Halloween 3: Season of the Witch was considered to be one of the most bonkers instalments of the blockbuster horror franchise – but then Halloween Ends basically said: ‘Hold my beer.’
Following the events of 2021’s divisive Halloween Kills, the inevitable final showdown between Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Michael Myers had been highly-anticipated and while that thrilling moment was delivered in Halloween Ends, the rest of the movie was quite frankly a bananas way to end what started as a promising trilogy.
Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills felt very much synchronised with each other, with events in both taking place across one long drawn-out night. With the series’ latest entry set four years later, it feels completely disjointed from the first two very early on.
From there, Ends becomes increasingly less succinct and more chaotic – and not necessarily in a good way.
Considering the amount of trauma she’s been through over the last 40 years – and with her own daughter Karen (Judy Greer) becoming one of Michael’s victims in Kills – it’s actually quite heartwarming to see Laurie finally attain some semblance of peace and normality even though we know it won’t last very long.
She’s still living in Haddonfield but in a brand new house alongside her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak). Together, they’ve managed to somewhat move on with their lives and, with Michael doing another disappearing act after his massacre in Kills, they’re able to do just that without even locking their doors.
Laurie seems to be more content than Allyson, who low-key longs to find a life for herself outside of Haddonfield. However, some of the character’s choices do not seem to align with the Allyson we knew in Kills and, while the grief from both of her parents being murdered by Michael would understandably impact her decisions and behaviour, it overall just feels out-of-character.
Once she meets Haddonfield’s latest ‘freakshow – or psycho’ Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), Ends starts to feel more like a dark love story than the balls-to-the-wall slasher we know and love the franchise to be.
A twist in the story eventually fixes that but it’s a silly one.
Corey’s introduction actually makes for a very strong opening scene with a tragedy, loosely connected to Michael, turning the Haddonfield local into an outcast. From there, Ends picks up on the social commentary that made Kills so divisive among Halloween fans who wanted more from the dynamic between Laurie and Michael.
It’s very much the case again with Ends, with Michael barely seen and Corey taking on a bigger role that grows increasingly tiresome as the minutes roll on. Between the love story, Corey’s arc and the showdown between Michael and Laurie, Ends feels like three different movies in one. It also gets particularly confusing when one of the side characters appears to be living in the 1970s – in 2019.
When the kills do happen, they’re some of the most ambitious we’ve seen in the trilogy so far but they’re still too few and far between to satisfy appetites.
Fortunately, Michael and Laurie’s face-off delivers what OG Halloween fans deserve.
David Gordon Green’s ambition in trying to make each instalment of the trilogy different and stand out on their own should be appreciated, but there still needs to be an element of consistency and Ends unfortunately throws all of that out of whack.
Halloween Ends just might be the Season of the Witch of this latest trilogy.
Halloween Ends is in cinemas now.
