I've had mixed expectations about this movie, and it feels important at the outset to delineate why. John Carpenter's 1978 original is an essential classic, built on strong atmosphere; the first 1981 sequel is blustery, boorish nonsense (which Carpenter himself seems to agree with, and he wrote it). I've long avoided the rest of the franchise assuming standard bland slasher fare, a feeling reinforced by 'Halloween II.' 2018's direct sequel, meanwhile, I personally loved, as it felt like a great amalgamation of Carpenter's atmosphere and grisly slasher violence. However, my hopes for this latest run of pictures was brought low with last year's 'Halloween kills,' as some scenes and story beats were unnecessary, the pace was unfavorably brisk, and it too often sidelined plot and some genuinely great ideas for wanton slasher brutality. So here we are: October 2022, the theoretical (never actual, surely) end of 'Halloween,' and THE promised showdown between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. How does it stack up? Long story short, I like it.
It quickly becomes apparent that this feature is not the same 'Halloween' any of its predecessors have been, and it emphatically tries to be something else. To the extent that 'Halloween kills' incorporated some Big Brain ideas in what was ultimately a bit of a mess, it seems to me like this goes further still and works backward from larger notions that are at its core, beyond violence for the sake of violence, to then swing back to that violence after all. I don't know how completely successful the result is, but I deeply admire the effort: a town recovering from trauma, descending into blame and fear; trying (and failing) to reason through the How and Why by blaming the victim instead of the culprit; demonization manifesting a self-fulfilling prophecy; and more. Moreover, to the credit of the writers, the concepts at play here dovetail into substantial dialogue that closed the 2021 film, and cast it in a new and more favorable light.
John Carpenter returns as composer alongside recent collaborators Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, and as with 2018's picture (and less so the 2021 movie), they again turn in a slew of themes that are utterly outstanding. Building off Carpenter's original 1978 music, the score readily creates strong, uneasy atmosphere from start to finish with wide-ranging dynamics - complementing able tension and a measure of atmosphere that the film can claim of its own accord. As 'Halloween ends' goes a slightly different direction it more capably engages viewers as we anxiously wait to see just where it's going to go, and where these characters will end up. It even creates an air of ambiguity about its characters, such that any one might be headed on a dark path and become another bleak mark on Haddonfield's legacy. Rest assured that we still get plenty of gruesome violence, at once even more gnarly than what we saw in the immediate predecessor (almost excessively so), but also less frequent and more calculated (and all the better for it). And: while the climax and especially the ending are unquestionably too On The Nose, I'd be lying if I said they weren't nonetheless very satisfying such as they are.
To be honest, this is much better than I expected. 'Kills' dampened my anticipation, but I still hoped 'Ends' might eke out a victory, and I think it succeeds. It's certainly not perfect, though. Clocking in at almost two hours, that length is a double-edged sword. There's a lot of ideas that the feature tries to include, and it maintains a fairly quick gait to be able to do so. There are also, arguably, too many ideas herein, and not all are tackled completely; some might not have even been necessary, which means the length is more than it needed to be. The climax in particular, and the scenes leading up to it, seem like they're smashing together too much all at once, and the result is a tad inelegant. The arc of one specific character - you'll know the one - is obviously integral to the movie as it presents, but comes across like that progress bar on software installation that always hovers at 99% but never hits 100%. Some scenes, especially earlier in the runtime, feel a little too common, while some of the violence is so nasty that it reminds (in a bad way) of tawdry gorefests like 'Hostel.'
And it should be said, too, that the confluence of some of the Big Ideas here impress as a perversion of some real-life issues that have been of heated debate in the last several years especially. We, the audience, know that despite the reputation Laurie has acquired over the years in-universe, she isn't wrong, she is a victim, and Michael is a monster. The way these emphatic points are played with in 'Ends' questionably mirrors bad faith arguments in real life about people with repugnant beliefs being held accountable for them, only to double-down, and the victims then being wrongfully taken to task for daring to speak out. In the fictional universe of 'Halloween' this is a grey area; in real life, it's black and white - and the inclusion here just feels Off in a way that's hard to pin down.
Yes, 'Halloween ends' is imperfect. But I think it's much stronger than not, especially coming off the sadly middling middle child that was 'Halloween kills.' Of course David Gordon Green's direction is superb, and the screenplay is tight in every individual way. The cast is excellent, Jamie Lee Curtis and Andi Matichak especially, and all the contributions of those behind the scenes are unimpeachable, including the effects artists. All this is well and good; the heart of the matter is the story that is told. It's not all that it could have been, but as far as I'm concerned, this is engrossing, entertaining, and ultimately fulfilling for (ostensibly) bringing the saga to an end. In the days to follow its release opinions will vary, yet for my part I'm quite pleased with 'Halloween ends,' flaws and all, and find it to be a worthy finale.
It quickly becomes apparent that this feature is not the same 'Halloween' any of its predecessors have been, and it emphatically tries to be something else. To the extent that 'Halloween kills' incorporated some Big Brain ideas in what was ultimately a bit of a mess, it seems to me like this goes further still and works backward from larger notions that are at its core, beyond violence for the sake of violence, to then swing back to that violence after all. I don't know how completely successful the result is, but I deeply admire the effort: a town recovering from trauma, descending into blame and fear; trying (and failing) to reason through the How and Why by blaming the victim instead of the culprit; demonization manifesting a self-fulfilling prophecy; and more. Moreover, to the credit of the writers, the concepts at play here dovetail into substantial dialogue that closed the 2021 film, and cast it in a new and more favorable light.
John Carpenter returns as composer alongside recent collaborators Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, and as with 2018's picture (and less so the 2021 movie), they again turn in a slew of themes that are utterly outstanding. Building off Carpenter's original 1978 music, the score readily creates strong, uneasy atmosphere from start to finish with wide-ranging dynamics - complementing able tension and a measure of atmosphere that the film can claim of its own accord. As 'Halloween ends' goes a slightly different direction it more capably engages viewers as we anxiously wait to see just where it's going to go, and where these characters will end up. It even creates an air of ambiguity about its characters, such that any one might be headed on a dark path and become another bleak mark on Haddonfield's legacy. Rest assured that we still get plenty of gruesome violence, at once even more gnarly than what we saw in the immediate predecessor (almost excessively so), but also less frequent and more calculated (and all the better for it). And: while the climax and especially the ending are unquestionably too On The Nose, I'd be lying if I said they weren't nonetheless very satisfying such as they are.
To be honest, this is much better than I expected. 'Kills' dampened my anticipation, but I still hoped 'Ends' might eke out a victory, and I think it succeeds. It's certainly not perfect, though. Clocking in at almost two hours, that length is a double-edged sword. There's a lot of ideas that the feature tries to include, and it maintains a fairly quick gait to be able to do so. There are also, arguably, too many ideas herein, and not all are tackled completely; some might not have even been necessary, which means the length is more than it needed to be. The climax in particular, and the scenes leading up to it, seem like they're smashing together too much all at once, and the result is a tad inelegant. The arc of one specific character - you'll know the one - is obviously integral to the movie as it presents, but comes across like that progress bar on software installation that always hovers at 99% but never hits 100%. Some scenes, especially earlier in the runtime, feel a little too common, while some of the violence is so nasty that it reminds (in a bad way) of tawdry gorefests like 'Hostel.'
And it should be said, too, that the confluence of some of the Big Ideas here impress as a perversion of some real-life issues that have been of heated debate in the last several years especially. We, the audience, know that despite the reputation Laurie has acquired over the years in-universe, she isn't wrong, she is a victim, and Michael is a monster. The way these emphatic points are played with in 'Ends' questionably mirrors bad faith arguments in real life about people with repugnant beliefs being held accountable for them, only to double-down, and the victims then being wrongfully taken to task for daring to speak out. In the fictional universe of 'Halloween' this is a grey area; in real life, it's black and white - and the inclusion here just feels Off in a way that's hard to pin down.
Yes, 'Halloween ends' is imperfect. But I think it's much stronger than not, especially coming off the sadly middling middle child that was 'Halloween kills.' Of course David Gordon Green's direction is superb, and the screenplay is tight in every individual way. The cast is excellent, Jamie Lee Curtis and Andi Matichak especially, and all the contributions of those behind the scenes are unimpeachable, including the effects artists. All this is well and good; the heart of the matter is the story that is told. It's not all that it could have been, but as far as I'm concerned, this is engrossing, entertaining, and ultimately fulfilling for (ostensibly) bringing the saga to an end. In the days to follow its release opinions will vary, yet for my part I'm quite pleased with 'Halloween ends,' flaws and all, and find it to be a worthy finale.