Halloween Ends (2022)

[Eric is Quiet]

Discuss!

[excel1]

A legit. F. What were they thinking?

[TheScarecrow]

This is another the Jurassic World: Dominion.

 

Movie wasn't what anyone was promised or what anyone wanted. How hard it is to have 90 minutes of suspense-filled stalking followed by a brutal climactic showdown between Laurie and the Shape? Apparently as hard as it is to have 2 hours of dinosaurs attacking people and each other.

 

I need to see it again (I was drunk), but every time this movie looked like it might be getting on track it promptly made itself go off the rails.

 

Baffling.

 

I think my head cannon will end this timeline at H18. Though I at least enjoy Kills for what it is.

[CJohn]

In Halloween Kills, JLC has 10 minutes of screen time. In Halloween Ends, Michael Myers has 10 minutes of screen time. Fitting tbh.

Edited October 14, 2022 by CJohn

[filmlover]

I thought this was better than Halloween Kills (or at least found it not as astoundingly idiotic as that was), so I'll give it that,. And I almost want to give them credit for trying to attempt something different with this series. But overall, it just doesn't work very well. Halloween '18 is ultimately the only movie in this timeline that will be worth remembering. I have to say I'm rather happy I got to watch it for free from my home instead of venturing out to a theater to see it.

 

The movie's biggest flaw, IMO, is the handling of the Corey character played by Ansel Elgort doppelganger Rohan Campbell. After that absolutely horrific opening scene (that kid may have been a total brat but certainly didn't deserve...well, that), it takes a while before figuring out what exactly it wants to do with him, and while the concept of "Michael infects the soul of someone else to create a new killer" is a potentially interesting one, the execution falters. I suspect the biggest complaint fans will have about this is that Michael is barely in it, but I wouldn't have much of an issue with that if the rest of the movie had been much more compelling than it is. There's a lot of characters introduced that scream "doomed to a body bag" from the moment they appear like the bullies and the asshole radio DJ, but even when they eventually get what's coming to them (and it must be said that this has some hilariously gruesome death scenes once it finally gets around to the killings), it's hard to really care.

 

Of course, the main draw here is the final showdown at last between Michael and Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie, but even that isn't as satisfying as it should be, in part because it takes place in murky lighting that makes it hard to tell what's happening at times. JLC gives a typically strong performance and adds a haunted edge to the part, which only makes one wish that these last two movies were much better than they were.

 

It's far from the worst of the series (given that this is a franchise in which the bad definitely outweighs the good, being merely average or mediocre is worth noting), and it's got some good parts to it, but it's disappointing that if this is really JLC's official farewell to Halloween (because no one believes it won't be rebooted/revived again at some point down the road) it'll go down as an underwhelming ride off into the sunset.

 

C

Edited October 16, 2022 by filmlover

[Eastwood47]

I think there are allot of rules to story telling that were not only violated, but backed over repeatedly. First, when you say you're building a trilogy, there's supposed to be story arc with a narrative structure that provides a pathway for character development followed by a logical conclusion that ties up the loose ends in the final chapter. This has none of that. All three of these movies have little to no connective tissue. Their characters have motivations that come from nowhere. And plot points in these movies are just things that happen because... well they just happen. And all the characters flow in that direction even if it makes no sense for them to. Halloween Ends seems to revel in taking all the flaws in the first two films and slamming the writing gears into overdrive to show they can make even more mistakes. 

 

Instead of explaining what has happened for four years or why the town never even made a search for Michael Myers after he murdered half the town, including a town mob who beat, shot, and stabbed him, the writers decide to go back and create a new story arc for a completely different character that was not in the last two films. They not only give you a back story, they then spend more than three quarters of the film letting that character drive the narrative while the rest of the legacy characters let you know they have moved on. Thats great... Laurie Strode spends 40 years hiding in fear of Myers and building a fortress in preparation for him, KNOWING he is shackled to a concrete block in prison. But once he escapes and kills her family, including her only daughter (and is still free), she's moved on after four years. YEAH... makes total sense. 

 

If you decide to invest in this new character and new story, have no fear. The writer and director make sure you get no satisfaction there either , because at the end, they realize, "Hey we should bring Michael Myers into this right?" So they eliminate that new character and go back to Myers who is a beaten down and nearly crippled old man wearing a mask, but possessing none of the strength he has exhibited in all the other films. So you spend all your time following a dead end storyline regarding a character that has nothing to do with the franchise, only to get maybe five minutes screen time with Michael Myers, two minutes of which he fights Laurie Strode. This is a ludicrous film.  If you're a fan and looking for a pay off, its not here. Its as if they meant to flip the finger at every fan of the series. The only thing I can say for the movie is the acting was actually pretty good. That saves it from getting a F. But the writing found a new low.   D-

 

 

[ddddeeee]

This was wild.

