HALLOWEEN ENDS : Tuesday 8th November 2022.

I finally got around to seeing 'HALLOWEEN ENDS' - the MA15+ Rated American slasher horror film which is Directed and Co-Written once again by David Gordon Green and is a sequel to the 2021 film 'Halloween Kills'. It is the thirteenth instalment in the 'Halloween' film franchise, and the final film in the 'H40' trilogy that commenced with the 2018 film 'Halloween' and which serves as a continuation of the original 1978 film's storyline disregarding all the other screen offerings that came in between up to 2018. The 2018 and 2021 films generated a combined worldwide Box Office haul of US$387M off the back of a total US$30M production budget, making this final instalment a no brainer. This film saw its World Premier screening in Los Angeles on 11th October before its worldwide release on 13th October, cost US$33M to produce and has so far grossed US$103M and has garnered mixed critical reviews. 

The film opens up on Halloween night in 2019 with Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) arriving at the home of Theresa and Roger Allen (Candice Rose and Jack William Marshall respectively) to babysit their young son Jeremy (Jaxon Goldberg), whilst the parents go out to a Halloween party. While watching John Carpenter's 'The Thing' on TV, Corey goes through to the kitchen to get himself something to drink, and then Jeremy disappears. Corey searches the house and the gardens but there is no sign of the young boy, although strange sounds and shadows are evident in the background. Corey ventures upstairs and into the roof space, when suddenly the door is locked behind him. Panic stricken Corey thumps on the door repeatedly and eventually kicks the door down with Jeremy stood directly behind it. Jeremy is sent backwards by the force of the door and falls over the stairs to his death two storeys below just as his parents come home to see their young son come crashing down. Corey is accused of intentionally killing Jeremy but is cleared of manslaughter. 

Fast forward three years and in Haddonfield, Illinois Michael Myers has not been seen since his last killing rampage in 2018. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is in the midst of writing her memoir and has purchased a house and is now living with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) who now works as a nurse at a local medical centre. Corey in the meantime, has started working at his stepfathers car salvage business. On his way home one day after work he stops off a petrol station to buy a drink. Outside he is confronted by four high school bullies who pester Corey to buy them alcohol because they are all underage. Corey refuses and gets into a scuffle resulting in him sustaining a deep glass cut to his hand. Laurie observes this having pulled up to fill up with petrol, and takes Corey to the doctors surgery where Allyson works. Allyson is immediately attracted to Corey when she tends to his wound, and the pair form a fast relationship. 

A few nights later they attend a Halloween party together and dance the night away until Corey is confronted by Jeremy's mother, at which he flees the party venue leaving Allyson, who later catches up with him. The pair have an argument outside, and Corey storms off. Walking home, the same four high school bullies pull up in their convertible car and begin to taunt Corey, resulting in him being thrown off a bridge and landing unconscious on the ground below. He is then dragged into a sewer where he comes round sometime later. He fumbles around in the dank and dark space and is then grabbed by the throat in a strangle hold by Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney), who after a short time releases him. As he crawls out of the sewer pipe into daylight he is threatened by an old homeless man living under the bridge, and in the ensuing struggle Corey stabs him to death, and the flees the scene, leaving the man where he fell. 

Corey finds Allyson later the next day to apologise for his actions the previous night, and the pair go on a dinner date to a local diner. During their dinner, they are interrupted by Allyson's ex-boyfriend, Police officer Doug Mulaney (Jesse C. Boyd) who obviously still has feelings for her, and who harasses them both. Corey stands his ground with Mulaney who afterwards follows Corey to the scene of the earlier stabbing of the old homeless man. Corey lures the cop into the sewer, where Michael emerges and stabs Mulaney multiple times in the chest while Corey holds him down. 

Meanwhile, Allyson is passed over for a promotion at work in favour of a fellow nurse Deb (Michele Dawson) who is having an affair with Dr. Mathis (Michael O'Leary). Later that evening at Dr. Mathis house Corey kills Dr. Mathis while Michael pins Deb to the wall with a kitchen knife. Unknowingly, Allyson prepares to leave Haddonfield with a persuasive Corey because of their past traumas, and to make a fresh start. Laurie though has become increasingly suspicious of Corey. After finding him sleeping in the spot where Jeremy died in the now abandoned Allen house, Laurie offers to help him if he agrees to separate himself from Allyson. Corey responds by blaming her for the events that have unfolded in Haddonfield over the years and concludes by saying that if he cannot have Allyson, then no one can.

