‘Halloween Ends’ movie review: This horror franchise’ wilful end ain’t pretty

A still from ‘Halloween Ends’

Film: Halloween Ends (English)
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Kyle Richards, James Jude Courtney, Rohan Campbell, Omar J. Dorsey, Michael O'Leary
Directed: David Gordon Green
Rating: 2/5
Runtime: 111 mins

The Halloween franchise that fortified Jamie Lee Curtis' career in Hollywood, beginning with John Carpenter's iconic Horror classic, appears to have decided to finally call it quits. And that's a good thing because the franchise has been resurrecting itself again and again with brand instalments mainly engineered to keep its cult following and not necessarily for the purpose of great horror story telling.

Even though in film after film in this woebegone franchise, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) has been brandishing her knife and other arsenal quite effectively, it hasn't quite vanquished the evil she first confronted way back in 1978.

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David Gordon Green rebooted the slasher original in 2018 but the subsequent sequels were imminently forgettable. The only saving grace for this one is the cementing of the end of this woeful franchise. Narratively speaking, there was nothing much worthy in any of the Halloween films that David Gordon Green helmed. The first one at least seemed like a kind of homage the rest were pure drivel lacking in narrative coherence and fresh imagination.

This concluding instalment (of the reboot trilogy), Halloween Ends, is supposedly the final faceoff between Laurie Strode and her psycho stalker Michael Myers and occurs four years after the events of Halloween (2018). Just when Laurie has decided to embrace life a young man, fresh-faced Corey (Rohan Campbell) is accused of killing a boy (Jaxon Goldenberg), he was babysitting, and Laurie gets inadvertently drawn into a cascade of violence and terror that she obviously can't control.

Laurie has left her hideout and moved back with her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak) and she is even willing to share her traumatic past so that others can learn from her experiences. But the legend of Michael Myers is still alive as a local radio deejay, Willie (Keraun Harris) keeps resurrecting it in his shows. Joanne Baron as Corey's mother is quite off-putting while James Jude Courtney as Michael doesn't quite up the scary quotient. The narration is rather flighty and underdeveloped. What starts out as a stark reminder of the past soon descends into a self-conscious murderous havoc replete with trashy dialogue and sloppy plotting. The narrative scopes out a tired series of generic thrills - all of them tiresome and laughable. Everything is so predictable and boring and there's no suspense or visceral thrills to be had - even with all the flashy gore and over-the-top sound effects on display. This one is so uninvolving that you'd rather fall asleep than sit and watch it with bated breath!

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