 

The opening and ending are fab and what's sandwiched in between is absolute madness. Christine meets 80s romance meets Friday the 13th Part V (with my main woman Ethel being reincarnated as Corey's mum nnnnnnn). Loved seeing Laurie be Laurie for a change. 

[CJohn]

Hysterical. It is Jurassic World Dominion on steroids. But there at least you would see the dinos from time to time, here you get 10 minutes of Michael Myers tacked on at the end and that is it. I do admit I enjoyed it more than Kills just because of the batshit crazyness that was going on.

Edited October 14, 2022 by CJohn

[filmlover]

The only thing I think everyone can agree this movie does truly well is the opening scene. I sat there with with jaw dropped for a solid minute after the kid fell off the balcony and hit the floor. People will probably remember this one for that more than The End of Michael Myers in the long run.

 

Also the death of the radio DJ had me laughing my head off. The face smash, followed by the tongue getting cut off, followed by the tongue landing on the live record player and being skipped over by the needle on a loop. The movie needed more darkly funny lunacy like that.

[Blaze Heatnix]

It's crystal clear that they probably filmed the last 20 minutes of the movie and had no idea about what would come before these last 20 minutes, lol.

 

90 minutes of nonsense until we finally get 15/20 minutes of killings. For almost a full hour I thought I was seeing the wrong movie, lol.

 

I'll pretend Halloween 2018 never got sequels. Maybe...just maybe someone could come with a special edit and put the last 20 minutes of Ends right after the ending of Kills. It would be a much better effortand would save us from that tragedy called Ends.

Edited October 15, 2022 by Blaze Heatnix

[baumer]

I have no idea what the filmmakers thought they were doing here. David Gordon green and Danny McBride and the other writers absolutely drag the Halloween legacy through the mud. I was not a fan of Rob zombie's Halloween's but they're basically masterpieces compared to this piece of excrement. And yes it sounds like I'm overreacting but I'm not.

The first five minutes this film let you know that it's nowhere near the feel of some of the other films. First of all you get an opening that contains about 2 minutes of rock and roll. Compare this to the opening of the original Halloween the follow-up and even Halloween 4 and it'll just make you that much more angry.

Michael Myers is reduced to a cameo and then an afterthought and then he shows up for the final 10 minutes. They actually make someone else in the film do most of his dirty work. Allison, Laurie's granddaughter, is probably the only reason why I didn't leave the film after the first 30 minutes. She was terrific and easy on the eyes and that is all I can say for the movie in terms of its good qualities.

The finale of the film is just a fist fight between strode and Meyers and by that time I was so angry, so uninvested in the film that I couldn't care less. I was actually hoping that everybody died just so they really couldn't make another Halloween film, at least not one done by this crew.

Halloween is my favorite horror movie of all time. I love the follow-up to it and I loved part 4. This is a complete dichotomy of the films I just mentioned. It's horribly written, not very well directed and they basically kill any of the good stuff that they tried to emulate from the other films.

I don't know how John Carpenter or Jamie Lee Curtis or Malek Akkad or Jason Blum could have read the script, approved it, saw the dailies, approve them and then watched the final cut of the movie and thought to themselves, yes this is awesome.

This is without a doubt the worst Halloween film out of all of them. Shame on everyone involved for making this piece of garbage.

1/10.

[Brainbug]

Holy shit.

 

This movie might be the worst horror/slasher film ive seen in theaters. I still like Halloween 2018 (mostly because of the terrific music), but i didnt care at all for Kills and now ... man id rather watch Season of the Witch 10 times in a row instead of having to watch this one more time. I have never left the theater for a movie ever, but i actually though about it while i watched this one.

 

Btw how dare are any of you mention Dominion - a flawed, but hauntingly beautiful mess masterpiece - next to this movie!

 

This movie wont tarnish my love for the Halloween franchise and especially not the original film but it was a HUGE TURD and the filmmakers should be embarrassed.

 

Easy F. Not a grade i normally give but i feel like here its appropiate.

[Joel M]

Corey innocent. Well not literally because he killed a lot of people but his share of the movie was the more interesting while the Michael/Laurie parts were absolutely laughable imo. 

 

I get the toxic reaction and it certainly is a mess, but I think it's gonna be more memorable than most Halloween sequels. Just because of the Corey stuff.

[ddddeeee]

I saw this again today. It's definitely my favourite sequel in the franchise.

 

I loved seeing Laurie get a chance to be the person she never got to be. I get that people think it's jarring coming after 2018 and HK, but in the latter movie she learned that Michael wasn't after her at all. Her hysteria ultimately did put people in harm's way. She knows that, so she's trying her best to move on - not always successfully. I loved her first scene with Corey and her scene in the supermarket with Hawkins. This is the first time we've seen who that seventeen-year-old could have grown up to be.

