Watching “Halloween Ends” made me contemplate the weird math that many filmmakers employ when balancing out reality with entertainment. This doesn’t mean that every movie has to be grounded, but each one must establish and occupy a particular world with a clear set of physical rules and expectations, and then that in turn must be weighed against what will make for a good story and an engaging time at the theater.
“Halloween Ends” follows along with the reality-based aspects of the “Halloween” series that found regular people besieged by a man who was figuratively a shark in human skin. For John Carpenter’s original and most of this reboot trilogy, there have been no allusions to witchcraft, the supernatural, super science or anything else that would set it apart from the grounded world in which we live. There are multiple unnecessary contrivances, especially in “Halloween Ends” and in bringing certain characters back 40 years later, but they stand out due to how much the renewed franchise wants to feel like a human story. In fact, the argument can be made that antagonist Michael Myers is the lone unnatural element in the “Halloween” movies and thus audiences afford him the leeway of getting pummeled and never stopping, or always catching up to his prey no matter how much they run. His very existence is that of a fairly unreal monster made horrifying by being placed in the very real setting of Haddonfield, Illinois.
This pondering came to me because “Halloween Ends,” for most of the film, has a big redirect in the plot — one that is satisfying as its own story but will most likely disappoint and infuriate audiences who are expecting more of the 1978 and 2018 entries. And part of the reason for the redirect has to be the fact that reality has finally caught up to Myers, as the willing suspension of disbelief grows thin when suddenly facing off against a non-supernatural septuagenarian slasher. After underscoring that Myers (played by James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle) is a mostly flesh-and-blood person who also ages with years, it’s a hard sell that this person can wreak the type of havoc that he did in the previous two movies, especially as “Ends” takes place four years after “Halloween Kills.” Weighing out reality against entertainment, the filmmakers find a new approach to continue a body count without pushing the limits of belief beyond the franchise’s current strain.
One place where that balance shines brightest is in the main cast. Jamie Lee Curtis continues to find even more shades and novel approaches to a character that is quite old hat to her by now. The actor easily communicates how badass and yet how vulnerable Laurie Strode is after all her bloody trials. Screenwriters Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green find yet another inroad in the character, who’s reeling from her personal losses in the past two films, and discover another type of archetypal victim, The Survivor, who has to struggle to remain above the choppy waters in which she once swam. This is paired excellently with Andi Matichak returning as Allyson, Laurie’s granddaughter, who finds herself at a very similar crossroads as her grandmother did 40 years ago, deciding if the murderous Halloween events will color her mostly with forgiveness, anger, sadness or something else entirely.
Pivotal to “Halloween Ends” is actor Rohan Campbell, a brand-new addition to the series who feels like he should have been threaded throughout the latest trilogy in some manner. And in his character of Corey Cunningham lies the crux of the movie’s issue: it’s a poetic and intriguing idea that is skillfully pulled off, and yet it feels independent of the two preceding films. In fact, “Halloween Ends” feels more like an epilogue than a concluding chapter. Maybe the trilogy started in 1978 and ended with “Halloween Kills,” and this film is more interested in the aftermath. But even with that being the case, there seems to have been little planned to weave through all three films to bring about a specific ending, even in epilogue form. There are other faults with the movie, most notably that it’s pretty slow going until the halfway point, but the biggest issue with “Halloween Ends” is that it feels separate from the others in plot, look and tone.
Director David Gordon Green gets tremendous performances from all his actors and expertly captures that feeling of a town infected with grief, fear and anger. It’s clear that these toxic feelings stirred up by the bloodshed have turned the citizens of Haddonfield against each other, mostly glimpsed through the eyes of Laurie, Allyson and Corey. Returning DP Michael Simmonds goes for a much more muted palate than the previous two entries, with less striking visuals that seem to echo this feeling of an epilogue to everything. And of course, the score from John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies is incredible in its own right and is truly one of the few real throughlines of this revamped series.
“Halloween Ends” is a curious case of a movie at the intersection of entertainment and reality. A massive blaze of glory engulfing Haddonfield as Laurie and Michael lay siege to each other may be what fans expect, but it certainly isn’t what they’ll get. What Green has delivered is a movie that spends a bit too long to get to where it’s going and a bit too much pontificating about evil (again) yet still manages to deliver in shock, thrills and, surprisingly, heart. I was astounded at how emotional I got in the last 15 minutes of “Halloween Ends” and how much the moments were landing with me in so many different ways. So, even if it’s not the most realistic depiction, and even if it’s not what people are expecting, it remains a very effective film that acts as a nice coda to this decades-long story.
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards
Director: David Gordon Green
