HALLOWEEN ENDS (2022)

Studio:     Universal/Blumhouse
Director:    David Gordon Green
Writer:     Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green
Producer:  Malek Akkad, Jason Blum, Bill Block
Stars:     Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards, James Jude Courtney, Jesse C. Boyd, Joanne Baron, Omar J. Dorsey, Michael Barbieri

Review Score:


Summary:

Laurie Strode encounters a new evil in Haddonfield that draws Michael Myers out of hiding for a final faceoff.


Synopsis:     

Review:

The word most commonly used to describe “Halloween Ends” by people who’d seen it prior to its public premiere was “polarizing.” After confirming in an AV Club interview that he liked the film, franchise founder John Carpenter added, “It’s a very, very interesting movie.” And in the lead-up to its release, the creators of “Halloween Ends” kept calling it “different” while critics continued predicting it would be “divisive.”

Even though those quoted terms essentially confirmed “Halloween Ends” would challenge any and all preconceived audience expectations, I passed off this noise as probable hyperbole. Okay, the movie might not go down a previously traveled path, but how wild would the creative risks really be?

Then I watched the film for myself. And whenever a scene took an unanticipated turn that elicited surprise delight from me for its bold choices, I sometimes grinned from the imagined anger of toxic fans whom I could already hear hysterically crying about “Halloween Ends” being “The Last Jedi”-like “ruiner” of the series.

I deliberately avoided digging into the outraged takes on social media and the internet after finishing the film. I knew I didn’t have to read them because the manufactured hatred would be completely predictable. From that “Last Jedi” comparison to the “Where is Michael Myers?” complaints, it was painfully obvious how naysayers would misinterpret metaphors and invent bad faith criticisms to fit whatever narrative of negativity they’d already written in their heads. A little later, I did end up indulging in a few shallow rabbit holes of “worst horror movie ever” grumbles, and couldn’t help but chuckle because, yep, fuming fandom was indeed following its typical script for how to hate a sequel in this online age where the worst people too often have loud voices.

It would take ten times as much space to take down all of the eye-roll-inducing takes that spectacularly misread the things “Halloween Ends” does, and does spectacularly well. But I’m going to use this “review” to briefly rebut some of the broader blather that seemingly stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of what the “Halloween” franchise even is at this point, and what it’s been throughout its six-decade history. As for a concise review of the film itself, I’m not sure anyone can summarize it more succinctly than Brian Collins of ‘Horror Movie a Day’ did with, “It’s a bad Michael Myers movie, but ultimately a good Laurie Strode one. Your mileage will vary depending on whose presence is more important to you in these things.”

It’s true. Michael Myers isn’t in “Halloween Ends” all that much, and when he does appear, he isn’t the same Michael Myers he used to be. In a shining example of how viewers will always find something to gripe about one way or another, a big complaint about “Halloween” 2018 (review here) and “Halloween Kills” (review here) was, how does Michael Myers possess such superhuman strength when he’s a senior citizen who hasn’t done anything but sit silently in an asylum for 40 years? Well, now Michael is 65 years old, and “Halloween Ends” finally treats him like his age. So the complaint naturally had to swing to, why he is he so weakened and able to be overpowered by someone one-third of his age?

When John Carpenter called Michael Myers the embodiment of pure evil, people conflated that to mean he was a supernatural force. That’s not who he is in this trilogy. Michael represents faceless evil, yet he’s still mortal. “Halloween Ends” explores the idea of how Haddonfield’s collective fear transformed a mere man into a boogeyman. What happens when those fears find a new focus is that the power transfers too, figuratively unmasking Michael as an old man who isn’t at all the juggernaut he once was, which in turn puts him on more equal footing with Laurie for their final faceoff.

It’s additionally funny that some folks find it unfathomable that Michael has been living underground for four years, as if he didn’t pull a similar disappearing act between “Halloween 4” (review here) and “Halloween 5” (review here), or “H20” (review here) and “Resurrection” for that matter. Staying off the grid between October holidays is part of his M.O. The giant missing persons billboard directly above his current lair isn’t exactly trying to hide the fact that he’s still getting in new murders here and there, either.

