Hello Halloween Season 2022. With it, you've brought us the return of Chucky and Art the Clown and the Lazarus Configuration of the Hellraiser franchise so far. So far, Freddy and Jason have yet to be seen. Slowly, they are becoming the next urban legend. Now, we are sitting with the return of Michael Myers.
Back in 2018 after that initial Halloween was released, I wasn't a fan. I wasn't sure what was going on with this new timeline of the franchise. I could tell that they were a fan of the franchise though. There's absolutely no doubt about that. Halloween '18 was a very solid start. It reintroduced us to Laurie and Michael while laying the ground work of what we would see in this timeline with Karen, Ray, Alison, and Cameron being the most stand out of the new characters. There were some characters that we see that I wished would have been more involved: the Sheriff and Hawkins being strong mentions. We also could have done more with the podcasters. Hell, Aaron could have been the new Loomis to counterpoint Sartain. But while that film was honoring the first film while pushing things forward, it was subverting expectations. But I remember hearing that it the start of a new trilogy.
Then we had to wait for the next chapter, Halloween Kills. Originally, the film was shot in 2019 and expected to release in 2020. However, that was not meant to be as we had to face the COVID-19 pandemic. Then it was shifted to 2021. By the point, it was release - we were hit with so much of the marketing machine for Kills. I remember that Halloween 2018 had a strong marketing plan as well, but nothing compared to Kills. Blumhouse was absolutely trying to blow Halloween into a huge blockbuster event. To an extent, it was working but that can be a double edged sword. If you set up expectations to an extremely high level, how can you expect to deliver on that?
That's the problem that happened when Kills finally was released. It was such a divisive film. You either dug the hell out of it or hate it. The discourse on Twitter was absolutely amazing that first weekend as we were able to see everyone's thoughts on the film. Kills was an interesting continuation. It was very much taking a Halloween II '81 approach. More of The Night He Returned! But again, it was subverting our expectations. All of the returning characters from the previous films (Halloween '79 and Halloween '18) did so but with a catch. The ones from '79 were different. They were further on in their life. But like Laurie, they let their experience with Michael shape how their life would turn out. Kills also was an incredible insight into how the fear of Michael affected Haddonfield. It literally turned its townspeople into an outright lynch mob. It also delivered on turning MIchael from man into myth.
This brings me to Halloween Ends. We finally have our conclusion to the David Gordon Green saga or HallowGreen as some have said (Epic Film Guys, Movie Dumpster and HallowWeenies - give them a listen if you like horror podcasts). At this point, I will say that there will be spoilers. If you wish to be spoiled, you can read on. If you don't, then stop now and go check out Ends. But check it out with an open mind.
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All right, you still here? Good. Halloween Ends is an interesting film. It's a film. But is it the one that everybody was hoping for after Kills? No. No, it is absolutely not. Everyone was hoping for more. Kills was such a blockbuster level Halloween film, it was going to be so difficult to follow it up.
This film doesn't try to be as big as Kills. Instead of going big, it tells a smaller, more introspective story.
First and foremost, this isn't necessarily a Michael Myers movie. Nor is it a Laurie Strode movie. We have a fourth entry (again, if we count Halloween '78 as part of the continuity) where we don't follow either of those characters really.
Yes, they are in the film. The marketing played it all up very very well. Again, the marketing did an extreme disservice to the film in a way. In one way, it brilliantly set things up as a concluding chapter that's been in the making. However, it completely subverted all expectations. That's one of the things I will say about Ends is that it completely subverts any and all expectations that people will have for it.
By this point, I guess I should talk about the synopsis for the film. The official synopsis was extremely wordy. When it was released, I remember everybody going and trying to decipher what exactly everything meant in it. It partially set up an expectation in a way. So let's get it out of the way, shall we?
Four Years after her last encounter, Laurie Strode is living with her granddaughter Alison. She's trying to finish her memoir. Myers hasn't been seen since that night and now has become a myth. Laurie has liberated herself from her rage and attempting to embrace life. However, when a young man accused of murdering a boy while babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that forces Laurie to face the evil that she can't control.
That is very much a more simple approach to the synopsis. If they had released that, I think it may have tempered expectations.
Again, this isn't exactly Michael nor Laurie's story. This is Corey Cunningham's story ultimately. It is very much told from his perspective. Each and every scene is crafted from his perspective. Hell, I'm doing another watch right now. And it's extraordinary just how much that is evident after the initial watch.
Hell, the title credits aren't even in the original golden hue. They are blue. That is Corey's color as he's seen wearing a lot of blue in the film.
The beginning of the film was an absolute shocker for me. I wasn't sure it was going to start with the night Corey babysat. Or, if it did - somehow it would involve Michael. To a point, I guess I can say that it did. Jeremy, the young boy that Corey babysat, is a bit of a brat. That's putting things extremely lightly. He pulls a Halloween prank that never should have happened. If it hadn't, things would have turned out differently. But like Jeremy's mother tells Corey, things tend to influence her child and after the Halloween 2018 night - well, Michael Myers is the stuff of myth. But it was during this prank on the second watch, I noticed a small detail.
Everything is from Corey's perspective. When his fear is growing and he's more anxious, there is complete terror on his face. It left me wondering just what the hell is the story with his home life. Is his mother overbearing and trying to rule every moment of his life? Going by how a scene plays out later, I wouldn't put it past her. But it definitely plays into Corey having some issues.
Thinking on it now, that whole scene with Corey and Jeremy is a complete subversion of the original Halloween opening. It was something that was very striking and a bit bold. We don't see openings like that very much these days. Instead of the one whose supposed to be watching the child, it was the child itself. It happens extremely fast. Do I partially think it was an accident? Yes. Is it a bad set of circumstances? Yes. Do I think Corey truly meant harm at that point in the film? No, least not yet.
