Saturday, October 15, 2022

My Review of Halloween Ends (2022)

 


Written by Paul Brad Logan & Chris Bernier & Danny McBride & David Gordon Green
Directed by David Gordon Green

Corey (to Laurie): "What are you gonna do when Michael comes back for you? Because he is coming."

Trilogies are a difficult beast to get right, aren't they? Sometimes they can end on a whimper. Rarely do you get them all right from start to finish and in other cases, they can wildly deviate from where they were expected to go. Halloween Ends definitely fell into the latter category.

Following the events of Haddonfield dealing with the boogeyman over the course of two movies set in 2018, this third installment took place a year later where nerdy babysitter Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) found his life being torn apart following the accidental death of Jeremy (Jaxon Goldberg) while under his watch.

Three years later, Jeremy's grieving parents separated, abandoned their former home and Corey became something of a town pariah while working for his uncle and being antagonised by a bunch of annoying teenagers. Then Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) came into Corey's life and soon a blossoming romance with Allyson (Andi Matichak) also followed. In some respects, perhaps things were about to look up for Corey.

Expect not really. The town still largely hated him, those teenagers tried to kill him and then ending up in the sewers led to Corey experiencing something of a life changing encounter.  Yup, before you thought this movie was all about Corey Cunningham (which it mostly was), there was the fact that Michael Myers (Nick Castle/James Jude Courtney) was still alive, in pretty rough shape and for some reason instead of killing Corey on the spot, Michael ended up sparing him with some interesting consequences.

For months this movie has been compared to John Carpenter's Christine but instead of a corrupted motor, merely looking deep into Michael's eyes managed to set Corey on something of a killing spree and he certainly didn't waste time going from nerdy bloke to bad boy as his relationship with Allyson intensified and Laurie realised that Corey was another threat to her family's safety.

The scenes between Corey and Laurie are fantastic, both offering a contrast to the impact that Michael Myers made on their lives. Of course while this movie finally did what previous ones considered but balked at with the copycat killer storyline then gets somewhat nixed with a return to status quo of sorts. I think this movie made a misstep with not leaving Corey's overall fate ambiguous. 

However, the audience wanted a final confrontation with Michael and Laurie and this movie gave a hell of a showdown between the pair of them. Arguably the best one within the trilogy itself with a conclusion that for this timeline that made sense here. Michael got the ending he deserved, while both Laurie and Allyson (the latter not best served here compared to the previous two movies) got their own respective closures. 

- Both Nick Castle and James Jude Courtney appeared in other roles in this movie besides sharing Michael that connected with Corey as well.
- There were loads of lovely nods to the first movie as well as Halloween III: Season Of The Witch with the opening title sequence. 
- Laurie was writing a memoir for most of the movie, Allyson worked as a nurse, Frank wanted to visit Japan with Laurie and Lindsey read tarot cards and worked at a bar. We also learned that Sondra survived the previous movie and saw both her and Julian at the junkyard scene.
- Corey killed the majority of people here while Michael had the lowest body count in a film he's appeared in. Terry also killed Corey's uncle by accident. 
- Standout music: The score music naturally, especially the Corey And Michael bit. 
- Chronology: Halloween 2019 at the beginning before we moved into 2022.

For better or worse, Halloween Ends certainly lived up to it's title by providing a definite ending to this specific timeline. Is it a perfect ending? Nope. Does this mean we'll never get another Michael Myers movie ever again? I doubt it somehow but it's an interesting way to end this particular with. The Corey storyline might have felt a bit late in the game but it worked far better than expected and this movie will definitely a fanbase because of the interesting choices made with it. 

Rating: 8 out of 10

No comments: