Evil Goes Viral

Even if Halloween Ends is a messy, weird, convoluted, predictable, and only quasi-satisfying conclusion to the 40-plus year Michael Myers saga, you have to give it credit for actually trying something new. For much of director David Gordon Green’s trilogy-capper and alleged conclusion to the franchise (at least for now), Mike Myers is MIA. He’s gone. Not involved. For the vast majority of the film, he exists moreso as the lingering idea of the nature of evil than as an actual hulking killer. Instead the focus is on an entirely new character, Corey (Rohan Campbell), a hapless teen who gets roped into a night of babysitting. One prank gone wrong later, Corey accidents kills his charge.

The feature begins with a good amount of promise with a before credits scene one year after the events of Halloween Kills, wherein Michael Myers first went missing. From the early moments, Halloween Ends tells us that this is not going to be the same slasher we’ve seen before. Myers himself will largely remain but a boogeyman, an idea that haunts the cursed town of Haddonfield and leaves it to eat itself alive. A trauma infection where pain begets more pain, trauma more trauma. A sinister ouroboros that Michael’s mere existence perpetuates.

Halloween Ends devotes the majority of its storytelling to this idea, refracting the specter of trauma cycles through the lens of Corey. A four year time jump leaves the once-promising teen in a bad state. He’s a pariah, working at his dad’s junk yard and doomed to a life of being the village freak. When Corey gets beat up by a crew of cruel teens, he crosses paths with Laurie Strode (Jaime Lee Curtis), who herself has tried to turn a new leave and resume living life as a functional member of society.

Laurie sees a kindred spirit in Corey, someone who’s been up close and personal with death and has earned the town’s scorn for it. She introduces him to her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and so begins a queasy flirtation that soon becomes one of the film’s shakier plot points. Corey rejects Allyson’s advances until a chance encounter with The Shape sparks something in him, the once-dejected teen undergoing a Spider-Man 3-esque heel turn towards smug darkness. The particulars of his transform are hand-waved away, with Green actively nodding towards Halloween III: Season of the Witch to explain the shift in focus away from its coveralled maniac while introducing some new (perhaps haunted?) masks to the mix. Allyson’s blind devotion to Corey as he becomes increasingly unhinged just doesn’t really work on the screen be that because of the lead’s lacking chemistry or the underwritten nature of their relationship.

What transpires is closer to origin story of evil than anything resembling a traditional Halloween sequel though the script-by-committee (Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride, and Green) eventually shoehorns in the fan-servicey Michael Myers vs. Laurie showdown that such a franchise-ending sequel demands. Unfortunately, it does so at the expense of itself, twisting in such a way that both overshadows and is bizarrely dismissive of the story that they spend the majority of the movie telling. For making so many bold choices (not all of them good, but certain bold), Green and company erase the goodwill of doing something new by essentially tossing it out in favor of the familiar.

As is always the case with these kinds of movies, the kills are going to be a focal point of the conversation and Halloween Ends offers some standout sequences of bloody murder. One involving an obnoxious DJ was both brutal and had my theater in stitches while others wink towards the 1978 original, dosed with a good measure of escalation. Unlike its immediate predecessor, Halloween Ends justifies its existence and actually has something other than cruel, wanton bloodletting to add to the franchise. But whatever high points Halloween Ends boasts mix with a series of confusing, if not just straight up objectively poor, narrative choices that leave Green’s third turn a gory mixed bag that won’t win over any new fans but might just do enough to qualify as a fitting send-off for the iconic killer and one of horror’s most beloved final girls.

CONCLUSION: ‘Halloween Ends’ lives up to its name in unexpected ways, taking a largely unexpected route to the conclusion of the franchise before ultimately caving and offering up exactly what fans expect and want. The kills are strong and there’s some flashy new ideas here though the writing leaves much to be desired.