Rent Halloween Ends (2022)

Dull - Halloween Ends review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Ok went into this with the lowest of expectations which was just as well as it’s terrible. After the bright start Gordon Green had brought to the reboot he followed up with Kills which was pedestrian at best but this is just really dull. It begins quite well with a whole new spin on the story but then almost nothing happens for the next 40 mins. Laurie (with an improved hair-do) has written a book and is all bright and cheerful but then something happens that basicly reduces Michael to a walk on bit part in his own franchise - plus didn’t they do a similar twist in part 5 or 6 of the original run? Ok - Curtis gets to do a lot more than last time but then it’s clump clump stab stab - repeat until the end……which hopefully means that is the final one ….ever…..and if it is it ends not with a bang but with a whimper - 2/5

"It just changes shape ..." - Halloween Ends review by NP

Get past the excruciating first few scenes with smart-arsed kids and goofy adolescents and the unfolding story of young Corey is so enjoyable and well-played/written that for a while, you almost forget you're watching a Halloween film - much less, the final (?) film in the trilogy that began with the 2018 reboot.

I might be the wrong demographic for this; Michael Myers was initially an enigmatic force of evil, with a strong suggestion that he might be more than human somehow. The 1978 original showed he was particularly difficult to destroy, but no real answers were given until a stream of sequels had to somehow expand his character without giving too much away - which in my view made him, and the franchise his stories had become, ludicrous. That's why I applaud the way this production kept him very much in the background for the first half.

The kills, when they come, are often disappointing and bloodless, occurring off-camera or 'artfully' in the background. Some impress though - the local DJ, for example, comes to an impressive end.

The acting is suitably intense throughout; Jamie Lee Curtis really does convey a lifetime of fighting an unstoppable enemy. "Evil doesn't die, it just changes shape," she says at one point. In all, I enjoyed this closing caper a lot more than I expected to. After seemingly endless rehashes, the Halloween trilogy ends on a real high - not what many expected but imaginative and effective as far as I'm concerned. And there are a few punch-the-air moments like when John Carpenter's familiar music kicks in during the end credits. My score is 8 out of 10.

Wimpish End To A Dull Series - Halloween Ends review by GI

I certainly hope this is the actual end because this is a real dud. The (hopefully) closing chapter of a money making franchise that's done little other than overshadow the originality of John Carpenter's 1978 classic. An attempt at a series of mediocre slasher/horror films that have struggled with storylines and this one is no exception. Of course Michael Myers has returned and is now lurking on the edges of town in a sewer where he manages to recruit a a fellow psycho in the form of Corey (Rohan Campbell), a young man who accidentally killed a child years ago while babysitting and has been vilified for it ever since. So of course he's ripe to take on a bit of vengeful slashing around town all the while courting Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie's granddaughter. Laurie, of course, remains obsessed with Myers, much to everyone's annoyance. There's some odd good bits and some gore as you'd expect and at least Laurie doesn't look like some demented bag lady anymore having tidied herself up. But the film is a limp horror film that offers nothing new so lets hope it's properly the end.