The third and (hopefully) final Halloween movie hits theaters and streaming this weekend. With Halloween Ends, the story picks up the year after what happened in Halloween Kills. The town is still in recovery mode and the people in Haddonfield, Illinois want nothing more than to move on with their life. Laurie Strode has purchased a house back in town, is working on a book about her story, and living with her granddaughter Allyson trying to make life normal.
While Laurie wants to move on her with her life and forget about what happened, the town hasn’t forgotten and that becomes a pivotal part of this new movie. Besides the atrocities that Michael Myers has created in the town, the town also can’t forget the death of a young boy that happened on Halloween a few years back. These two evil forces linger heavily over Haddonfield and the darkness is something that won’t lift, especially as Halloween approaches yet again.
Halloween Kills left audiences with a bit of a cliffhanger. Despite the multiple ways he should have died Michael Myers is still out there – where exactly, no one seems to know. But unlike the previous movie, Halloween Ends leaves the campy deaths behind, it takes on a different feeling than the previous movies. With an opening that will shock audiences, it will instantly pull your attention and make you want to see just how they bring Michael Myers back and what is going to happen this time around. That’s not to say that the movie doesn’t have some ridiculous moments that almost lean towards campy. Instead, those are overshadowed by the brutal and gory deaths throughout the whole film. This movie seems to take the franchise back to the slasher films that the original movies were known for.
Halloween Ends isn’t just another Laurie Strode and Michael Myers story. In fact, their story is almost secondary in the movie, although the two stories are woven together throughout the whole film. A large portion of the movie actually focuses on Allyson, who is not only still dealing with her parents’ deaths but trying to find herself and her own path through life through the murky waters that are Haddonfield. The darkness that consumes her thoughts, recognizes similar darkness in Corey Cunningham. Together, their mutual pain and darkness only increase and another dark plot is introduced in the movie.
The Allyson and Corey storyline may be one of the only issues with the film. The first blush of love is undeniable, but the controlling and manipulative nature of the relationship is as problematic as it gets. The relationship is akin to a Bonnie and Clyde or an annihilator relationship that goes quickly from love to disastrous to anyone that is around the people involved. However, in a movie about a knife-wielding maniac on the loose (yet again), and being raised in a city that is so traumatized by the current events and the past, this type of relationship could easily manifest and probably has multiple times over.
Much like Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends does make the audience question just who is evil and who really is the bad guy. The movie does bring back the type of Halloween movie that you’re looking for this time of year as well. With plenty of reasons to make you jump, scream and toss your popcorn in the air. While seeing the movie in a theater with other people may add to the experience, the movie is also one that will be good to watch in the dark at home with your family. Even if you’re not huge on scary movies, Halloween Ends does give you a fun movie just in time for Halloween that is reminiscent of scary movies of the past.
Filled with a lot of creative deaths, gore and jumpscares Halloween Ends hits theaters and Peacock both tomorrow. It’s a good ending to the relaunch of a series and ties things up nicely. That doesn’t mean they won’t attempt another of the franchise, but if they do in the future, they’ll have to have a completely new cast and boogeyman.
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About Halloween Ends
This is Laurie Strode’s last stand.
After 45 years, the most acclaimed, revered horror franchise in film history reaches its epic, terrifying conclusion as Laurie Strode faces off for the last time against the embodiment of evil, Michael Myers, in a final confrontation unlike any captured on-screen before. Only one of them will survive.
Icon Jamie Lee Curtis returns for the last time as Laurie Strode, horror’s first “final girl” and the role that launched Curtis’ career. Curtis has portrayed Laurie for more than four decades now, one of the longest actor-character pairings in cinema history. When the franchise relaunched in 2018, Halloween shattered box office records, becoming the franchise’s highest-grossing chapter and set a new record for the biggest opening weekend for a horror film starring a woman. In 2021, Halloween Kills earned the biggest opening weekend for any horror film in the pandemic era and simultaneously set a new record for a non-live event premiere streaming on Peacock.
In this unexpected final chapter, set four years after the events of last year’s Halloween Kills, Laurie is living with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) and is finishing writing her memoir. Michael Myers hasn’t been seen since. Laurie, after allowing the specter of Michael to determine and drive her reality for decades, has decided to liberate herself from fear and rage and embrace life. But when a young man, Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell; The Hardy Boys, Virgin River), is accused of killing a boy he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that will force Laurie to finally confront the evil she can’t control, once and for all.
Halloween Ends co-stars returning cast Will Patton as Officer Frank Hawkins, Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace and James Jude Courtney as The Shape.
From the creative team that relaunched the franchise with 2018’s Halloween and Halloween Kills, the film is directed by David Gordon Green from a screenplay by Paul Brad Logan (Manglehorn), Chris Bernier (The Driverseries), Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. Halloween Ends is produced by Malek Akkad, Jason Blum and Bill Block. The executive producers are John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, Ryan Freimann, Ryan Turek, Andrew Golov, Thom Zadra and Christopher H. Warner.
Universal Pictures, Miramax and Blumhouse present a Malek Akkad production, in association with Rough House Pictures.