Besides, if anyone only wants a movie where Michael Myers just kills people, there’s an immediately preceding entry literally called “Halloween Kills.” We already have ten other movies where the menu’s main course features Michael Myers going on a slaughter spree. Now that we’re a dozen movies deep, director David Gordon Green and his co-writers finally asked, how can we deepen the fiction without rehashing everything we’ve already seen? Thus they develop a multilayered story that radiates outward from lines leading directly back to Laurie Strode, allowing Jamie Lee Curtis to take big bites out of her character like previous scripts rarely allowed. “Halloween Ends” shows Laurie as a protective grandmother, as a community pariah, as a love interest anxious for the normalcy her trauma denied her, as a survivor, as a fighter, and simply a person. “Halloween Ends” and Curtis combine to give a classic Final Girl character the overdue admiration she’s earned, but didn’t necessarily receive in earlier films.

“Halloween Ends” puts a clue in plain sight that reveals where it’s headed right away. Following a shocking prologue that’ll leave unaware audiences shaking at the sudden spectacle, opening titles utilize the distinctive blue font from “Halloween III’s” credits sequence. “Halloween III” was of course famously hated for not featuring Michael Myers, though popular opinion gradually smartened up as the formerly maligned movie was revisited reverentially in the following decades. Duplicating that font is “Halloween Ends’” way of telling us that it too will not rely on Michael Myers, which is likely to cause controversy, but it might also be seen in a brighter light with the passing of time.

That “Halloween Ends” will eventually come to be judged less harshly in hindsight is another prediction I keep seeing, and I believe it to be true. Time will be favorable to the film because its universal social themes about broken relationships, redemption, lives unfairly crushed by terrible circumstances, and the struggle for closure aren’t built to impress immediate reactions, especially from those who don’t want small town melodrama meddling with masked maniacs slashing babysitters.

For those who believe otherwise, I don’t know what to tell them that they’d actually be willing to hear. If they think it’s outrageous for a woman with an incredibly tragic past like Allyson’s to be drawn to the darkness in a “bad boy,” perhaps they could use additional education on the genesis of domestic violence dangers. If they’re disappointed that Lindsey Wallace only appears in a sensible cameo, where she’s just a bartender retaining an understandable little link to Laurie, there’s still “Halloween Kills,” where she’s an underprepared and wholly unlikely vigilante improbably going after the guy who gave her nightmares for life. If they find it preposterous that Haddonfield continues to be haunted by a macabre murder spree in 1978, and a more massive one in 2018, maybe they should remember that Amityville is still known for a lame haunted house hoax that’s older than these movies.

And if they truly think “Halloween Ends” really is one of the worst horror movies ever made, well, then they’re unbelievably lucky that this is as bad as it gets for them. Not only is “Halloween Ends” not even close to being the worst “Halloween” movie, it’s one of the franchise’s best.

Why? Because in addition to its dramatic depth, “Halloween Ends” delivers a unique experience unlike anything else in any of the Michael Myers continuities. That’s a big breath of fresh air for a franchise that’s frankly coasted on formula, nostalgia, and narrative nonsense for far too long.

The only reason Laurie retroactively became Michael’s sister way back when is because Carpenter and Debra Hill were desperate to meet their deadline for “Halloween II” (review here) and that was the motivation they concocted over a nightly six-pack of beer. “Halloween 6” (review here) later became all about marrying the muddled mythologies that were trying to make sense of cults, tattoos, mystery men, and pagan holidays. Stewards of the series had to keep throwing established information away and rebooting timelines because of how unsustainable the saga was. But sure, go off on how “Halloween Ends” is supposedly a laughing stock of ridiculously implausible fiction.

People keep saying “Halloween Ends” takes “big swings” like the series hasn’t been wielding a daring bat since the first sequel. Those same people forget that many of those big swings were also big whiffs. We can disagree on where the ball lands, but “Halloween Ends” takes a swing that actually makes contact. And aiming for the fences is something all aging horror franchises ought to try, or else their greater risk will be dying in a dull rut of routine.

Review Score: 80