Halloween Ends (2022)

I had a realization while watching this: this would be so much better as a Haddonfield anthology horror film that perhaps might have worked <i>after</i> <b>Halloween Ends</b>. See, I think this isn’t a bad idea if it wasn’t promising the ultimate MICHAEL MYERS VS. LAURIE STRODE showdown as its major headline. You know, I think a lot less flak would be dished at this if this happened when The Shape was out of the picture. We would have gotten that big showdown, it would satiate fans, and then you could try out this experiment. What hurts is that Halloween fans sort of have certain expectations. Now, I have already read reviews and watched videos from Halloween diehards who actually like that this tried something new.

Dammit, I know this film isn’t what I was expecting either. Halloween is seen as Evil in the form of Michael Myers against Laurie or family. Even with Thorn and Dangertainment, usually Myers is after Laurie or those connected to her first. So this unfortunate young man with a lot of bad luck (kid pranks him and takes a very bad fall from a great height because of a kicked in locked attic door while babysitting him) is forever tainted by a death that follows him. His mother is overbearing but protective because of what happened to Corey (Rohan Campbell, who will be unfortunately the brunt of a lot of hostility for a few years), there are local seniors who bully him all the time, and a local cop with an eye for Allyson is quite clingy in a creepy way. Allyson, in this film, is a miserable attending nurse who is drawn to Corey. I think it is because the two of them are lost souls dealing with a lot of shit. Sort of kindred spirits I think. Well, Corey and The Boogeyman lock eyes under a bridge, inside a sewer, and there is like this “transference”, something akin to a possession. As if The Shape found a kindred spirit in Corey and has been too weak to leave the nest. It is as if Evil has been weakened. As Corey kills and encourages Michael, it does appear the duo builds this increasing power. Even as I write this I can just sense the seething hate and “no, no, no” shaking of disapproving heads crying, “Bullshit” on this as an occurring plot.

I was thinking of Allyson and Cameron as Clyde and Bonnie during the Halloween school costume party in the 2018 Halloween film. In this 2022 film, the Bonnie and Clyde is Corey and Allyson, planning to leave Haddonfield. So Laurie, realizing she was the one who brought them together (feeling he was this wounded and hurt victim as was her lonely granddaughter), must now keep them apart.

The scene where this film will absolutely fucking polarize Halloween fans is when Corey overpowers Michael and takes his mask telling him he’s just a man in a mask. That, to me, is where the film lost me.

I had heard this wasn’t near as gory as other films, but a face is smashed on a table in a radio station, with a broken mouth and scissored tongue. A face is blowtorched. A face is crushed underfoot while the victim is pinned under a truck and fence. Lots of stabs and slices to the body, too. A body is even pushed into a grinder and eviscerated. A cork screw is stabbed into a face and a homage to Bob’s death in the first film happens to a nurse when she’s pinned to a wall in this one.