'Halloween Ends': A complicated end to an era of evil

If there's one horror movie I needed to see this October, it was the "final conclusion" to the 44-year saga of "Halloween's" 100th take on "getting the story right this time."

"Halloween Ends" premiered last week in theaters and on Peacock streaming, bringing a close to the latest trilogy chronicling the ongoing battle between Laurie Strode and Haddonfield's "Boogeyman" Michael Myers. Since 2018's revamp to the series, the latest round of "Halloween" movies has drawn a divisive number of opinions, none more apparent than this latest journey into the heart of "pure evil."

To me, that's always been the problem with the "Halloween" series. While not many people will argue that John Carpenter's original 1978 classic remains one of the greatest and most influential horror films of all time, the series has spent the better part of five decades trying to reclaim its footing.

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With 13 movies under its belt, it's become more of a "choose your own adventure" type of story, one where a do-over always seems necessary every few years. This has been its most-frustrating aspect as a fan, and "Halloween Ends" continues the tradition, which is interesting. But in my opinion, the changes came at a very awkward time.

This is why it's so complicated to form a definitive opinion on whether "Halloween Ends" was good, bad, or downright ugly.

Without spoiling much to those who haven't seen it, when you watch "Halloween Ends," you're getting a very different narrative than what was introduced in 2018's "Halloween" and 2021's "Halloween Kills." After a four-year time jump, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has moved on from her past, mostly, is living in a new home with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), and is writing a memoir about facing her trauma and learning to live again.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the film focuses on a kid named Corey (Rohan Campbell), who after a traumatic experience while babysitting is plagued with an identity that won't necessarily garner many friends in a small town. He later has an encounter with Myers that, let's just say, awakens something sinister, and that's all I'll say about that.

When watching the movie, the first thing I noticed was how, of these three new "Halloween" movies, "Ends" was probably the most well-written and engaging, considering I wasn't a fan of the first two. It explored some deep themes and was quite compelling in parts I wasn't expecting.

But, that isn't to say there weren't a few moments I found myself shouting at the TV, "Oh, come on!" That and this was supposed to be the "epic final battle" between Michael and Laurie, which is more or less treated like an afterthought.

Die-hard fans will likely rake this one through the coals, but one thing you have to keep in mind is the context in which this film was made, and that originally it wasn't supposed to turn out this way. From what I've read, the David Gordon Green-directed "Halloween" films were only supposed to be two movies, but money talks, and we got the third one.

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Then COVID-19 hit and stalled production, creating new challenges and the crew had to come up with a new story. That's all understandable, but the one thing that upset me going into this was director Green's comments about how "This movie will be incredibly divisive to fans."

For the epic final conclusion to a 44-year story, something fans have paid countless amounts of money in support over the years, they're just going to muck it all up at the end "just because?" That's absolutely disrespectful, unnecessary, and pointless.

"Halloween Ends" is a film that's very complicated to form an opinion on. Parts of it were really well done and would have made a great entry earlier in the series, but it all came at the wrong time, and the more digging you do into the production the more frustrating it can be.

But, it's what we got, and it could have been a lot worse, though that's not saying much.

Jay Powell is a reporter for The Daily Herald. Contact him at jpowell@c-dh.net or follow him on Twitter @JayPowellCDH.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Herald: 'Halloween Ends': A complicated end to an era of evil