The title of the latest in the “Halloween” movie franchise suggests that “Halloween Ends”.
And, if you listen to most critics and posts in the Twittersphere, maybe it should have ended before the latest movie hit theaters and Peacock last Friday.
I don’t believe in spoilers, so I’ll let you know why you should see this movie and why you might want to avoid it.
“Halloween Ends” is the finale in the Blumhouse trilogy that started with “Halloween” (2018) and continued with 2021’s “Halloween Kills”, which I vowed I’d never watch again.
I have one friend that gave “Halloween Ends” a thumbs down, but he liked the last 30 minutes of the movie. He also loved “Halloween Kills”!
I had another friend that summed up “Ends” with a more colorful review:
So, my thoughts: After hating “Halloween Kills”, I was optimistic that “Halloween Ends” would leave me excited and thrilled until there’s a new Michael Myers movie years down the line.
After seeing the movie, I still hope it’s years before we see another film in the franchise — that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
When it got dark outside, I hit play since I watched it on Peacock for free after the bad taste that “Kills” left me with. I was startled by the cheery, totally non-scary Halloween opening to movie! (On second viewing, that radio station audio with the news-looking animation was still goofy, but I could live with it.)
Once that passed and we got into the movie on Halloween night 2019 in Haddonfield, Illinois, one year after the first two movies, I was engrossed.
Corey (Rohan Campbell) is a 21-year-old called in at the last minute to babysit a little boy while his parents go to a party.
Well, the kid, Jeremy, turns out to be a little jerk. But, it’s funny when he tells Corey he’s not afraid of Michael Myers because “Michael Myers kills babysitters, not kids.”
Jeremy decides to torment his “ugly ass boy babysitter” by hiding from him.
After we see the open front door, hear door creaks and noises upstairs, and notice the missing kitchen knife (a bread slicing knife, really?), it starts feeling like a scary, creepy Halloween movie.
Let’s just say it doesn’t end well and we go into a retro-looking credits roll with text from the late-1970s (when the first “Halloween” movie was released).
It’s now 2022 (three years after the babysitting scene and four years after “Halloween Kills”) and we see Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis).
She’s in a happier place and is even decorating for Halloween, baking a pumpkin pie, and writing her memoirs of surviving the evil that is Michael Myers. She’s even learning to process his savage murder of her daughter at the end of the last movie! (Oops, that’s a spoiler if you haven’t watched “Kills”, you should have if you’re ready to watch this one!)
And, this is also where the hate comes in from critics and social media about “Halloween Ends”. If you’re wanting a Michael Myers going on a violent Halloween killing spree, you’re going to shocked and disappointed.
If you want a whole new “Halloween” story featuring Myers as one of several main characters, you might like this movie.
Other than in flashbacks, Michael Myers doesn’t appear until 40 minutes into the movie! And, what a shock when he does. He’s a different man! Whatever evil “it” has shown the previous movies (excluding 1982’s “Halloween III: Season of the Witch”, which wasn’t a Myers movie).
WHAT I LOVED ABOUT “HALLOWEEN ENDS”: The kills in this movie were pretty intense and savage. If the first death in the movie doesn’t shock you and make you say “WTF” or “Oh, F”, then stop watching!
The back and forth between the “Psycho” and the “Freak Show” is entertaining. It starts out warm and cuddly and ends as a psychotic freak show!
And, the last 30 minutes are captivating for sure.
It may have taken 40 years for the final showdown between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode since he slashed her arm and she practiced on him with a knitting needle and a wire coat hanger, but it was worth it!
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT “HALLOWEEN ENDS”:
Watching the movie the first time, it took some adjusting to the new direction the movie took with the new character Corey and the focus on four main characters and not just two — Laurie and Michael Myers.
After I did, I liked it.
However, I would’ve loved to have been in the editing room with director David Gordon Green slashing scenes that dragged on and added little to the movie. The running time would have been closer to 90 minutes instead of almost two hours.
Also, I know adrenaline can give you unhuman power in life and death situations, but flipping the damn refrigerator over like you’re flipping a pancake! Come on!
And, I really missed not having the line from the first trailer tease, “Come get me motherf*cker!” in the final cut!
GRADE: B
P.S. In this latest trilogy, I gave “Halloween (2018)” a “B” and “Halloween Kills”, a “C” grade.
It’s hard to believe the “Halloween” franchise started in 1978, 44 years ago, and there are now 13 movies!
So, was “Halloween Kills”, which I said I’d never watch again, my least favorite of the 13 movies? No!
Before I rank the movies, here’s a incredible look at how Michael Myers has changed over the years!
And, here’s Laurie Strode’s progression!
Now, here’s my ranking of the worst to the best movies in the “Halloween” franchise.
“HALLOWEEN II” (2009)
Box Office: $39.4 million
I enjoyed Rob Zombie’s first “Halloween” in 2007, so I had high hopes for this one and went to see it in the theater. I absolutely hated it.
What was worse is that when it came out on DVD, I bought it! The horror! And, guess what? I still absolutely hated it.
