Review: Halloween Ends (2022)

In my review for the last movie in this franchise (probably the most vitriolic review I have ever written), I alluded to writer/director David Gordon Green and writer Danny McBride having the mentality of knowing better than the audience what they wanted.  To paraphrase, the movie radiated a feeling of 'This is what you will like!' in direct contrast to what did and didn't work in the first of this new trilogy.

I am sad to report that the finale has the same attitude.

It's not that I wanted this movie to be bad - it's that I expected it to be.  And after watching it, my expectations were sadly met.  The movie had the potential to rebound from Halloween Kills and finish strongly - the final battle between Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney, with original actor Nick Castle providing some voicework), 40+ years after they first met.  Instead, both characters are relegated to the sidelines, with the bulk of the movie focusing on an entirely new character and the final battle between these legends relegated to the C plot.

I do have to give credit to Rohan Campbell, who plays new character Corey Cunningham.  He is basically forced to carry this entire movie by himself and tie together the various threads and themes scattered amongst the narratives.  He doesn't quite manage it - I don't think any actor could, to be honest - but he gives it his all, and he manages to give a truly great performance despite the writing and directing working overtime to prevent such a thing from occurring.

Jamie Lee Curtis also does a fine job, though the movie asks her to do precious little.  It asks slightly more of Andi Matichak, returning as Laurie's granddaughter Allyson, mostly because of how much she interacts with Corey.  Will Patton also reappears though I cannot figure out why - they built him up to be a much more important character in the previous two movies than he ended up being in this one.

None of the performances are bad - there is a character I think most will find grating, but that is an intentional choice, I think.  It's just that they are constantly doing battle against a script that wants to do more than what has ultimately ended up on the screen.

Another bit of credit I'll give to this film over the previous one is that the gore - of which there is plenty - is much less exploitative.  Which is an odd thing to say, given some tongue-related shenanigans that happen in the latter half of the movie, but there you go.

Overall though, the movie is just a mess.  It doesn't seem to know what sort of statement it wants to make - though it definitely wants to make one - and it definitely misunderstands what the audience wants and expects from what is supposed to be the grand finale of the Halloween series.  While the previous film was offensively bad, this one is just kind of stupid.  It will be easier to rewatch than Kills is, but I can't think of a better example of damning with faint praise.  It is just as terrible as the previous entry, and only those who are fully committed to the series should bother to see it.

3 our of 10