{"id":6270,"date":"2024-10-19T17:51:56","date_gmt":"2024-10-19T21:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6270"},"modified":"2024-10-19T17:51:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T21:51:56","slug":"halloween-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/19\/halloween-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Halloween Ends<\/strong> (2022)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 111 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (bloody horror violence and gore, language throughout, some sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: David Gordon Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael Simmonds\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 14, 2022 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle, Will Patton, Rohan Campbell, Jesse C. Boyd, Kyle Richards, Omar Dorsey, Michael Barbieri, Destiny Mone, Joey Harris, Marteen, Joanne Baron, Rick Moose, Michele Dawson, Michael O\u2019Leary, Keraun Harris, Jaxon Goldenberg, Candice Rose, Jack William Marshall.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $64.1M (US)\/$105.4M (World)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Body Count: 21<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0The title Halloween Ends<\/strong> would appear to imply the long-running horror franchise has finally reached its conclusion. But when has a \u201cFinal Chapter\u201d ever been that? If it does well enough, it\u2019ll soon be followed by a \u201cNew Beginning\u201d. You can count on it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So is this truly the end for Michael Myers, the unkillable boogeyman that has made original final girl Laurie Strode\u2019s life a living hell for the past 44 years? Do you really want me to tell you? Jamie Lee Curtis, who\u2019s played Laurie since the series\u2019 inception in 1978, has said that Halloween Ends<\/strong> is the end of the line for her. She is done with the role for good. She will not appear in any future Halloween movies should there be any. She even signed a document to that effect on Jimmy Kimmel this past week. Try not to read too much into that. Just because she\u2019s done with Halloween doesn\u2019t necessarily mean her character is killed off in Halloween Ends<\/strong>. Or does it? Well, I\u2019m NOT going to tell you nor will I reveal the fate of Michael Myers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the days leading up to its release (in theaters and on Peacock), I saw a lot of negative buzz about Halloween Ends<\/strong> on social media. Reactions ranged from disappointment to outright anger. Most of the criticism appears to be aimed at the narrative described as \u201csloppy\u201d, \u201cconvoluted\u201d and \u201cunfocused\u201d. I concur on this point. The screenplay is all over the place. The story of Laurie vs. Michael continues, but it now shares the spotlight with a new potential antagonist, a young man named Corey (Campbell, The Hardy Boys). He\u2019s the new town pariah after the accidental death of a little boy he was babysitting. He\u2019s often referred to as a \u201cpsycho\u201d and is the target a group of high school marching band bullies. Things aren\u2019t much better at home. His mother (Baron, This Is 40) is one of those overbearing Mrs. Bates types who never lets up on him. She\u2019s definitely not happy about him seeing Laurie\u2019s granddaughter Allyson (Matichak) who\u2019s been living with her grandmother since Michael killed both of her parents.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While this young romance develops, Corey\u2019s sanity begins to deteriorate in a big way. He hasn\u2019t been the same since the babysitting incident, but his state of mind gets worse after a nighttime encounter with the teen bullies who throw him off a bridge and leave him for dead. He wakes up in the sewers where he\u2019s attacked by Michael who\u2019s been hiding down there since the events of four years ago. I guess Michael sees some of himself in Corey which is probably why he lets him live. After that, the two become partners in crime so to speak.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Where\u2019s Laurie while all this is going on? She\u2019s writing her memoirs, of course. It\u2019s her way of expunging her demons. She claims to be over it, but she\u2019s still a basket case. That\u2019s understandable. It\u2019s kind of hard to move on from trauma when everybody in Haddonfield blames her for all that happened and continues to happen. Well, almost everybody. Deputy Hawkins (Patton, No Way Out) still has a thing for her and vice versa. ANYWAY, Laurie becomes concerned about Allyson\u2019s relationship with Corey due to his increasingly strange behavior. She tries to end it even though she\u2019s the one that got them together in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I don\u2019t hate or dislike Halloween Ends<\/strong> in any way. However, I do think it\u2019s one of the weaker entries in the series. For one thing, Michael doesn\u2019t seem all that invincible this time. Granted, he\u2019s a senior citizen now, but would \u201cpure evil\u201d really be slowed down by a little thing like old age? This, of course, is subject to debate, so I\u2019ll just leave it at that. I\u2019ve already mentioned the faulty narrative. Besides being convoluted, it also has some gaping plot holes. How is it that nobody in Haddonfield realized (for four years!) that Michael\u2019s been hiding in the sewers? Did the local police not conduct a thorough search for a violent serial killer? Okay, here\u2019s another. SPOILER ALERT!<\/strong> Why aren\u2019t the police looking into the brutal murder of one of their own? They don\u2019t seem terribly concerned with two more murders that take place afterwards either.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Director David Gordon Green, who also serves as one of four co-writers, makes some odd creative choices. Like everybody else, I thought Halloween Ends<\/strong> was going to be all about Laurie and Michael and the countdown to their final battle. That\u2019s what the trailers implied. I had no idea it was going to go off on that tangent about Corey and his bid to be the next boogeyman. It\u2019s an interesting direction to take, but will it satisfy fans? So far, it doesn\u2019t appear to be. Me, I have mixed feelings about it. While I like that it addresses the infectious nature of evil, I wanted to see more of Michael Myers himself. That being said, there are a few good kill scenes, the best one being the obnoxious radio DJ. Come to think of it, all the victims in this movie deserve it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The acting in Halloween Ends<\/strong> isn\u2019t bad. It isn\u2019t great either. I feel like Curtis wasn\u2019t giving it her all. She looks like she\u2019s tired of it; it shows in the way she plays her role on autopilot. I\u2019m on the fence about Rohan Campbell. His character Corey is well written, but he doesn\u2019t play him convincingly. Matichak is a little better, but the writers should have delved more into her psychology.<\/p>\n

\u00a0So is Halloween Ends<\/strong> a satisfactory conclusion to the series? No, not really. After everything that goes down, the final battle between Laurie and Michael feels like an anticlimax. At the same time, it\u2019s kind of cool. I like that it dares to do things a little differently. It has a darker, more serious tone than any of the sequels. It tries, not always successfully, to make a statement about how evil manifests itself. I like how it draws on unlikely sources like My Bodyguard and the largely unseen cult horror film Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker. Here\u2019s the deal. Halloween Ends<\/strong> may not be the final sequel fans wanted, but it\u2019s an interesting way to wrap things up…. for now anyway.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Halloween Ends (2022)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 111 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (bloody horror violence and gore, language throughout, some sexual references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: David Gordon Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael Simmonds\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 14, 2022 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jamie Lee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Halloween-Ends-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6270"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6394,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6270\/revisions\/6394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}