‘Halloween Ends’ Review
Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Rohan Campbell, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Kyle Richards, Nancy Stephens, James Jude Courtney, Nick Castle | Written by Paul Brad Logan | Directed by David Gordon Green
Director David Gordon Green brings his Halloween reboot-slash-sequel trilogy to a definitive end with this concluding chapter, following 2018’s Halloween and 2021’s Halloween Kills. The film provides a fitting finale to the thirteenth film in the franchise, but not without breaking a few Halloween rules along the way.
Halloween Ends begins four years after the events of Halloween Kills, with the town of Haddonfield still resentful towards Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) for – as they see it – essentially instigating the events of the previous film. As for masked killer Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle), he’s still out there, hiding away in an underground cavern and biding his time.
Meanwhile, a seemingly separate story unfolds, as Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) befriends troubled twenty-something Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), who’s become something of a town pariah since he accidentally killed a boy he was babysitting in 2019. After a violent confrontation with some local youths, Corey has a chance encounter that sets his life on a deadly – and somewhat familiar – course.
Without giving too much away, Halloween Ends is not a typical Halloween film, at least not in the same way as the previous twelve Halloweens, where Michael was an unstoppable monster acting alone. Suffice it to say that Corey’s story gets much more screen time than Michael Myers or Laurie, and your enjoyment will hinge on just how much you buy into the film’s central conceit.
At the very least, David Gordon Green deserves credit for trying to do something different, especially after the relative disappointment of Halloween Kills. And rest assured, the film still ticks the expected slasher boxes – there are plenty of nicely staged kills, even if the gore factor feels significantly toned down for most of them.
The performances are excellent too, with Curtis bringing a palpable world-weariness to Laurie that makes you seriously question whether she’s actually going to make it to the final reel this time round. Campbell is also superb, undergoing a complex, trauma-laden journey that’s thematically fascinating, as he has connections to both Laurie and Michael.
On a similar note, Matichak invests Allyson with interesting layers (the loss of her parents and her hatred of Haddonfield makes her want to “burn it all down”), while an underused, but still welcome Will Patton provides crucial support as the local cop – his scenes with Curtis are genuinely touching and all the better for being understated.
Perhaps the film’s cleverest touch is the way in which it leaves certain elements deliberately unexplained, hinting at particular plot points but never confirming them, and leaving them wide open for enthusiastic post-film pub discussion in the process. Essentially, the film gets to have its Halloween cake and eat it, bringing the series to a definite conclusion (in a way that will either make you punch the air or shed a tear, depending on your sensibilities), but also leaving things so that another Halloween movie – Halloween Begins Again, perhaps – isn’t entirely off the table either.
**** 4/5
Halloween Ends is in UK cinemas from tomorrow, October 14th.
