LM23 Rating: I’m here for Jamie Lee Curtis. Not the diary of a wimpy weird kid name Corey
All things really do pass. I can still remember having to wait the long agonizing wait for Halloween Kills and now Halloween Ends after both movies were delayed a year due to the pandemic. After the huge letdown of Halloween Kills, I was ready this time with lowered expectations.
All of the reviews mentioned how Michael Meyers would not be in the movie a lot, and it would focus on a new character named Corey. I needed this caveat or else I probably would have fallen asleep after the first 15 minutes.
Stop with the bait and switches
I’m getting tired of the bait and switches, so I’ll keep this review short. Basically everyone’s warnings were right. This movie loses its edge and fighting spirit the way Halloween 2018 and Halloween Kills had. And that’s a huge bummer.
Instead, Halloween Ends wants to set the stage for sequels without Laurie Strode, and so we have this shoehorned storyline of how evil is addictive and basically anyone can be just like Mike…er…Michael Meyers.
However, knowing that it was going to be a bait and switch, I went into the movie with an open mind. And I do say, if I take the movie as it’s given to me, I’m okay with it. The beginning of the film was extremely inventive and a very effective start to a new chapter in the Halloween franchise, should they want to go that way.
I don't want to know who Corey is
We’re introduced to a geeky young adult named Corey who’s been asked to babysit a brat named Jeremy on Halloween. I hate to be sexist, but I would say babysitters even in 2022 are female. And if it’s a male, it’s usually because they’re the uncle, cousin, or in-law. But okay, we’ll go with this.
Corey seems like an affable, well-meaning young guy. He works hard in that he normally cuts the grass for the family. And he’s smart in that he’s going to be or is studying engineering. We’re given a heads up of what’s to come when the little kid confidently tells Jeremy that Michael Meyers only kills babysitters. When Jeremy vanishes out of Corey’s sight and a knife in the kitchen goes missing, you so want Halloween Ends to go down this route.
By this route I mean, have Michael Meyers be the real killer of poor Jeremy and not Corey. And let’s focus the plot on Laurie and her granddaughter Allyson and the friends and neighbors in their lives. Rather than having Corey mysteriously catch the evil virus from Michael in the sewer, let’s have this opening lead us to the traumatic and negative effects Michael has had on Laurie and her life.
Glimmers of how the movie should have been
Laurie appears to be moving on with life with a brand new house and she’s even writing a memoir. Allyson is doing well as a nurse at the hospital. But at the same time, not everyone reveres the Strode family. After a cute exchange between Laurie and Frank in the grocery store, Laurie is confronted by the relative of one of Michael’s victims. She blames Laurie for bringing Michael into the community.
If Halloween Ends was going to be less about stalking and killing and more about the trauma of evil, then let’s explore that, but through Laurie, Allyson, their friends and neighbors. I don’t care about Corey. And I find it very hard to believe a geeky, wimpy kid could take on Michael in the sewer and win.
How can a wimpy kid fight Michael for his beloved mask?!
How in the heck can Corey fight Michael and take his mask? Corey should have been a side character that brought Michael back into Laurie’s radar. But to go so far as to have Allyson fall in love with this loser and want to leave town with him? No.
There was a final fight of sorts, but even that wasn’t so satisfying. I want to see Laurie get ready for a throw down. I also find it hard to believe that after all that’s happened to her, her new house would not be decked out with security cameras and weapons on hand for intruders.
Michael is finally incinerated and pulverized at a car junk yard and that’s how we know he’s totally dead. It makes you wonder why they didn’t do this from the start.
I wanted to see, hear, and know more about Laurie and her life
I wanted to see more of Laurie and her journey of trying to move on. How did she buy the house? How does she deal with the town folk who blame her for the killings? How does she socialize? That would have included her friends. Will Patton and Kyle Richards are once again underused.
Missed out on an Avengers: Endgame ending credit
And since this was the finale for Jamie Lee Curtis and that storyline of Halloween, they should have had a more celebratory end credit like Avengers: Endgame. Why not break the fourth wall and show us photos of JLC in the previous Halloweens or show outtakes? Jamie and the cast who has been there since the 70's deserved an awesome end credit.
But yeah, if you can stream the movie, then stream it. If you want to finish the trilogy off, then see a matinee. I love Jamie Lee Curtis, but it’s a thumbs down for me.
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