I still have it and next Halloween, I’ll give it one more try. Maybe after 14 years, I’ll see it differently. If not, it’ll go in the trash, so I don’t torture anyone else by recycling it!
“HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS” (1989)
Box Office: $11.6 million
This sequel was the follow-up to 1988’s “The Return of Michael Myers” where Michael learned that he had a young niece named Jamie and he went on rant to find her.
Well, in the aftermath of that movie, Jamie was hospitalized for trauma and was mostly mute in the movie.
I was so over her shrieking and crying that I would have been willing to help Michael get rid of her!
“HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION” (2002)
Box Office: $37.6 million
Nothing like a “Halloween” movie released early in the summer! This is the only movie in the franchise that came out in July! Yes, July!!!!
It’s also the first where Michael Myers kills Laurie early in the movie. She’s in a mental institution following the events of “Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later”.
What made the movie remotely watchable was the story line about an internet reality show with kids having to spend the night in a scary house and the antics of Busta Rhymes and Tyra Banks.
“HALLOWEEN KILLS” (2021)
Box Office: $131.6 million
Enough has already been said about this one and it’s still the only movie in the franchise that I’ve only watched once! Maybe one day, I might give it another chance!
“HALLOWEEN” (2007)
Box Office: $80.4 million
This movie was a re-imaging and a remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 classic.
It follows Michael Myers, as a kid, already showing psychotic tendencies. When he kills most of his family, he’s locked up at Smith’s Grove Sanitarium and makes some pretty awesome papier-mâché masks.
Well, he escapes over a decade later and goes on another killing spree and starts stalking Laurie Strode (that’s not Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends.
“HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS” (1988)
Box Office: $17.8 million
After the failure of 1982’s “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” (without Michael Myers), the franchise went back to its favorite masked murderer.
It’s ten years after “Halloween II”.
Michael was put away after the explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital and upon hearing that he has a niece, he kills the men transporting him to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium.
Now, this is back when Laurie Strode was Michael’s baby sister. And, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) is living with a foster family because Laurie died in a car crash, since Jamie Lee Curtis refused to return to the franchise.
Remember back at #12, I didn’t like little Jamie. I loved her in this one! 🙂
“HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS” (1995)
Box Office: $15.1 million
This movie was mostly a dud except for introducing a very hot Paul Rudd. He played a very unstable Tommy Doyle.
Sadly, it was the last movie with Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis.
It also concluded the Jamie Lloyd storyline from the fourth and fifth movies in the franchise.
I still enjoyed the movie even though it has some very annoying characters and was a little out in left field.
My favorite part: “It’s raining red Mommy!”
“HALLOWEEN III: THE SEASON OF THE WITCH” (1982)
Box Office: $14.4 million
This third movie in the franchise wasn’t about Michael Myers and no one was interested. However, as a stand alone movie, it was pretty good.
It’s about a demented toy maker, microchips placed in Silver Shamrock masks, a “deadly” television commercial, and other craziness.
“12 more days ’til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, 12 more days ’til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween… Silver Shamrock!”
“HALLOWEEN H20: TWENTY YEARS LATER” (1998)
Box Office: $75 million
Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the franchise for the 20th anniversary of the original “Halloween”.
After faking her death to escape her life in Haddonfield, Laurie Strode is now a headmistress at a school in California living under another name.
Michael Myers finds a file in Dr. Loomis’ retirement home and realizes Laurie is alive and goes on a road trip.
The scariest thing in the movie is sexy Josh Harnett’s hair. It looked like Michael Myers attempted to hack him to death with dull scissors and only got his hair!
“HALLOWEEN ENDS” (2022)
Box Office: $64.4 million (and rising).
The box office for this movie and its predecessor, “Halloween Kills” were definitely hurt by the same day release of the movie in theaters and on the Peacock streaming channel.
However, Universal reports that “Halloween Ends” was the most watched film or series ever on the platform over a two-day period!
“HALLOWEEN II” (1981)
Box Office: $25.5 million
My teenaged memories of going to movies to see the sequel to 1978’s “Halloween” probably propelled this movie up so high on the list.
Well, that and raging teenaged hormones. I was crushing so hard on Lance Guest’s Jimmy (on the left) and Leo Rossi’s Budd, especially as he headed to the hot tub.
And, the hot tub scene rocked!
“HALLOWEEN” (2018)
Box Office: $255.6 million
In the most successful money-making movie in the franchise (in unadjusted dollars), 2018’s reboot picked up 40 years after the original “Halloween”. All of the other movies never existed. Forget everything!
Michael Myers as a dentist — genius!
“HALLOWEEN” (1978)
Box Office: $70.3 million (adjusted to 2022 dollars — $321.2 million)
The original movie in one word: perfect!
Seeing it as a 14-year-old, it scared the living daylights out of me. Coming home and walking into my darkened bedroom, I could still see that mask!
Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence were amazing.
The horror, the suspense, and the lack of blood made it even more incredible.
And, the iconic phrases: “But, you can’t kill the boogeyman” and this one — the absolute best!
It still gives me goosebumps 44 years later!
So, what are your favorites and your least favorites?
Anthony
What's Peeps Thinking About Now? It's Probably Random! 