Entertainment

Halloween Review: Michael and Laurie Face Off in an Average Film With a Satisfying Ending

Lakshmi

Halloween Review

Halloween Review: With Halloween Ends, David Gordon Green’s reimagining of John Carpenter’s classic Halloween has reached its conclusion, and it does indeed conclude. Whether or not the ending is the correct one depends on your connection to the series.

Halloween Ends occurs four years after the events of Green’s previous two Halloween films, both of which are set on Halloween night in 2018. However, Ends launches on Halloween in 2019. Corey (Rohan Campbell) is babysitting Jeremy (named) while Jeremy’s parents attend a Halloween party.

The child proves to be a jerk and locks Corey in an upper room as a prank. The door is kicked down by Corey, causing Jeremy to fly over the banister and land in a pool of blood three floors below, directly in front of his shocked parents.

Forward to the year 2022. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has undergone a transformation. She has purchased a home and is enjoying a peaceful, unarmed existence with her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak), a nurse. Laurie is working on a memoir and has resumed knitting and baking, two pastimes she enjoyed in the original 1978 Halloween. She now even observes Halloween.

Thankfully, Laurie is still a badass beneath it all. Laurie meets Corey at a petrol station, where she deters high school bullies from assaulting him. She brings him to Allyson to have his hand sutured, and a romance develops between the two.

Unfortunately, a significant portion of this film is devoted to their relationship, which becomes somewhat tiresome. Corey is not initially a nasty person; rather, he is placed in a poor situation.

Halloween Review

He is a pariah in town, and his mother is domineering to the point of cruelty, but he is never sent to prison for Jeremy’s killing, though the details of why are never revealed. In a similar fashion, Laurie is accused of bringing Michael Myers to town and for spreading havoc in an otherwise tranquil area.

It is tough to say much more about the picture without entering into the spoiler zone, but based on the reactions at my screening, fans of the Halloween franchise did not appreciate this film. However, casual fans of the Halloween film franchise appeared to appreciate this edition.

As with many Halloween films, the premise of Halloween Ends appears to be the essence of good versus evil, with Michael Myers symbolizing evil and Laurie Strode representing virtue. Yet, something that begins in Kills and culminates in Ends appears to be the notion that Haddonfield itself is bad or the origin of evil. There were, after all, extraordinarily irate mobs in Kills.

There were no riots in Ends, but there was plenty of fury in the air (some of it justifiable, some of it not), and evil seemed to have taken root in other residents of the town in a manner that we had never seen before. There was a particular sequence (I won’t give it away, but you’ll know it when you see it) that left me exclaiming, “What the hell was that?” – not in a positive way

Again, Laurie has transformed in Ends. It made sense that, with the death of her daughter in Kills and the seeming disappearance of her bogeyman, she would have to accept the necessity of moving on with her life, but she seemed to swing between 1978 Laurie and 2018 Laurie a bit too readily.

Kills should have had a bit more of a middle ground, as it’s difficult to believe Laurie reverting to traditional grandmotherly behaviors (which are remarkably similar to her old teenage habits). After she transforms back into Kick-Ass Laurie, though, this development becomes unimportant.

Perhaps because this is the last time we will ever see Laurie and Michael Myers square off, the confrontation between Laurie and Michael Myers is quite gripping (supposedly). Whether you’re Team Laurie or Team Michael, you won’t feel duped by the film’s conclusion, which makes what came before much easier to forget and the picture much more acceptable as a whole.

Halloween Ends appears to be an attempt to provide Halloween enthusiasts with something new, original, and a little bit different from what they’ve seen before, but it fails.

Halloween Ends focuses less on Michael and Laurie and more on Allyson and Corey, which is not what you want from the final collaboration between two horror heavyweights. Even if their last battle is excellent, the spectator is still left wanting more.

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