REVIEW: HALLOWEEN ENDS

3/5

Trick. 

111 Mins. Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards & James Jude Courtney. Director: David Gordon Green. 

Academy Award-winning Best Picture 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' starring Best Actress Michelle Yeoh has only just come out here in Japan. If you think that's bad, the trilogy and franchise concluding 'Halloween Ends' starring Oscar winning Best Supporting Actress ('EEAAO') Jamie Lee Curtis has finally come out, this Easter. Now, if you think that's bad, actually watch the movie. Just kidding, this 'Halloween' that critics have slashed like tyres or tired genre clichés isn't that bad, like they say. But in terms of epic conclusions, after all these decades, 'Halloween' goes out with a dull thud down the stairs, rather than a trick or treat BANG! Jamie Lee Curtis deserves a better courtesy. Excuse me, Academy Award-winning actress, Jamie Lee. 

'Ends' tries to start something new in its closing chapter and therein lies the rub that scratches and itches at this problem like pronged kitchen utensils making their point. They complained about the fireside beat down in the last movie to our honoured heroes, but no set-piece here blazes quite like that until Laurie Strode and Michael Myers get to have one last dance over John Carpenter's classic keys. All before the pumpkin explodes at midnight in classic titles and this carriage carries away from this Cinderella story with a slashed dress. Toxic masculinity that has been an ever stalking theme in this franchise that cinematically retains its seventies feel is still potent in this narrative like it is in everyday life. And 'Ends' means to make something more of this. All whilst haunting everyone with the idea of fear itself and what it actually does to us like the outstanding, operatic opening to Matt Reeves and Robert Pattinson's 'Batman'. But instead of sticking the landing, it waddles like a penguin after a shocking staircase introduction. Trying to stick everything it throws at the wall. Yet its knife isn't long enough and its blade not as sharp. 

Blunt dull aches aren't all that will stick with you though as this cheap shot to the ribs sometimes goes for the jugular with dramatic results. If only it was as raw and ready as the 2018 reboot that made you forget about all those other sorry sequels, even the Busta Rhymes one, almost twenty years later. This even makes the overkill of 'Halloween Kills' that sidelined Strode senior look like a walk in the park and not a slog to get through. Still, there's a good movie in here somewhere from the 'Undertow' of director David Gordon Green (cue his co-writing with the great Danny McBride of 'Pineapple Express' friendship and fame). You just miss it between all the screams and the stabs out of reach you just hope miss those vital organs. Unlucky for us, this thirteenth movie after the '78 masterpiece is more manslaughter than murder the way it kills it. A Carpenter described "departure" from the others that is more of a love story that will have you demanding for the real Michael Myers to stand up. 

This is no Austin Powers pot of s### coffee though. And the character development of trilogy granddaughter Andi Matichak and 'The Hardy Boys' star Rohan Campbell is real, like the conflicted nature of just what their two hearts mean to this town in shock at all the horror the boogeyman has left in his bloody wake. But you know what you came to the cinema for in this post-pandemic time. What lies behind the mask. The shape of things to come with Laurie and Michael. The greatest hate story ever told. Michael making her his muse for murder. Laurie leaving all that blunderbuss behind, as she stands on her own two, looking back into those hollowed eyes, saying..."trick." It's a treat to watch Curtis giving her all one last time to a role she could do in her sleep. Finally getting an Oscar for another movie and her acting talents all at once. Whilst James Jude Courtney really is the killer inside him. 'Minari' and 'Armageddon' actor Will Patton really is something too and socialite and TV personality Kyle Richards offers bar side counsel as an original survivor to boot. But if this stab in the dark really was the last time one of the greatest horror franchises of all-time comes knocking, we just wish 'Halloween Ends' would have brought more candy to the party. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Halloween (2018)', 'Halloween Kills', 'Everything Everywhere All At Once'.