Review of Halloween Ends (2022) by Moviemitch96 — 15 Oct 2022

*sigh* here we have yet another supposedly final entry in yet another long-dragged out horror franchise. In this "final" installment, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), still reeling from the previous events that occurred in 'Halloween 2018' and 'Halloween Kills' finds herself facing off against Michael Myers one last time while also attempting to reconcile with her granddaughter (Andi Matichak).

What started off as such a fresh, promising, and exciting reboot series with 'Halloween 2018' four years ago quickly started to show early signs of delving into quick gloom and doom slasher cliche territory with 'Kills' last year, and this one sadly not only dives even further into that but also reaches bottom of the barrel territory.

This one is surprisingly more of a slow burn compared to the previous two entries, but unfortunately, this results in quite a drag with very few kills or true frights, which is the whole point of these films (or so I thought), and instead trades this in favor of one long hour and fifty minute-long moral debate about evil, inner demons, letting go of the past, blah blah blah.

Furthermore, we're treated (or rather subjected to) a forced, corny, and cliched romance between Matichak and newcomer Rohan Campbell who plays a mysterious man with a tortured past that the film's opening scene explores.

This, along with much of the accompanying dialogue, is pure cringe. My only positive note: Curtis gives it her all for her supposedly final performance as Strode, the role that launched her into stardom back in 1978 with the original film.

Otherwise, there's really not much worth seeing her, no matter how epic her showdown with Michael may be. Overall, director David Gordon Green and writer/producer Danny McBride showed such promise and potential with this reboot series initially with 'Halloween 2018' and left me excited for more over these past few years, but this one left me wishing that they simply would've just stopped with '2018' and that 'Kills' and this film would've never happened.

It all ends with such an underwhelming and unsatisfying whimper that doesn't even come close to doing Curtis's iconic final girl heroine the justice that it so rightly deserved after nearly 45 years.