The concluding chapter of the David Gordon Green "Halloween" trilogy and presumably the final run-out for the Jamie Lee Curtis version of Laurie Strode, "Halloween Ends" feels less like a natural conclusion after 2018's "Halloween" and 2021's "Halloween Kills" than a glorified fan film. Sure, it hits a few decent beats in its own Dollar Tree "Christine" kind of way, and it obviously has higher production values than your average fan project, but it's severely mismatched with its immediate predecessors and commits the sin of sidelining Michael Myers in service of a not-always convincing narrative about evil changing shape. That Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell, giving a fairly good performance), victim of band kid bullies and recipient of a tragic backstory, takes precedence over the series' primary antagonist is fine up to a point, but having Michael mugged and fully replaced in the lead-up to his final showdown with Laurie is a case study in jumping the shark and negating one's own ending. Then there's poor Allyson (Andi Matichak, in over her head), reduced to moron status after strong showings in "Halloween" and "Halloween Kills" as her doomed romance with Corey hinges as much on her utter obliviousness as it does on their shared trauma. She gets a bit of redemption in the closing minutes but, again, it's negated by Green's over-indulgence. Throw in a lot of truncated kills and this one's a disappointment. If "Halloween Kills" was a wonderfully cartoonish slasher then "Halloween Ends" is a bloodier-than-average 'bad boyfriend' movie. I don't think it's half as terrible as many have made out but I can certainly understand why franchise fans find it maddening.
THE HALLOWEEN FRANCHISE
Halloween II (1981)
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