The Reel Review
Jamie Lee Curtis is back as Laurie Strode, the embattled babysitter who fought off serial killer Michael Myers to become a PTSD-scarred vigilante, in her final film in the 43-year-old Halloween horror film franchise. Halloween Ends also concludes the final trilogy in the saga that picked up in 2018 from 1979’s original and iconic Halloween, ignoring the ten sequels in between.
After a solidly entertaining 2018 film and a shockingly weak Halloween Kills, this final chapter disappointingly is even worse – a poorly written, tonally jarring hot mess that barely looks like it belongs in the franchise. This final entry in director David Gordon Green’s trilogy of trauma – exploring its affects first on family, then community and now, the individual – is a dull misfire.
The first hour of Halloween Ends zeroes in on a new character, Corey (Rohan Campbell), acquitted in the death of a child he was babysitting, and his lingering psychological trauma as a lurking Strode plays matchmaker between him and her granddaughter, again played by Andi Matichak. Other returning cast members Kyle Richards and Will Patton are little more than window dressing in this exhaustingly tiresome, bait-and-switch of a plot.
The finalé finally sets up the big showdown between Strode and Michael Myers, but after the tediously slow prior hour, it feels rushed and unsatifyingly slapped together, as though director Green realized that he’d forgotten to add the main ingredient to his entreé just as it was about to come out of the oven. Limping to the finish line, Halloween Ends is a terrible final footnote to the franchise, completely unworthy as its conclusion.
REEL FACTS
• Although Jamie Lee Curtis has said this is her final Halloween film, producer Jason Blum there could be more Halloween films in the future since the franchise rights revert back to producer Malek Akkad, who was involved in five of the prior ten sequels.
• Similar to Halloween Kills, the release of Halloween Ends was delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Due to her marriage to Christopher Haden-Guest, who is the 5th Baron Haden-Guest in the United Kingdom, Jamie Lee Curtis is a baroness, Lady Haden-Guest, though she doesn’t use the title. Haden-Guest was a member of the House of Lords until 1999, when the seat was abolished.
Video & Photo
