Want to watch a good Halloween movie this October, perhaps something gory and terrifying with lots of jumps scares? Well, you can scratch “Halloween Ends” off your list.
The third and final film in the recent “Halloween” trilogy, “Halloween Ends,” may rank among the worst movies ever created. When a film is impressive, reviews are usually simple to write. But with “Halloween Ends,” only one word comes to mind: dreadful.
Released in theaters on Oct. 14, “Halloween Ends,” directed by David Gordon Green, takes place four years after the events of “Halloween Kills,” when Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) is wrapping up her memoir while residing with her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak).
Since then, nobody has seen Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney). Laurie has decided to break free from her fear and anger and embrace life after letting the ghost of Michael control and shape her reality for decades.
But when Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), a young man, is charged with murdering a boy while babysitting him, it sparks a wave of violence and fear that forces Laurie to finally face the evil she can’t stop once and for all.
It sounds good, right? Well, nothing could be farther from the truth.
As explained by one Common Sense Media critic, with “Halloween Ends” being the last installment in the series’ concluding chapter, the film hints at some enticing themes but seems to fall flat. The critic claims that the plot revolves around an unlikely supernatural occurrence, leaving the audience baffled. The movie might have received more recognition if it had a more logical plot that tied everything together.
“Halloween Ends” seems like a collection of disparate films thrown together that tries to accomplish what Green would have hoped to accomplish over the duration of all three films in its brief running time. Although the concepts behind these movies are intriguing, attempting to tie them together in one film is insufficient, resulting in an uncomfortable viewing experience.
Furthermore, the absence of a killer throughout most of the film made many viewers feel bored. The movie bored me if I am being sincere.
But if I had to choose one aspect of this movie that I liked, it would be the ending. Don’t worry. I won’t reveal the actual ending of the film in case you decide to watch it. However, I will share what the director had to say about it.
“We went through a lot of endings,” says filmmaker David Gordon Green in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “Some were really bleak, and some were less bleak. The version we ended up with, I think, is optimistic, hopeful. After ‘Kills’ came out with a bleak ending, I didn’t want to do that again. I wanted to have some note of satisfaction.”
Let me just say that it was indeed an “optimistic” ending. The audience was left with relief that the chapter had finally come to an end.
Green continues on to say that they were “trying to do a little bit more of a modest, intimate ending. ‘Kills’ was big and expansive and super noisy and aggressive, almost like an action movie at points, and I wanted this to return to the simple dramatic roots.”
But fans were shocked to hear that the filmmaker came up with the film’s actual ending “this summer, like two months ago, after we screened it a few times.”
Let’s just say that the movie has lived up to its name, successfully ending the franchise’s comeback so that viewers may forget about it and start fresh.
“Halloween Ends” is now playing in cinemas and streaming on Peacock.