WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS! If you have not watched the movie and intend to, then do not read this first!

Now that I got that out of the way, let’s get started. My movie reviews never have spoilers in them, as I always try to review the movie the best I can just by providing the plot and my overall thoughts. But for this movie, I really wanted to get into some of the details and write what I think about them.

Supposedly, this is the last of the Halloween movies featuring Michael Myers, thus the name Halloween Ends. The reason I say supposedly is because this series of movies have been going on since the first one was released in 1978. I don’t think they planned to drag them out nearly this long, but because the monetary opportunities were always there with the villain that is Michael Myers, they have repeatedly revived the story, even when you thought they couldn’t no more. So, if you saw the ending of this one, you would think that very thing, once again. But, if this is in fact the last one, then what an awful way to end decades of this Halloween story.

At this point, we ALL know what to expect from the “Halloween” movies. Michael Myers comes back to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois on certain Halloween nights to terrorize his hometown, killing his way to attempt to kill Laurie Stroder. And even though we know what to expect every single time, as fans, we keep coming back to watch the next movie simply because we can’t get enough. What better way to get in the Halloween spirit than watch the infamous Michael Myers do his thing? In Halloween Ends, which I saw in theaters a few days ago, we are deprived of this for the vast majority of the movie.

We are introduced to a new character named Corey in the beginning of the movie who, after accidentally killing a boy he was babysitting and getting unfairly villainized for it for years, finally flips a switch and lets his anger out by murdering anyone and everyone. The movie slowly, and I mean slowly, shows us his transformation from quiet kid to mass murderer. In fact, he was way more of a main character than the guy we all came to see: Michael Myers. While that was a huge problem with the movie, the writers could have still saved the movie if they would have written a different outcome for his character. But more on that later.

Laurie Strode has moved back into the heart of Haddonfield in a townhouse while claiming she has let go of all the fear from Michael Myers that has been terrorizing her year after year. You can see the effect that Michael has had on her over the years, throughout every movie. She is usually always totally consumed with the thought of Michael coming to get her, but she seems more calm and much less consumed in this movie. I will say, though, that in my opinion, the Laurie Strode character (played by Jamie Lee Curtis since the original) has gotten kind of annoying in the last couple of movies. Many people may not agree with that, but that’s just how I feel.

Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson, who we’re introduced to in the last few Halloween movies going back to 2018, lives with Laurie She plays a big role in this movie as she was encouraged to date the new character, Corey, by her grandmother, since she thought he was a quiet, good kid who could use a break. But as Corey’s true character is revealed to the audience, Allyson is blind to it and falls more and more for him. She even plans on leaving Haddonfield altogether with Corey. The problem is, Laurie, having dealt with Michael Myers all these years, sees in Corey’s eyes what she “sees in Michael’s eyes.” She knows evil when she sees it, and must take action to prevent her granddaughter from continuing to see him.

Back to Corey. (See what I mean, I still haven’t even really talked about Michael Myers yet). After Corey gets thrown off a bridge by some high school bullies who kept ganging up on him in the movie, he is pulled into an underground drain pipe where Michael Myers has been living for who knows how long. We finally see the character we had been waiting for. A few short scenes later we see Michael staring Corey in the face with his hand around his neck, choking him out with all intentions of killing him until he sees the same thing Laurie sees in his eyes…evil. It’s at that point he lets Corey go, but not long later we see Corey back in the underground space where we find out he and Michael have teamed up. While Corey wears a scarecrow mask, he and Michael go out on the town and start killing. I was glad to see Michael finally enter the movie, but didn’t really care to see him team up with someone. Still, I was curious to see where this would go.

Quick side note and complaint: Those high school bullies I mentioned? How dumb and unrealistic was that. Just the absolute four most opposite kids you could think of are somehow best friends and spend all their time riding around together looking for trouble. That was so unrealistic it was pathetic.

It doesn’t take long for Corey to get to big for his britches, as the saying goes, and he goes back to the underground, shoves Michael Myers a few times, bringing him to the ground, and steals his mask from him. Which I had a huge problem with. He accomplished that feat way too easy against a guy who is invincible at that point. Corey goes and kills some more. Corey, Corey, Corey. And we all came to see Michael.

Michael Myers really isn’t a main character until the very end of the movie. He comes back to get his mask, and ends up in Laurie’s house. Talk about killing two birds with one stone for Michael. Laurie had come for Corey and Corey had come to kill Laurie. But before anything happens, Allyson pulls in the driveway, very soon to find out her lover is a murderer. So the series of events unfolds as follows: Corey stabs himself in the neck (barely still alive), Allyson walks in and think her grandmother did it and runs out, Michael enters and takes his mask, finishes Corey off, and one final showdown ensues between Michael and Laurie.

This “showdown” was an issue for me because if this was to be the last one, it was very, very weak. The two fought very briefly before Laurie got the upper hand and ended up stabbing him and cutting his throat and wrist. The moment seemed like it was over before you knew it. For me, and probably for most people, it was very anti-climactic. The police come, they strap a dead Michael to the top of their car for the entire town to witness, before grinding his body up at the local junkyard. Boom. Movie over, series over.

Micheal Myers deserved more. For as much entertainment as that character has provided Halloween fans over decades, he went out way too easy. And the way they spent basically the ENTIRE movie building up Corey’s character from good to pure evil, I was absolutely sure they were going to mold him into being the next Michael Myers. I would have been totally fine with that. It wouldn’t have been the perfect ending, but I could’ve lived with Michael handing off the torch. But nope. After building up Corey the whole movie, he is killed off in an instant as well and we’re left with nothing but a happy ending? This isn’t a Hallmark movie. It’s Halloween. Michael Myers is the villain we love and we got a feel-good ending.

If the movie didn’t end with Michael dying and Corey taking over, like I just mentioned would be a perfectly fine ending, then it should’ve ended with Corey wearing Michael’s mask and dying, while everyone thought it was Michael Myers they killed. Then the ending would have shown Michael standing off in a distance watching while we get to actually see his entire face. I know this movie was made to wrap it all up, and that leaves the possibility of another movie in the future, but never making another one while the fans know Michael is still out there is THE BEST scenario. They totally got this one wrong. I’m really interested in what everyone else thinks, though? Is there anyone that liked it? Tell me in the comments what you thought and how you would’ve liked to see it end.

Garett

Movie Review: Halloween Ends (SPOILER ALERT!)