With its release fast approaching, some initial reviews for Halloween Ends have begun to pop up! The following two are courtesy of Dread Central’s Josh Korngut and Bloody Disgusting’s Meagan Navarro. Check out some excerpts from the reviews below.
From the opening scene of Halloween Ends onward, you can almost feel its creatives attempt to back-pedal on the unpopular choices made in Halloween Kills. While I personally enjoyed the nonsensical parade of silly violence the second Blumhouse installment provided, there’s a good chance my appreciation for that campy and clumsy sequel lays firmly in the minority.
The conclusion to David Gordon Green’s series of Michael Myers titles went back to the drawing board to establish a different, quieter, and weirder tone than either of the previously Jason Blum-backed entries handed over. But it doesn’t work. I believe there is still a fundamental misunderstanding of its intimate suburban source material. From the romantic through-lines to its introduction to new wellsprings of Myers mythology, Halloween Ends drives us as far from away from Carpenter’s Haddonfield as it possibly can. And I’m not sure if that was its intention.
Read the full review at DreadCentral.com
Halloween Ends does live up to its title, but that confrontation gets tacked on to a bizarre new story set four years after Kills.
Since 2018, Michael Myers has disappeared, and his house has been bulldozed to the ground. Laurie finally attempts to move on and find peace. Laurie may be the town’s freak show, but Haddonfield has a new target of scorn in young Corey (Rohan Campbell). Corey’s promising life derailed when, in 2019, a babysitter gig on Halloween night ended in shocking tragedy. The trauma lingering beneath the surface in Haddonfield comes boiling forth, igniting a new chain of violence when Corey crosses paths with Laurie and Allyson.
Writers Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride, and Green frame the trilogy’s conclusion around Corey. It chronicles the inciting event that derailed his life and his present as the browbeaten pariah who can’t catch a break. Through him, Green further explores the overarching themes of infectious, nebulous wrath and evil, and Haddonfield is crueler than ever. Because this is mostly Corey’s story, some of the more established, returning players become nothing more than avatars to Ends’ themes; their personalities shift based on narrative need.
Read the full review at Bloody-Disgusting.com