The big theme of Halloween Ends is infection. It's a small clever play on the pandemic. How something like an infection can get into a town and affect it so much. Michael's influence on Haddonfield is so mythic at this point. We are shown brief glimpses of other acts of violence that have occurred in the town. Always there's someone asking if it was Michael that did it. No matter what happens, there's always that fear that Michael is out there watching and waiting.
Then we see Corey's life later on, he's the town pariah. Everyone looks at him like he's a monster. Everyone doesn't even consider what happened to be an accident. They strongly know what he is and condemn him for it. As a group of punk-ass high schoolers would say, it's a psycho and a freakshow meeting. Honestly, that does hit home in a way.
We also see Laurie and Alison as they are attempting to live. Laurie moreso than Alison it seems. Laurie's attempting to bake pies while writing her memoirs. Alison is working at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital. Hawkins is perusing the meat department of the local grocery store in hopes of seeing Laurie. And what happened to Lindsay Wallace? Well, Lindsay works at the bar and delved into tarot cards. (Don't expect to see Lindsay a lot.). But she's friends with Alison.
Laurie decides to play matchmaker with Alison and introduces her to Corey. She thinks he's a good guy and might be good for Alison. Honestly, I wish that we may have gotten more with Alison. We've seen that character for two films and kinda fell into Laurie's path. Alison has that anger and rage that Laurie had in '18 and Kills. So, I get why we may not have seen a larger storyline for Alison. It may have felt a tad redundant in the story that they were trying to tell.
In the original Halloween, it felt very much like it was Laurie Strode's story. We followed her character for a large part of that film. Corey honestly feels a little bit like the other side of the coin to Laurie. He may have been a good kid at one point like she was. Yet, the darkness that Loomis saw inside Michael had found its way into Corey. Through the course of that film, that darkness continued to infect Corey till there was no point of return. The seed had just managed to plant itself when he was babysitting Jeremy.
At this point, it may sound like I'm trying to rationalize and apologize for Corey. I am not. Once I had managed to figure out what the angle the film was attempting, things just continued to fall into place. It's a complete showing of just what exactly that evil and darkness can do when it infects even the best of us. It also helps showcase that while Laurie stays in Haddonfield, she can't move on with her life. That same darkness has found its way inside all those years ago. It also didn't help that Michael had managed to just slip into the shadows after the death of her daughter.
Laurie dealing with living with Alison is a good indication of where she's at. She may even see Alison as a second chance as she had failed Karen before. Or that she's attempting to attone for what happened in the previous films as Alison is now left trying to figure things out after the death of her parents and boyfriend, Cameron.
By having Corey front and center with the murders, it shows a bit of the transition of the darkness. It also allows us to have it have a vocal point. Before with Michael, we are guessing what is going on behind the mask. With the good side that Corey displays, that could be seen as his mask. As Laurie states in the film, evil can come from the outside. But its the ones that hide the evil within that should be feared. And that's shown with Corey.
One part of me wonders what would have happened if Laurie hadn't reached out to Corey. Would he still have been pushed off that bridge by those punk-ass high schoolers to encounter Michael? Did that moment push Corey into Michael's path? Is it truly like the sister of Laurie's neighbor had said? "You tempted a mentally unstable individual. And you're surprised at the results?" Was Corey mentally unbalanced before the accident with Jeremy? Was Corey mentally unbalanced after the years of being told by the townspeople that he was a psycho?
Because we see the film told fully in Corey's perspective, did some of these events happen the way that we seen them on screen? Is he a reliable narrator? What would things look like from Laurie and Alison's perspective? Would it have been a more traditional Halloween movie like we have come to expect? I definitely viewed things a bit differently than others I'm sure. It probably helped that I watched the first trailer. Then after that, I stayed away from everything. When David Gordon Green and Jamie Lee Curtis had told us that Ends would be a film that pisses people off, I immediately threw every expectation I had out the window.
Halloween Ends is a film that allows so much discourse to it. Each person could definitely have a different spin on it than another. You may see it differently than I did. It definitely changes what a Halloween film can be. It's not a typical slasher and that's something that many have come to expect. It's a film that investigates the darkness that has been within Michael throughout these films. While we don't see Michael a lot, he's there because he's more than a man. After the events of Kills, he's become a myth and become that darkness. It's also a film that could be seen about the Legacy of Michael. It has a lot of different sides to it.
Hell, there is a version of Ends out there in the multiverse where it focuses on that Legacy fully. Where then by the end of the film, we'd see Corey taking up the mantle of Michael Myers. Then there'd be a film or two where we'd follow the Corey-Michael.
Was I upset that we don't necessarily have a lot of kills in the film? No. After Kills, Ends felt a bit refreshing. It does have some kills. But it's not balls to the wall killing. It couldn't be. It had to change things up. Or else, we'd probably be saying that it's just more of the same.
There is honestly probably more that I could talk about with Ends. It is something that I appreciated a lot. And a large part of that is due to the fact that its different. It has a different perspective on the other films. After two watches so far, I definitely can see myself returning to the film. I'm sure that there's definitely some solid rewatchability - especially if watched within the context of the HallowGreen timeline (H'78, H'18, Kills and Ends). Everybody delivers solid performances in the film. Especially when taken into the context that this is a film through Corey's perspective. I wish that would have seen some characters in a much larger role (Hawkins! SHERIFF DON'T DO NOTHING!).
If you have a chance to see it, I recommend it. Just go in with an open mind and low expectations.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5.
Halloween Ends can be seen in theaters and streaming on Peacock.
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