I don’t think I can review Halloween Ends or even talk about the film without dropping spoilers.
Halloween Ends is out. The lead up for me was pretty, well I wasn’t too excited. I was not a fan of what happened in Halloween Kills, mostly the end of the film when Michael gets his ass handed to him and gets up like nothing happened. It really felt like they were leaning in to Myers being evil and and really, powered by evil and unstoppable. WELLLLLLLLLLLL!
Synopsis:
Four years after her last encounter with masked killer Michael Myers, Laurie Strode is living with her granddaughter and trying to finish her memoir. Myers hasn’t been seen since, and Laurie finally decides to liberate herself from rage and fear and embrace life. However, when a young man stands accused of murdering a boy that he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that forces Laurie to confront the evil she can’t control.
SPOILERS!!!!!—————————————————————————————————
I am not going to bullshit around with this. I did not like this movie. It is really uneven, even the editing. There are strange scenes and character moments. There is a love story that is super rushed and doesn’t feel very natural and it rivals the awkward love story from Star Wars Attack of the Clones between Padme and Anakin. I’ll dig deeper in this love story between Corey and Allyson.
This movie feels like two different movies. It did not feel like a Halloween film at all, I do think that is a problem for me. I really feel like Hallween Ends is a movie that was never meant to be a Halloween film and they squeezed Laurie Strode and Michael Myers in to this film. I wonder if David Gordon Green had an idea for a slasher film and just put it in to his final Halloween film. Halloween Ends was advertised as a match up Laurie Strode vs Michael Myers. We get that, in the last 10 minutes of the movie. This movie, Halloween Ends, is Corey Cunningham’s movie and that is 100% bullshit. Why bring in a new character like this in the final film of the series? It could have worked well, but it didn’t. To be honest, I did not hate the Corey Cunningham stuff, it just didn’t fit in this movie and there was no pay-off.
So, let’s get to Corey Cunningham…He is introduced immediately. He babysits some bratty kid who pranks him and Corey accidently kills the kid in 2019. 3 years later he is the new Haddonfield pariah and kind of a dorky loser type. He is 24 and gets bullied by the band dorks and cuts his hand and meets Laurie, who for some reason thinks its a good idea to try and set Allyson, her granddaughter up with the town pariah…why? What is she thinking? Laurie is out of her damn mind in this movie, more so than the other two. Did they just say “Fuck It” with Halloween Ends.
Anyway, Allyson and Corey start to date and after the first date, he gets angry and leaves, she seems destroyed. Corey gets jumped by those idiot band kids again and they toss him over a bridge. Then he encounters Michael Myers who is hiding in the sewer tunnels…but why? Michael does not kill Corey, we see flashes of what he has done and it feels like Michael sees the evil within Corey. Corey’s personality begins to change and he becomes more hostel. He survived Michael Myers, he doesn’t understand. He seeks out Allyson again and Laurie can see the evil in Corey’s eyes. But Allyson seems to see a way out of Haddonfield with Corey. Again, super weird. Oh an Allyson lost out on a promotion at work due to her “friend” fucking the doctor…gross. So, Corey and Michael work together and kill the doctor and Allyson’s friend. This felt like a the evil is passing from Michael to Corey and, that was really promising.
Corey then takes the mask of Michael, which was weird and takes care of some business. So, the movie is looking up, eventually he targets a Laurie Strode who seems like she may commit suicide and Laurie shoots him and boasts with some hero type speech. But then…Michael shows up, he kills Corey…and Laurie and Michael have their final showdown, which was pretty much shown in the trailers. Yeah, they ruined the movie with the trailers, with the exception of Laurie crucifying Michael on her kitchen island and how he is destroyed, which was good.
So, Corey Cunningham…was fucking worthless. They build him up and, well fuck him and kill Corey. This felt like a movie that was setting up another movie and not the final act of a trilogy. I honestly liked the idea of Corey taking the mantle. We’ve seen this in other movies, Friday the 13th A New Beginning, Halloween 4 The Return of Michael Myers. We saw a passing of the torch, only for it to be ruined in the next movie. Halloween Ends ruined it in the same damn movie. I know this was the end of David Gordon Green’s trilogy, but we could have gotten another sequel after Ends and maybe start an entire new kind of Halloween film. Corey Cunningham reminds me of Arnie Cunningham from Christine and Tommy Jarvis from Friday the 13th, especially A New Beginning.
Halloween Ends is the Last Jedi of the Halloween series. Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills set some things up an Halloween Ends seems to ignore what came before, like Luke tossing his lightsaber over his shoulder.
I have questions.
- Why was Michael hiding for the last 4 years? I don’t really understand.
- What was the original idea for Halloween Ends? I believe the trilogy was going to be all in one night.
- Why are the Haddonfield police so incompetent? They should have searched for Myers, everywhere.
- Why set up a character like Corey in the third act of a trilogy to just kill him off?
There is a good movie in here, I know there is, but between the editing and the focus on Corey Cunningham and the sharp departure of from the tone of Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills. Halloween Ends is bad. It feels like a movie that is setting up for a sequel, it feels like two movies and partially feels like David Gordon Green squeezed in his own personal horror film into his last Halloween film. Seriously, take out the Halloween elements, Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, this could have been the set up to a good horror film. But, it was way too, allover the place and focusing on a new character, Corey, it was less Halloween Ends and more Corey Cunningham Begins.
I don’t have a rating on this movie…I can’t even make myself do it, but I did not like Halloween Ends at all. At this very moment, it is the 13th best Halloween and has dethroned Halloween Resurrection as the worst Halloween film ever made…but this could change.
Halloween Ends currently has a 5.4 rating on IMDB.com
Halloween Kills has a 5.5 and Halloween (2018) has a 6.5 rating.
I do think Halloween Ends will also dethrone Halloween Kills as the most divisive Halloween film.
On Wednesday we will have our roundtable discussion on Halloween Ends. So, maybe subscribe to our Youtube channel and ring the bell to be notified for every new review, Discourse EP, and more. Follow The Horror Syndicate on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!
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