Halloween Ends

SPOILERS!

More or less as expected, co-writer/director David Gordon Green completes his botching of a legacy with this year's HALLOWEEN ENDS, the conclusion of his reboot trilogy and the final film in which Jamie Lee Curtis plays victim/heroine Laurie Strode.  But honestly, this has been happening at the hands of many before him since the 1980s.  Uninspired sequels, reimaginings, in-name-only follow ups, other reboots, etc.  I had hopes for these new ones, which sought to honor John Carpenter's original while forging new ground.  But in this admirable attempt, Green has made three confused, muddled, and dissatisfying curiosities that play like some fanboy's disorganized daydreams.  What promised to be clear eyed examinations of the Michael/Laurie dynamic were sidestepped in favor of what amounted to dull and even ridiculous tangents.  

And in this finale, Michael and Laurie aren't even front and center.  They're supporting players to younger generation characters, a trend we've seen in other long time series re-dos for SCREAM and GHOSTBUSTERS.  As if the filmmakers don't trust the original characters to keep today's audiences engaged.  Maybe that's true.  This time, the focus is on a troubled twenty-something named Corey (Rohan Campbell), who becomes a pariah in Haddonfield after he is acquitted for accidentally killing a young boy he babysat one Halloween night.  He'll even be harassed by a quartet of high school kids who look like they could barely rate as understudies for a BRING IT ON installment.   Good thing Laurie bails him out one day at a gas station and helps him slash their tires.  As good as Curtis is, this movie tries too hard to show how (quite understandably) bitter her character continues to be.  Plates of spaghetti will not be safe in her presence.  

Corey will begin to date Allyson (Andi Matichak), Laurie's granddaughter, and their relationship's depiction had potential, but gets melodramatic awfully fast, and Corey's transformation into a sorta Michael 2.0 was baffling.   Green's not so subtle thesis that Michael's legacy of evil has affected an entire town is clumsily manifest in this plotline.  Corey becomes possessed in a fashion, and while an interesting idea, it belongs in a separate movie.  He's just not all that intriguing.  Another distraction from what should've been a balls out psychoanalysis of a forty plus year abusive relationship between Michael Meyers and Laurie Strode.  Maybe Green and his three co-writers just couldn't come up with a sufficient analysis.   Crazy as this may sound, I would almost be willing to have more HALLOWEEN films, ones that can finally do justice to this idea.  You can bet that Meyers will return in some incarnation.  

The third act of HALLOWEEN ENDS finally gets back to our dysfunctional couple, and their climactic battle ain't bad.  It (and its subsequent scenes) will be gratifying to some viewers, but for me it felt hollow.  Especially as Green attempts more social commentary via the town's quickly forming mob.  At least it is less awkward than in HALLOWEEN KILLS.

Those who come for the kills will find a few creative bits (watch out for that DJ and his tongue!) in the later going, some of which pay homage to the very first movie, which again remains the only HALLOWEEN you need bother with.