On 31st October, Halloween night, Corey returns to the sewers and fights with Michael, successfully knocking him out and stealing his mask. Meanwhile, Laurie and Allyson argue as she plans to leave that night with Corey. She also blames Laurie for Michael's actions. That night, Corey embarks on a murderous rampage, killing the four bullies after luring them to his stepfathers salvage yard, one of whom accidentally shoots his stepfather right between the eyes. Corey then goes on to kill his overbearing mother, as well as DJ Willy the Kid (Keraun Harris) at the local radio station WURG FM, who had taunted him previously.

At the Strode house, Laurie calls the Police to report her suicide in an attempt to lure Corey to her. Wearing Michael's mask Corey confronts her whom she fires two shots into his chest sending him falling backwards down the staircase. Corey, still conscious, then stabs himself in the neck to frame Laurie for his death in front of Allyson just as she walks through the front door. Allyson storms out of the house distraught while Laurie sobs. Michael then appears and kills Corey by snapping his neck, before putting back on his mask and hunting down Laurie who has now regained her composure. 

A fight ensues in Laurie's kitchen, and Laurie manages to pin Michael to the wooden cooking island, by stabbing each hand with a long cooks knife and bringing down the fridge/freezer to trap his legs. Laurie takes out a kitchen knife from the drawer and stabs Michael through the side before drawing the blade across his throat. He begins to bleed out. In a last ditch attempt to dispose of Laurie, Michael rips his hand through the blade and grabs her by the throat. Allyson arrives back home and grabs his arm and snaps it on the bench top. Holding his arm out, Laurie slices open his wrist. Laurie and Allyson strap his lifeless body to the roof of their car and take his body to the salvage yard by Police escort, attracting the residents of Haddonfield, who follow behind in a long procession. The body of Michael is tipped into a commercial shredding machine where Laurie gives it a final kick to send it on its way when Allyson turns on the switch. In the ensuing days, Allyson and Laurie reconcile, and Allyson leaves Haddonfield while Laurie finalises her memoir and seeks to reignite her relationship with Deputy Frank Hawkins (Will Patton).

In 'Halloween Ends' Michael Myers is finally put through the mincer (literally), make no mistake, and so after thirteen instalments and forty four years this surely has to be the 'end' of this overcooked franchise! Or is it? I guess if they can bring back James Bond after he carked it at the end of 'No Time To Die', then they can still resurrect Michael Myers . . . only time will tell! All that said, this final offering in this latest threequel sits below 2018's 'Halloween' and only just a nudge above 2021's 'Halloween Kills' and is less of a slasher horror movie and more of a psychological thriller film. Jamie Lee Curtis who, after seven appearances in these 'Halloween' films over the last four+ decades gives a stoic performance who finally overcomes the maniacal marauding masked mass murderer Michael Myers, but she is no beefed-up Sarah Connor, or Wonder Woman or Black Widow and so how she managed to muster up the strength, courage and fortitude when push comes to shove to dispense with The Shape is anyone's guess! Pure adrenalin one would assume, and who's to say there's anything wrong in that. All of that said 'Halloween Ends' is sure to divide audiences, but I'm guessing that in ten years from now this closing trilogy will enjoy a cult following of die hard fans and a new audience of emerging horror hounds keen to dine out on the Myers/Strode story.

'Halloween Ends' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

HALLOWEEN : Tuesday 30th October 2018.

'HALLOWEEN' which I caught on the eve of that fateful night earlier this week is the eagerly anticipated, much hyped and long awaited 'recalibration' of the famed and iconic slasher horror franchise that introduced an unsuspecting world to maniacal killer Michael Myers and teenage babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) way back in 1978. That film, 'Halloween' was Written, Directed and Scored by the legendary John Carpenter, cost a paltry US$325K to make and grossed worldwide US$70M, and defined the genre that has been imitated ever since. That 1978 film was followed by 'Halloween II' an equally standup sequel in 1981, but after that instalment the franchise was on the skids. There have been a succession of films ever since - eight others in fact, with the latter two being remakes in 2007 and 2009 titled somewhat appropriately 'Halloween' and 'Halloween II' with both of the instalments being Directed by Rob Zombie that collectively grossed US$120M off the back of a combined budget of US$30M whilst remaining reasonably true to the original source films. In between time Jamie Lee Curtis reprised her role as a more mature Laurie Strode in 1998's 'Halloween H2O : 20 Years Later' and again in 2002 in 'Halloween : Resurrection'. This 2018 film was also scored once again by John Carpenter, cost US$10M to make through Blumhouse Productions, has received generally positive press, was released Stateside last week and has so far taken US$184M at the Box Office, breaking a number of records, as well a being the highest grossing movie of the franchise so far. Apparently a sequel is in the early stages of development.

