'Halloween Ends' (2022) Reaction

David Gordon Green’s Halloween requel trilogy has now come to a close, with the final chapter arriving on Friday, October 14. Topping the box office with a $20.21 million gross in its opening night and projected to make around $40-50 million by the end of its opening weekend, the supposed end of Michael Myers currently sits at a 39% critic score and 56% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Every film has its ups and downs, but whether this film feels like a satisfying end to the franchise ultimately comes down to preference.

This is going to be completely spoiler-free and the only plot information that will be given away here is going to come from the official logline from Blumhouse Studios, which states: “Four years after the events of last year’s Halloween Kills, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is living with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and is finishing 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 (Rohan Campbell), 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.”

After seeing Halloween Kills last year, it was hard to set expectations for Halloween Ends for a few reasons – there were too many subplots playing out in Kills that it was hard to discern what was actually important and possibly being shown to set up the next film, as opposed to what was added simply to meet some sort of runtime requirement. Thankfully, Halloween Ends stayed on one path for the most part and gave it the necessary time to breathe instead of throwing a bunch of unnecessary exposition around it. The actors’ performances are a step up from the trilogy’s previous installment, with Jamie Lee Curtis able to show a broader range of emotion throughout the movie and Rohan Campbell convincingly playing out his own character’s arc. We see Laurie and Allison’s characters attempt to live a normal life while also still trying to process and recover from the events of the previous film, and it’s interesting to see their relationship evolve in the aftermath of Michael Myers’ last appearance.

You might ask, “but what about Michael Myers himself?” Well, we don’t see much of him in this movie, and whether that ruins the movie is a preferential matter. His presence is felt throughout the film like an urban legend haunting a small town, and the first half of his active involvement in the movie is something I can only describe as the Halloween equivalent of a less homo-erotic version of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) – that’s all I can say without giving anything away.

The film itself looks like it’s shot well, with a lot of gray and blue color tones that enhance the atmosphere. In terms of editing, a popular cut was to transition on actions, which give off the appearance of a seamless move from one scene to another. There’s also enough fan service to appease hardcore fans, with just a few examples including old footage from previous films being sprinkled here and there, the opening titles appearing in the same font and color as Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), an out-of-costume cameo from OG Michael Myers actor Nick Castle, and references to other works of Halloween creator John Carpenter, such as Christine (1983) and The Fog (1980).

No Halloween film would be complete without some kill scenes as well, and there are some great ones here in Halloween Ends. James Jude Courtney’s portrayal as Michael Myers through this trilogy places him up there with Nick Castle as one of the best actors to play as the killer – the viewer can truly feel the violence, intensity, and tunnel-visioned blankness in Myers’ actions and demeanor with the way Courtney acts and moves in character, and it feels like more than just a dude in a white William Shatner mask doing whatever the directors are telling him to do so he can get paid for the day.

Halloween Ends could have been a much better punctuated ending to the Halloween series than it ended up being, but it can be argued that the final film was marred by indecision – John Carpenter himself has admitted that this may not actually be the end of the franchise, stating that there’s a possibility more films will be made in the future. It also felt like this film was setting up the possibility of what another film could be like – with the spirit of Michael Myers living on being a prominent plot point here, it’s possible that the filmmakers will go this route in the event that another Halloween movie is made. As a fan, I only have one request to make to Blumhouse, Universal Pictures, John Carpenter, and whoever ends up having the rights to the franchise in the future: please let this be the end already. It’s been almost 45 years at this point, the series has gone through so many twists and turns (some better than others), and there is no way to recreate the quality of the 1978 original. Censorship laws are looser nowadays, which allow more graphic and gorey scenes to be projected onscreen, but how many times can Michael Myers go on a killing spree? It’s best to end the franchise now with this concluding chapter of a film, and let the legacy of the franchise and characters live on from here.

Is Halloween Ends the best movie in the Halloween series? Absolutely not, but it’s also nowhere near the worst. It’ll no doubt have a divided reception amongst fans for its gutsy (no pun intended) experimentation, but it can also benefit from a rewatch. At the end of the day, it’s an entertaining slasher flick, which is all I can ask for. There are a lot of mixed opinions already out there, so it’s best to just see it for yourself.

Halloween Ends is currently in theaters and streaming on Peacock. To learn more about the film and buy tickets, click here

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