Halloween Ends is a 2022 horror slasher film directed by David Gordon Green and written by Green, Danny McBride, Paul Brad Logan, and Chris Bernier, the creative team between the 2018 franchise re-launch. The film is based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. It is a sequel to 2021's Halloween Kills and the thirteenth installment of the Halloween film franchise. The film is produced by Jason Blum through his Blumhouse Productions banner, alongside Rough House Productions, Miramax and Trancas International Pictures.

Four years after the events of last year’s Halloween Kills, Laurie is living with her granddaughter Allyson and is finishing writing her memoir. Michael Myers hasn’t been seen since. Laurie, after allowing the specter of Michael to determine and drive her reality for decades, has decided to liberate herself from fear and rage and embrace life. But when a young man, Corey Cunningham, is accused of killing a boy he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that will force Laurie to finally confront the evil she can’t control, once and for all.

This is Laurie Strode’s last stand. After 45 years, the most acclaimed, revered horror franchise in film history reaches its epic, terrifying conclusion as Laurie Strode faces off for the last time against the embodiment of evil, Michael Myers, in a final confrontation unlike any captured on-screen before. Only one of them will survive.

Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, James Jude Courtney, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards, and Omar Dorsey.

Halloween Ends made its debut in theaters and on Peacock October 14th, courtesy of Universal Pictures.

THE GOOD

I’m a slasher guy through and through, and while the Friday the 13th franchise is my all-time favorite, Halloween has always been high up there for me as an iconic franchise. Both franchises were born many moons ago with Friday the 13th making its debut in 1980, and the original John Carpenter Halloween arriving back in 1978. These movies serve a purpose, and that purpose is to provide lots of satisfying kills, while highlighting the main attraction which in this genre is usually the killer. With the Halloween franchise in comparison to my beloved Friday the 13th, the formula is slightly different as you have the iconic survivor in Laurie Strode played by the great Jamie Lee Curtis. This leads us to the latest entry in the Halloween franchise as Laurie takes her final stand against the masked epitome of evil Michael Meyers. So, who survives the final bloodbath and are fans treated to the great finale they deserve?! Keep reading to find out!

Alright so this movie is very much a mixed bag, and I am going to do my best to try and break it down without spoiling anything as per usual. Although my expectations weren’t high necessarily, I was underwhelmed by the final product. I will talk more about what I didn’t like about the movie later in the review, but first I will touch on the bright spots. First, Halloween Kills starts off with a very intense opening sequence that honestly caught me by surprise and that had me on the edge of my seat early. I was also impressed right away by the acting and the overall feel of the film as it just felt like more than just a run-of-the mill slasher. the score and soundtrack also made its presence known right away, seemingly going for that hopeless and detached feel we got from the horror classic The Lost Boys (1987), which I can certainly appreciate.

The story is surely the centerpiece of the film as Halloween Ends is set to be the finale for this new trilogy, so how they decided to end things is sure to garner hate or admiration from fans of the franchise. The writing team had a decision to make in terms of how they would close things out, whether they would pick up where they left off with the last movie, or try and take things in a new direction. I personally would have preferred the latter as a fan of the franchise, but I guess the creative juices were flowing. Although they did some great things and added some intrigue with a few new wrinkles to the story, they definitely took a left when we expected them to take a right. Dare to be different right? I’ll talk more about the story later in the review.

I was genuinely impressed with he quality of the acting in this movie, which to be honest surprised me. Last year’s Halloween Kills was packed with corny acting, but it was expected. This movie throws a wrench into the usual formula offering up solid performances from the primary cast. Jamie Lee Curtis was much better here than she was in the previous movie, and I thought Andi Matichak really showed up. Matichak jumped off the screen more for me in this movie, and I thought she played a much more developed character. My biggest surprise in Halloween Ends is easily actor Rohan Campbell who plays Corey Cunningham, a new and pivotal character to the story. Cunningham, who is best known for the series The Hardy Boys and the Netflix series Virgin River, delivers a very commendable performance. I thought he was tasked with a fairly difficult role requiring a decent amount of depth, and from where I was sitting he delivered.

THE BAD

Let me just preface this section by saying I don’t find any joy in picking apart one of my favorite genres, but when the formula and recipe for success is fairly obvious yet still ignored for the most part, my hands are tied. On the forefront of my issues with his movie, Halloween Ends made the questionable decision to make Michael Myers a co-star in his own movie. This decision baffled me for many reasons, and I won’t go into detail because as usual we don’t spoil movies here, but fans hoping for the epic sendoff Myers deserves will likely be disappointed. I mean sure, we went into this expecting a UFC fight between a couple 70-year-olds, one of which is a psycho killer, and the other is part stay-at-home mom and part Sarah Connor. Sadly, Dana White is a no show and for that reason we are left wanting more, much more.

Myers, once a feared pillar of the community you could say, is relegated to obscurity since the last movie. I mean his reign of terror did last 50+ years, so I suppose that is something. But seriously, the writing team makes the decision keep Myers in the shadows for the majority of the movie, and considering the way the last movie ended, it felt uneven to me. As a fan of the franchise and slashers in general, I can’t help but think they should have just concluded this reboot with Halloween Kills, because for me that is how you send Michael Myers out. Staring out his sisters window after basically murdering the entire town in a no-holds barred street fight.

I touched on it already briefly but the primarily complaints with this movie are the story, which is no real surprise considering it is meant to be a culmination of a franchise that kicked off in 1978. I mean sure, nobody actually believes this will be the last Halloween movie ever made, but we are supposed to leave this movie feeling like that is actually a possibility. Aside from the fact that Myers is now in his 70’s and isn’t exactly prioritizing his health, the beating heart of the franchise has been the fact that his menacing presence is unstoppable. If you take that out of the equation, what do you have? Here is a good analogy, if you want to call yourself the best heavyweight boxer of all-time you would want to knock out Mike Tyson in his prime, not old and out of shape Mike Tyson. I mean sure you beat the man, but as a shell of himself how satisfying is it? I want to see Michael Myers in all of his butcher knife wielding glory get taken down as he fights until the very end, but I guess that is just me.

I’ve heard complaints about the ending which is interesting to me considering that part of the movie actually fits better within the franchise in terms of how they seemingly wanted to close things out. I will say it still felt a bit half-assed and a bit forced and out of left-field, but I think they got their message across. This movie needed to have some level of closure in order to stay true to its name, and I do believe they accomplished that. Now whether you like how they decided to conclude the legend of Michael Myers, well that is another story entirely.

THE VERDICT

Although it still has redeemable qualities and makes for an entertaining movie experience in its own right, Halloween Ends strays from a tried-and-true formula that helped build an iconic franchise dividing audiences in the process. You have to commend the writing team for taking a chance here and I wish I could say it worked out in the end (pun intended), but unfortunately we are left with what feels like a jumbled mess and an overall unfinished product. I personally think they bit off more than they could chew, and easily needed an additional 30-minutes to try and flesh out this new backstory they aimed to create. Now I’m not saying it would have made this a great movie because you are still making Meyers more or less a background character, but at least you would fill some of the holes in the story and make things feel a bit more cohesive.

As I mentioned earlier in the review, I was impressed with the acting and still enjoyed the movie for the most part, but to say it is a worthy sendoff for such an iconic franchise would be like saying the earth is flat. Just because some people believe it, doesn’t make it true. The reality is we will see more of Michael Meyers in the future with the next franchise reboot, and I will be watching.