And so to this 2018 offering as Directed and Co-Written by David Gordon Green which is the eleventh film in the franchise and a direct sequel to the the original 1978 film, disregarding completely the sequels and the continuity that have come in between time. Set forty years after the events of the first film, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis playing the character now for the fifth time), has been preparing all this time over the ensuing years for the return of Michael Myers (Nick Castle from the original film and James Jude Courtney). We are first introduced to a couple of true crime podcasters Aaron Korey (Jefferson Hall) and Dana Haines (Rhian Rees) who travel to Smith's Grove Rehabilitation Hospital with the intention of interviewing Michael Myers forty years after his killing spree on Halloween night 1978. At the facility they are met by Michael's Doctor and Psychiatrist handler, Ranbir Sartain (Haluk Bilginer) who explains that Michael has not uttered a single word in forty years and that he can speak, but chooses not to. Upon meeting with Michael in an open courtyard under very tight security, with other inmates looking on, Aaron pulls from his satchel Michael's mask that he wore on that fateful night. He gets no reaction from Michael who stands with his back to the reporter the whole time, but the other inmates are clearly ill at ease.

They learn that several of the inmates, including Michael, are to be transported the very next day to a new facility. Having been unsuccessful in gaining any insight into Michael's psyche or motivation for killing, they try their luck at Laurie Strode's house. They arrive unannounced and entice Laurie to open her heavily fortified home with $3,000 in exchange for her time, which she agrees to. Gaining short shrift from Laurie, the two reporters are sent packing largely none the wiser, except that Laurie has suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and has been waiting all this time for the return of the Bogey Man, a term that is quickly dismissed by Aaron.

The next night, during the transportation of Michael and other Hospital residents, the bus crashes, so allowing them all to flee the scene. Sartain, escorting Michael for one last time, is injured by a gun shot fired by a young lad out searching for his father amid the wreckage and who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Deputy Sheriff Frank Hawkins (Will Patton) is the first Police Officer on the scene and witnesses the brutal murder of a Prison Security Guard, and the lads father.

The next day, Aaron and Dana are filling up at a petrol station about to leave town. Dana asks the attendant to use the ladies toilet. Whilst sat in a cubicle, a heavy footed man enters and starts rattling the cubicle doors, before dropping a set of bloodied recently extracted teeth over her door. She screams when she realises what they are, alerting Aaron, who has already discovered the corpses of the garage mechanic and the attendant. Aaron bursts into the ladies toilet, and is violently and quickly dispensed with before the man diverts attention to Dana, and equally as quickly and violently ends her life too. Michael then retrieves his mask from the boot of Aaron's car, and puts it on over his head.

Michael drives back to Haddonfield. Meanwhile, a crime scene is established at the petrol station with the public and Laurie looking on beyond the Police cordon. Frank Hawkins recognises Laurie, and it is clear they share a connection, as the four dead bodies are brought out in body bags. Laurie goes to the house of her estranged daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and tries to warn her of Michael's escape from the transit bus and the trail of bloodshed already left in his wake, but she dismisses her concerns as the ramblings of an unhinged woman.

Halloween night duly arrives and out on the streets are party revellers, Mums and Dads and kids of all ages dressed up in ghostly and ghoulish attire - the perfect night for hiding in plain sight and doing a little bit of killing! Karen's daughter Allyson Nelson (Andi Matichak) and Laurie's Granddaughter, is one of those out partying with her boyfriend Cameron (Dylan Arnold). The couple get into a fight and part company. Meanwhile, Michael has commenced his killing spree on Halloween night in Haddonfield dispensing with a couple of stay at home wives, and then Allyson's best friend Vicky, who was baby sitting a young lad, and her boyfriend Dave (Miles Robbins).

