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A Review of “Halloween Ends (2022)”

 

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Halloween Ends is the conclusion to the 3rd reboot in this convoluted franchise. Halloween (2018) was an enjoyable movie and made for a perfectly great finale. Unfortunately, it got the “franchise milking” treatment. It was followed up by Halloween Kills which was bad. This made me worried about the quality of Halloween Ends. So is this the satisfying end to Michael Myers or should he have stayed dead in the fire in 2018?

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Let’s get the positive out of the way first. Jamie Lee Curtis is still awesome as Laurie Strode. She manages to convey the vulnerability of her character after the loss of her daughter in Halloween Kills but still be badass when she needs to. The first couple of minutes of the film is pretty good too. It has suspense and a pretty fun kill. The actual anticipated fight between Laurie and Michael Myers is thoroughly entertaining as well. There are also some enjoyable kills with one concerning a ‘tongue’ which is quite memorable.

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However, that is where the positive ends. I’m going full spoilers in my negatives because this film manages to succeed in annoying me. The first and last couple of minutes in the movie is good but everything in between sucks. There is nothing fun in these 90 minutes, heck I would even say it is downright boring at times. The fun intro is replaced with this dull seriousness and drama that just isn’t engaging whatsoever. It takes almost half the runtime for Michael to kill someone, it’s ridiculous. On that note, I don’t find the kills to be as enjoyable as Halloween (2018) or Halloween Kills. As much as I dislike Halloween Kills, it at least provides a lot of kills and really fun goofy ones too. Halloween Ends barely has any and a majority of them are forgettable. Likewise, the final fight is good but it isn’t as good as Halloween (2018) so I ended up being disappointed that this was how Michael Myers dies…

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The most incredibly stupid thing this movie does is having the main character not be Laurie Strode. Instead, we have Corey, a young man who accidentally murdered a child while he babysat. He has the majority of screen time in the movie showing his descent into being the next Michael Myers. I genuinely couldn’t believe that the director was having him be a focus instead of the characters we care about. A majority of the kills in this movie are done by Corey, not Michael Myers. I was so irritated by this decision as instead of providing us what was advertised, the epic conclusion between Laurie and Michael, we get cringy Corey. I think the actor, Rohan Campbell, does a fine job of showing the descent of the character but he is let down by the stupid script. Corey just isn’t very sympathetic or likeable as everything that comes out of his mouth is just silly or edgy. I can’t believe the conclusion of this franchise would have someone other than Michael or Laurie as the focus.

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Additionally, the story is stupid as well. Michael has vanished after his massacre in Halloween Kills for 3 years for some reason that is never explained. Corey gets treated like a psycho by the town and Laurie is blamed for the murders by the town for some reason. The disposable characters in this film act like unbelievable A-holes. For example, there are some bullies in this film that act like over-the-top bullies from a 90s movie even though the setting is 2022. Corey and Laurie’s granddaughter, Allyson, fall in love after like 5 seconds of meeting each other which is unbelievably stupid. The movie is then about their stupid romance with Laurie just kind of there. Corey meets Michael but is spared by him. Corey uses Michael to kill people who wrong him or his girlfriend. The stupid part is that Michael starts following Corey around like a pet dog for some reason. On the topic of Michael, he is so pathetic in this movie. He was fighting multiple people in Halloween Kills but was struggling to fight one single person in this film. Halloween Kills implies that he has supernatural powers but in this film, that seems to be completely gone with no explanation. Corey starts becoming incredibly edgy and takes over being the next Michael Myer even though no one watching wants that. The movie then finally gets rid of Corey but then suddenly remembers the characters of Michael and Laurie. There is no tension or build-up to Laurie and Michael’s fight, it just kind of happens. It then tries to wrap up those two in a couple of minutes. It’s just astounding that a professional writer wrote this…

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Overall, what a disappointing finale to Jamie’s final appearance as Laurie. It feels like the director didn’t have any story in mind for the conclusion of Michael and Laurie so brought a random character to pad the time. This doesn’t remotely feel like a Halloween movie and instead feels like someone shoved another movie into it. I’m angry at the director for thinking this story was acceptable. Halloween H20 and even Halloween (2018) were a better finale to the franchise than Halloween Ends. I recommend just watching Halloween (2018) and not even bothering with Kills and Ends. Halloween Ends fails to deliver a proper satisfying finale while being a movie with a lot of missed opportunities. Michael should’ve just died in the fire because this is lame and disrespectful.


 

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