 

The Corey stuff works for me. Halloween Kills was all about angry, cartoon townsfolk looking for their big cathartic 'gotcha' moment. They didn't get it. They've been deprived closure and so they needed to project their hate onto someone - Corey and the survivors. Thematically it works. The difference in the silly crowd at the end of this movie and the silly buffoons at the end of Halloween Kills drives it home. It helps that Rohan Campbell is really talented.

 

Michael being MIA doesn't bother me because the movie isn't about him. It's about a town being unable to process the grief that he caused. I lowkey love his levelling up/jizzing when he kills for the first time. Also, today I noticed how Michael panics every time someone takes off his mask except for when Corey does. He lets him take it. The scene was shot in a very goofy way, though.

 

The score is fantastic. Corey's theme is terrific and its interplay with the main theme is quite clever. Carpenter and sons normally just seem to play what's on screen (nothing wrong with that!), but there's far more thought here. Great stuff.

 

I love Laurie's ending. She couldn't kill him until she got over him. As the final 'final girl', she had to survive. The last few shots, mimicking the original, but without the incessant score, were perfect. I found it quite moving. This is the ending she deserved. 

 

There's some absolutely horrific ADR in there. There's still some really portentous dialogue. Laurie's monologues are... a lot. You can feel the reshuffling/recontextualising of scenes before Corey comes for Laurie. Corey's mum is straight from Friday the 13th Part V (which I mean as an insult and a compliment), but there's just so much I love here. I've spent a year trying to convince myself that I like Halloween Kills, but I'm instantly smitten with this.

 

[excel1]

There is an interesting story here that is horribly executed and never should have been placed in a Halloween film. 

[filmlover]

This really isn't any better than Kills after thinking over it more. I don't think this is the abomination many are claiming, but yeah, it's just too flawed. Just gonna pretend that this version of the franchise concludes with Michael burning alive in a housefire after being tricked into a safe room by three generations of Strode women.

[cheesypoofs]

Man, this is the most disappointing movie I've seen in YEARS. It's been a week, and I'm still incredibly disappointed. I absolutely loved H18. I absolutely loved Kills. This was just from so far left field, that it feels like it wasn't even made by the same people, even though it was. It feels like there was very little connective tissue with what came before it. It focuses on a completely brand new character instead of either Michael or Laurie. I liked the opening/opening credits, but I feel like they should have just added the last 20 minutes onto the end of the extended cut of Kills. I would actually pay someone to do that. 

[CaptainJackSparrow]

(I haven't seen this yet)

Reading the plot summary, I am really interested in the character's Corey arc. I am sure they reduced Michael's screentime since he's been way overdone, but perhaps he should have been in another scene or two. I will definitely have to watch this, I like the "Michael turns Corey to the dark" plot. 

[filmlover]

9 minutes ago, CaptainJackSparrow said:

(I haven't seen this yet)

Reading the plot summary, I am really interested in the character's Corey arc. I am sure they reduced Michael's screentime since he's been way overdone, but perhaps he should have been in another scene or two. I will definitely have to watch this, I like the "Michael turns Corey to the dark" plot. 

It's a much more interesting idea on paper than it is in execution. Mostly because it feels shoehorned into a movie that already had the entire foundation for it (Laurie's last stand against Michael after he made it personal by killing her daughter) set up at the end of the previous one. I liked Halloween '18, but these last two definitely give off a total "making it up as we go along" vibe to them.

[Webslinger]

Like the chapter before it, Halloween Ends is a film with some interesting ideas, but maddeningly inconsistent execution. David Gordon Green takes some big swings and is not afraid to try to do something different with the Halloween brand, and while these ideas work at some points, they backfire at others. Green’s attempt to explore the transferability of evil and the notion that a seemingly ordinary person could become Michael Myers are interesting ideas on paper, but their presentation here feels like it’s still an early draft in need of further refinement. Sadly, the script also suffers from some baffling character decisions that feel like they are happening simply because the screenwriters need the story to get somewhere, but can’t quite figure out how to do it. As frustrating as the scripting decisions are, though, Green remains skillful in developing an effective sense of atmosphere and staging murderous mayhem, and the film’s final act and conclusion are pretty fun – even if they still clearly feel like they’re written for Green’s original vision of his trilogy taking place on a single night, as opposed to the rest of the script changes brought on by the pandemic shutdown. As in her other takes on her most iconic role, Jamie Lee Curtis succeeds in bringing class and gravitas to her role, and her acting works even when the script around it doesn’t. The rest of the cast is a mixed bag of inconsistent performances, though much of that inconsistency can probably be laid at the hands of a messy script that doesn’t always seem like it knows how to get its characters where it wants. It’s too bad that Ends, like Kills before it, doesn’t capitalize on its ideas. It feels like David Gordon Green and his production team really wanted to do something different with their trilogy and leave a unique mark on a horror icon, but the payoff does not live up to the ambitions. 

 

C+