Laurie and Deputy Hawkins convince Karen and her husband Ray (Toby Huss) to seek refuge in Laurie's house where they will be safe, in the fortress like surroundings that Laurie has spent her life preparing for. Meanwhile, Allyson is unaccounted for and can't be reached by mobile phone, because the last thing that Cameron did was throw her precious phone into a bowl of custard. Walking home with Oscar (Drew Scheid), Cameron's good friend, the pair cross paths with Michael, and Oscar meets a sticky end being impaled through the neck on an iron gate post. Allyson witnesses this and runs screaming to alert her neighbours.

Deputy Hawkins and Dr. Sartain arrive in a patrol car to collect Allyson from the scene of the crime, being comforted by her neighbours. They collect Allyson to take her to Laurie's house to be with the family unit. En route they spy Michael on foot, and Deputy Hawkins puts the peddle to the metal and deliberately hits Michael front on at speed, sending him flying backwards believed to be dead. Sartain is obsessed with trying to understand Michael's motivations after all these years of treatment, that he wonders what must be going through his mind when he is killing. Sartain turns a scalpel on Hawkins killing him before he can shoot dead Michael for sure, dons Michael's face mask, and lifts the lifeless but still breathing body of the killer into the back of the patrol car with Allyson, and drives off towards Laurie's house. Michael regains consciousness en route to Laurie's house and overpowers Sartain from the back of the vehicle. Michael drags Sartain out of the patrol car, puts on his mask again, and stamps on Sartain's head, crushing it like a Halloween pumpkin. Allyson, escapes the car and runs into the woods. Two other Police Officers arrive at the scene who had been guarding the entry to the Strode estate, and these two are gruesomely dispensed with by Michael too.

Michael arrives at Laurie's fortress, and promptly kills an inquisitive Ray. Laurie is heavily armed and poised at the ready. As Michael tries to gain entry through the front door grasping Laurie through the glass panel in a stranglehold, she is able to position her shotgun and fire at him through the glass shooting off two of his fingers in the process. She hides in a secret basement under the kitchen with Karen, hearing the sounds of heavy footsteps on the floorboards above. She fires her shotgun upwards, clearly injuring Michael with a thump to the floor. She ventures out of the basement leaving Karen. Armed with a rifle and a torch she searches through the house following Michael's trail of blood as she goes. She seals every room once it has been cleared with an automatic heavy drop down steel door. But the pair come face to face in a spare room upstairs with Michael pushing Laurie out onto the roof where she falls down into the garden below, seemingly unconscious.

By now Allyson has arrived at the house and is reunited with Karen in the basement. Michael is distracted by Allyson's panicked arrival, and when he looks down to the garden again, Laurie is gone (a nod to the original film here where the reverse occurred).  Michael has surmised that Karen and Allyson are lurking in the secret basement hideaway, and is able to gain entry. Looking down at them Karen shoots Michael and he falls forward into the basement towards them. Laurie is looking on from behind. Michael rises and grabs at Karen's foot as she is making her exit up the steps. The three women stab, and punch and kick at their assailant sending him reeling backwards again, just in time for Laurie to activate some heavy reinforced bars across the stairs so trapping Michael inside the basement. Using a rigged up gas supply which is also automatically activated by a heat lamp, Laurie throws a flaming torch into the basement which quickly engulfs the basement, the house and Michael in a ball of fire. The three women leave the burning house as sun rises on a new day, and hitch a ride in a passing pick up truck, nursing their wounds.

After all the positive publicity and marketing surrounding this film, I went into see 'Halloween' and was not disappointed. Disregarding all the previous ho-hum instalments that came after 1981's 'Halloween II', this film pays a respectful homage to John Carpenter's original and ground breaking horror slasher flick, and updates it whilst maintaining many of the touchstones that made that first offering so memorable. The body count reaches sixteen by my reckoning by the time the end credits roll which is sure to please the younger generation of fans who like their kills delivered in new and inventive ways and with plenty of gore. The film is also relevant for the present day #MeToo movement by virtue of having three put upon female protagonists overcome the dominant male antagonist for making their lives a misery for so long. There are a few jump scares in this film, but only a few, and unlike the original, this film doesn't really scare. It's dramatic, it's thrilling at times, and the brutality of the random merciless killings is horrific, but I'm not sure this is a horror film in the true sense, unlike say 'Hereditary' was. Its entertaining, packs a punch, and revitalises a franchise that lost its way a long time ago, and for that reason sure is worth the price of your cinema ticket.

'Halloween' rates four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-