Film review: ‘HALLOWEEN ENDS’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

The 2018 Halloween reboot tapped into horror fans’ ravenous nostalgia for the original 1978 film while delivering a strong storyline that gave the franchise a credible place in today’s world.  That film’s unadorned visual style made the scares more convincing and effective while interestingly exploring the traumatic impact of knife-wielding murderer Michael Myers on heroine Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Consequently, the purported franchise finale Halloween Ends has been eagerly anticipated.  While offering something for gorehounds and possibly enhancing the career prospects of Andi Maticahak, who plays Laurie’s feisty granddaughter Allyson, this clumsily written, tonally erratic and often flat film is not the way to end an iconic franchise.

The film sees Laurie and Allyson still attempting to recover from their last encounter with the seemingly indestructible mask wearing fiend Michael Myers, one that saw the death of Allyson’s mother, Karen (Judy Greer) a loss that, weirdly, is barely noted here. To try and exorcise her demons, Laurie is committing her life to print.  Meanwhile Allyson has taken a shine to town outcast Corey (Rohan Campbell) a floppy-haired youth who has been shunned by locals since his involvement in a tragic accident a few years earlier. Laurie, however, isn’t keen on Allyson’s new boyfriend, sniffing on him the aroma of evil she knows only too well from Mr Myers. Will Corey prove to be the town’s new deadly menace or will the OG killer Michael Myers reach for the cutlery once again and pay Laurie another visit?

Just about any viewer would enter this film knowing it’s really about a final confrontation between Laurie and Michael. The challenge for the film is to make the build-up tense and then deliver the thrills and emotional catharsis. It does not.  There’s very little tension or sense of menace and pitifully few effective scares.

Irritatingly, the film spends way too much time focusing on Corey. Rather than the compellingly troubled James Dean-like character the filmmakers appeared to be aiming for, Corey is extremely annoying and tries to convey angst by wearing a confused scowl throughout the film.  The emphasis on Corey severely diminishes the impact of what should have been a franchise-defining conflict between Laurie and Michael.  Annoyingly, Michael Myers is largely sidelined and has little chance to infuse the film with his normally sinister presence. He also perpetrates two movie cardinal sins: inconsistent toughness and pissweak monster as he switches back and forth from superhuman foe to hapless oaf.

When the film isn’t subjecting us to Corey, it features Laurie portentously reciting her memoirs which sounds like a collection of cliched empowerment mantras.  Jamie Lee Curtis still manages to give Laurie some pathos and grit but much of her dialogue is borderline laughable.

The film’s second half features the expected body count as it jarringly switches from a dour small town drama to an outrageous gorefest which more closely resembles an 80’s video nasty like The Exterminator than the potent thriller that kicked off the Halloween series 44 years ago or its 2018 sequel.

In today’s horror movie landscape where we’ve seen some superb recent takes on the genre from the likes of Ari Aster, Halloween Ends could be charitably described as mediocre.

Nick’s rating: **

Genre: Horror/ thriller.

Classification: M/ PG/MA15+.

Director(s): David Gordon Green.

Release date: 13th Oct 2022.

Running time: 100 mins.

Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.

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