lead to a more satisfying transformation of Corey becoming a killer?
–Laurie and Frank scenes: Jamie Lee Curtis and Will Patton, as old friends and eventual lovers Laurie Strode and Frank Hawkins, just have tremendous chemistry and it was enormous fun seeing them interact with one another. It would have been a hoot to see more of that kind of thing, either in a movie that actually builds to a Laurie and Michael final brawl or a movie where Laurie has to deal with new killer Corey in some way. I would have rather seen more of Laurie and Frank as opposed to Corey and Laurie’s daughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and whatever it was they were supposed to be doing.
–Final fight between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers: The end of Halloween Kills suggested that Laurie and Michael were going to have at least one more big brawl in the next movie and we actually got one more final brawl at the end of Halloween Ends. Should it have been longer? Yes. Should it have been more brutal? Yes (considering the general level of violence in the trilogy I expected to see Michael lose a leg or an arm during the final brawl, or be set on fire at some point). But it’s a good fight, it ended the way it needed to, with Laurie finally killing Michael Myers and Michael Myers actually dying. Myers didn’t sit up for one more jump scare, Myers didn’t open his eye at the end to show everyone that he really isn’t dead or any of the other “typical” slasher movie/horror movie tropes that have been done to death. Michael Myers is fucking dead. Good. It’s about goddamn time.
–Michael Myers put through a giant grinder: And to make sure that everyone knows that, yes, Michael Myers is dead and not coming back (well, at least in the world established in this trilogy unless Blumhouse gets the rights back and someone decides to go full supernatural bullshit with the plot and we get Halloween Returns in 2025 or whatever), the dead body of Michael Myers is pushed into an industrial grinder thing and chopped up into a million bloody pieces and crushed into oblivion. He ain’t coming back after that.
–Darcy the Mail Girl is in it: Yes, the truly wonderful Darcy the Mail Girl (or Diana Prince if you want to use her “real” name) shows up in Halloween Ends very briefly as the receptionist at the radio station. She has one line and is then killed by Corey. She is killed off screen, and, as she has revealed on her Twitter account, her death scene was filmed but it wasn’t included in the movie or in the deleted scenes on the Blu-ray release. Why wasn’t it included? Who knows? Regardless, it’s still cool to see Darcy in a wide release horror movie, and hopefully it will be the start of a trend.
The Bad
–So now Michael Myers is supernatural?: This has been one of my big problems with the Blumhouse Halloween movies: just what is Michael Myers exactly? David Gordon Green and Danny McBride said over and over again in the run up to Halloween (2018) that Myers was just a guy who was hard to kill. Myers wasn’t supernatural. But then you’d watch the movie and see the “regular guy who is just really hard to kill” do things no regular person could do. The same sort of shit happened in Halloween Kills. But now, now, in Halloween Ends everyone involved has decided that, yes, Michael Myers is supernatural (or at least has supernatural tendencies).
What horseshit.
Myers can “pass” his strength and evil to Corey and then at the end he can take it back? If this was something Myers could do why wasn’t it established in the first movie? Why is it so hard to make goddamn rules and then follow them? It’s all such nonsense.
–Michael Myers has been living in the sewer for three years? What bullshit: I mean, come on, if he’s a regular guy he would need to find food and water and whatnot in order to sustain his health. He would also need to get his hand looked at, he would need drugs and whatnot to deal with the infection that no doubt developed in his body after losing two fingers. And what about all of the blood he no doubt lost? If Myers did go hide in a sewer he would be dead within a week, if not sooner.
Or did he somehow develop his supernatural abilities while being in the sewer? Is the sewer some sort of portal that gives people evil super powers?
It’s all such nonsense.
–The story makes no sense: So regular guy mass murderer Michael Myers, who is actually now supernatural for no reason beyond the moviemakers decided that’s what they’re doing, has been living in the sewer for three years just waiting for someone to pass his evil supernatural powers to? And Corey Cunningham is the guy that ended up being the right guy for Myers to pass his powers to? And then Myers just took them back later on because that’s what the moviemakers wanted to do?
If David Gordon Green and company wanted to “do something different” with Halloween Ends, why not start the movie with the final confrontation between Laurie and Michael, have Laurie kill Michael and do the “body put through the grinder” thing, and then start a whole new story with Corey as the antagonist and allow the trauma of dealing with Michael Myers for so long then inform that story? Wouldn’t that have made more sense and been more satisfying?
–All of the Halloween III: Season of the Witch fan service is annoying: There’s no real reason to do the blue Halloween III: Season of the Witch lettering and the font and whatnot other than to just do it to get a pop from the hardcore audience. “Ooh, this is the third Blumhouse Halloween movie and ‘it’s different’ but not really so we’re going to homage Season of the Witch.” It makes no sense and strays from what’s already been established (I mean, the opening titles sequences for Halloween 2018 and Halloween Kills both sucked but if you’re going to do a goddamn third one you might as well just stick to what’s already been established and do that so there’s some cohesiveness to all of this crap). And, truthfully, Halloween III: Season of the Witch isn’t a very good movie. It’s a good idea and something John Carpenter might have been able to do something with had he directed it. Instead, Carpenter had his friend Tommy Lee Wallace direct it and the resulting movie is slow as hell, boring, uneven, and ultimately just lame. Weren’t the Silver Shamrock masks homage enough?
–It’s difficult to believe that Corey and Allyson would have any sort of relationship: I know that the story requires Corey and Allyson to get together in order to up the tension between Laurie and Corey and make their eventual confrontation mean something (it also helps drive a wedge between mother and daughter), but there’s just no way Allyson would be into Corey. He’s too much of a sad sack and I just don’t buy Allyson ever being into him for one second. Andi Matichak and Rohan Campbell also have very little actual on screen chemistry so the whole relationship is totally unbelievable.
–The whole Corey/Michael Myers relationship: So once Michael Myers “passes his evil” over to Corey during their confrontation in the sewer, Corey becomes a sort of murder apprentice to Michael Myers? A sidekick? A tag team partner? Why would that ever happen?
I mean, did Myers pass his evil to Corey so he could become a full on murderer (because, I guess, the world needs mass murderers or something) but left himself just enough evil so that evil could then regenerate inside his body or whatever? What horseshit. It’s fucking stupid. It makes no sense.
And then at the end of the movie Myers just takes back the evil he gave Corey? Why?
Again, none of this makes any sense. And none of it is the least bit scary. It’s just annoying.
–How is Sondra the home nurse still alive?: Michael Myers rammed a goddamn broken light tube into this poor woman’s neck and we saw her bleed profusely as she died in Halloween Kills. There’s just no way she could have survived such an injury. And yet, somehow, she did. Does it make any sense? No. Is it ridiculous? Yes. So why have it happen? It’s just nonsense.
Conclusion
Halloween Ends is a shit way to end the Blumhouse Halloween, but then that was apparently always going to happen. Thankfully the whole enterprise is over and Trancas International Films can reboot the franchise again in some form because you know it’s going to happen. And that’s fine. I’m a firm believer in the idea that movie franchises should keep churning out movies as long as people want to see them. But let’s hope that the next Halloween at least tries to make sense. That’s all I really want. Consistency. I don’t want another Blumhouse Halloween trilogy. Three Blumhouse Halloween movies is three too many.
Rating: 4.5/10.0
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My Halloween franchise ranking
1. Halloween (1978)
2. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
3. Halloween II (1981)
4. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
5. Halloween H20
6. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers Producer’s Cut
7. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers Theatrical Cut
8. Halloween Resurrection
9. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
10. Halloween II (2009)
11. Halloween (2007)
12. Halloween Ends
13. Halloween (2018)
14. Halloween Kills
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Well, I think that’ll be about it for now. Don’t forget to sign up with disqus if you want to comment on this article and any other 411 article. You know you want to, so just go do it.
B-movies rule. Always remember that.
