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MOVIE:
Halloween Ends
WHERE TO WATCH:
Now showing in cinema
OUR RATING:
4/5 Stars
WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
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 is accused of murdering a boy he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that forces Laurie to confront the evil she can't control.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
We are finally at the end of the eponymous Halloween saga (or this version at least), saying a final farewell to Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie, Mike Myers duo Nick Castle and James Jude Courtney, and the reimagined horror of a cult classic. When the first Halloween in the trilogy came out in 2018, it was a sleeper hit, making hundreds of millions at the box office. Halloween Kills had a smaller impact with less than favourable reviews, unwarranted in my opinion, though it still made a sizeable impact on the lacklustre cinema landscape during the pandemic.
Four years later, in movie time, Halloween Ends takes us back to Haddonfield for one last bloody ride, offering potential closure for the trauma endured by its residents and Laurie's family. Now living with her granddaughter Allyson, she has opted for a life of peace and writing, letting go of the spectre of Myers, who brutally killed her daughter in Halloween Kills.
The first film was a deep dive into the cycle of trauma and taking back your power from your tormentor. The second one diverted from the individual to Myers' impact on the community, fear driving a perilous mob mentality that cost them dearly. Halloween Ends follows up on that theme, fear and paranoia taking root as its deadly tendrils spread throughout the town.
The boogeyman is loose, and no one is safe.
The writers - which include director David Gordon Green and Danny McBride - had a very clear vision for their trilogy. While Kills is the weaker of the three, it creates a necessary bridge between the first and last, sustaining hefty character arcs for Laurie and Allyson and the community as a single entity. Whereas previously Myers was presented as random chaos, the mind of an animal only focused on the killing; here, the murder and mayhem have more meaning and more purpose. He's older and not what he used to be, but there's a moment of great physical acting that really brings home his otherworldliness. Another instalment with more mindless killing would have been a disservice to the franchise, and Laurie's evolving understanding of what evil is exactly and how it lives in all of us elevates Ends beyond mere slasher fare.
However, the movie doesn't forget its roots and presents horror fans with a smorgasbord of inventive kills, gore set to the max, and just enough jump scares to keep you on your toes. What made this such a great horror was its complete unpredictability, the plot constantly giving you whiplash with surprise twists and turns. My only gripe would be that one expected outcome didn't pan out - probably because the writers knew it would be what the audience expected - yet I think it would have given the movie a much more impactful ending. The filmmakers clearly wanted to make sure this version of Halloween was done and dusted, but a little more mystery and foreboding would have been much more satisfying for the audience.
Curtis, as always, truly loves her role as Laurie and has a little more fun with it this time around as a survivor on the path to healing. She gave everything and more for her curtain call; you can see a real passion for the genre. This energy also feeds into Andi Matichak's performance as Allyson, breeding anger just underneath the surface that's easily exploited by darkness. Her story arc continues to be well-written and directed but, unfortunately, ended with a whimper instead of a bang. A surprising breakout performance, however, came from Rohan Campbell, playing a man haunted by a mistake that the town won't let him forget. There's so much nuance in his role, and for a first-time character in the franchise, he genuinely stood out on his own.
Halloween Ends makes some big swings, not always a hit, but the ones that do land hit a homerun. I will never look at a turntable the same way again, and while some kills were simple, their execution was perfect in its simplicity. Some may argue it's just a good old-fashioned slasher, but what makes the reimagined franchise so meaty is its self-awareness. All horror is about trauma in one form or another, the cycle repeated or broken. I love how Halloween moves its reverberations away from the individual to the broader community and their reaction to the traumatic murders. There's a well-earned catharsis in Ends that might make most horror fans doubtful of the filmmakers' choice in ending, but perhaps we need that reminder that not all is hopeless in the world and that good can still triumph over evil.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:
