Spoiler Review Of ‘Halloween Ends’
Image Source: IMDB
WARNING! This review contains spoilers for Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills, and Halloween Ends!
Halloween Ends hit theaters and Peacock this Friday, October 14. The highly anticipated final installment in the Laurie Strode saga was expected to be an epic showdown between one of the original final girls and the ultimate boogeyman. As early reviews poured out, fans were divided with half saying the film was great and the other half saying that the film was horrible. Unfortunately, I have to agree with those that hated the film.
What was marketed as an epic showdown was actually a film focusing on Laurie Strode’s granddaughter and her new love interest, Corey. When the film opens, fans are taken to a large home in Haddonfield on Halloween 2019, one year after the events in Halloween Kills. We are introduced to Corey who is babysitting a young boy while his parents go out for the night. After a prank goes wrong, Corey is arrested for the murder of the little boy, and the film flashes forward to the present day. Laurie Strode then narrates an entire recap of the first few films and it is then revealed that she is writing a book about her experiences, has bought a house to live in with her granddaughter Allyson, and has moved on. Over the next 20 minutes of the film, Laurie and Corey have a chance encounter which leads to her introducing him to Allyson, and the two hit it off quickly. During a Halloween party, Corey runs into the mother of the boy he killed, and after being screamed at, he runs away and is soon jumped and thrown off a bridge by a group of teens. This is the catalyst for the rest of the film.
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While Corey is unconscious, he is dragged into a drainage pipe, and when he attempts to leave, we get our first glimpse of Michael hiding in the shadows. He attacks Corey but then lets him go and Corey escapes only to accidentally murder a homeless man who was screaming at him for leaving. The next half of the film focuses on Allyson and Corey as she begins to crack under the pressure of the town, and he decides to kill anyone that disrespects either of them. Corey returns to Michael more than once asking him to “teach me how to do it” when he finds himself struggling to actually kill another person. The next time we see Corey, he is murdering the doctor that disrespects Allyson at work, and we then see Michael come into frame and kill the woman who the doctor gave a promotion over Allyson.
Image Source: IMDB
Finally, we are taken to Halloween night, and although Corey has made plans with Allyson to leave town, he instead returns to Michael’s hiding spot, fights him, and steals his mask. Donning a jumpsuit from the mechanic shop he works at, and Michael’s mask, he goes on to kill every person that has upset him or Allyson during their time in Haddonfield. When he is done, he attempts to kill Laurie, but when she gets the upper hand, he stabs himself in the neck framing her for his murder and destroying what little was left of her relationship with her granddaughter. Reeling from these events, Laurie is confronted by Michael who, after a heated battle, she can subdue and finally kill. The ending of the film sees Allyson, Laurie, and the local police parade Michael’s dead body through town and put him through an industrial-sized grinder ensuring that he is truly dead. We then flash forward a few days and see that Allyson has left town, and Laurie is working to put the pieces of her life together.
Overall I was incredibly disappointed with this film. It felt like a slap in the face to the franchise and the characters that we have come to love. The movie we were given was nothing like the trailer promised us it would be. Laurie Strode was portrayed as meek rather than the powerhouse that we saw in the last two films, Allyson was a completely different person who hated her grandmother and blamed her for everything, and Michael was portrayed as a weak figure that only seemed like himself during the final battle. The entire battle between Laurie and Michael lasted less than ten minutes which was the biggest disappointment. Laurie and Michael were background characters of someone else’s story as opposed to being the focus during the final chapter of theirs. Blumhouse did an excellent job with Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills, but they completely missed the mark with Halloween Ends.
My Rating: 1/10
Halloween Ends is currently in theaters and available to stream on Peacock.
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