Halloween Ends is a slasher movie, a sequel to Halloween Kills, as well as the thirteenth installment of the Halloween franchise. It's also the final film it what people have dubbed "The H40 Trilogy", which started with 2018's Halloween. The film is produced by Miramax, Blumhouse Productions, Trancas International Films, and Rough House Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. Halloween Ends is written by David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Chris Bernier, and Paul Brad Logan and directed by David Gordon Green.
The story is it's been four years after the events of Halloween Kills. After his last rampage, Michael hasn't been seen since, and has vanished without a trace. As for Laurie, she has finally just let go of her fear and rage of Michael, and has embraced a new life with her granddaughter. But this peacefulness comes to an end, a new brand of terror has come, and there's only one person who bring such a thing. Now Laurie wants to put a stop to Michael, once and for all.
Initial Reaction
I think it's really simple as to why I wanted to see this one. It's the final film to this story. Sure, this hasn't been a perfect trilogy, but it has done a great job at respecting the 1978 film. So, I was very curious as to how this story was finally gonna conclude.
Cons
There's one thing I can't defend the movie for, and that's there's no balance with the story. We've got the Allyson story, and the Michael/Laurie story. One definitely got more attention than the other, which in return means Michael very much doesn't get enough screentime. The writers really should've found a way for there to be an even balance between the two, that the very justifiable complaint of a lack of Michael wouldn't be so present with a lot of reviews.
Middle Ground
Now while the send off to both Michael and Laurie was handled fairly well, there still was a lot to be desired. I'm saying we needed full insanity like we did with Kills, because it was clear that wasn't what the writers were going for. I'm just saying we could've gotten just a tiny bit of intensity. Especially for Michael and Laurie's big fight. Although I did dig what they did with Michael during the ending, it was brutal and effective. Sure people can say it was melodramatic all they want, but I liked it.
Pros
One thing I practically liked was how character driven this was. That may have been a problem for most fans, but not for me. We really got do see what our characters have been doing after the massacre of the last film, how they've either still been carrying that weight around, or in Laurie's case, move on and stop letting it consume them. It was a nice touch, and definitely something different. What I also enjoyed was the cycle of fear and violence. We're told and shown how after Michael's massacre violent crime has gone up, especially during Halloween. And the fear part stems from how people are still scared Michael will come back. People even fear Laurie because they believe she taunted Michael to come back and kill again. But we know that's not true, cause in the 2018 film, it was someone else's obsession that brought Michael back, and if anybody was "taunting" Michael, it was the angry lynch mob in Kills. The last one is especially true because Laurie couldn't do anything, unless she had some serious pain killing medication to help her move. So this cycle not only showed just how much of a hold Michael has on Haddonfield, but also added another new layer to this movie. The last thing I'll write positively about Ends is the question it brought up. That was what creates a boogeyman? This question was used for a new character introduced for this trilogy. It's really left up in the air of how he became what he became. Was he always liked this deep down inside, and the moment he took lives his true self came out? Or was Haddonfield in such a desperate need for a boogeyman, that they just pointed the finger to him? We don't know, because the answer really it's so simple. Which also really makes me give the writers props for that. Sure, they could've given an answer of what creates a boogeyman. But much like how John Carpenter's original Halloween film, we're never given the answer of why Michael kills. So much like that question of why Michael kills, and the never given straight answer, we'll never know what creates a boogeyman, because maybe the question just can't be answered, or the answer just isn't that simple.
Halloween Ends is definitely the end of a story. While at the same time it can be viewed as an epilogue. Which makes sense, to me anyhow. We got our prologue (the 1978 film), the crazy big story (the 2018 movie & Kills), and the winding down epilogue (Ends). Although that still doesn't change the big unbalanced storylines. While the send off is by no means terrible, there was still some stuff that was left desired. But I think what saves the film was the character driven story, the cycle of fear and violence, and the boogeyman question.
My final rating is Okay.
So that's going to do it for me. Come back on Monday, Oct 17th for my review of Evil Dead II. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
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