Halloween Ends Review: A Decent Conclusion to the H40 Trilogy
Halloween Ends is a respectable but uneven conclusion to David Gordon Green's H40 trilogy; it is far worse than Halloween Kills but significantly superior to Halloween (in most respects). 44 years after the first Halloween hit theatres, Green's "final" instalment successfully ties together the majority of the franchise's retconned threads and offers a satisfying enough resolution for both the series' protagonist Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and the infamous Shape aka Michael Myers. The most recent episode, however, struggles to stand alone and is, more than anything, the third part in a revival trilogy that peaked with its debut episode. Outside of Halloween Ends' central promise, the end of Michael Myers.
Four years after the events of Kills, Halloween Ends opens up with Laurie leaving her isolated existence in favour of returning to Haddonfield, caring for her orphaned granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), and using her past trauma to write a tell-all book about her meetings with Michael Myers. But when Laurie has a chance encounter with Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), the newest pariah in Haddonfield, she finds it difficult to retain her newfound serenity and worries that Myers' control over the community is once more reaching a breaking point.
On the other hand, almost every other character in the movie is a well-known caricature with no definition and gives the audience little reason to care about them. As previously mentioned, Corey's storyline is poorly thought out from the beginning, and his addition is more of a living allegory than a fully realised, living character. Almost every other character who enters his orbit returns to the type of dubious judgement and forced drama that Halloween 2018 had successfully left in the past. It's sad since the previous two episodes had established Matichak as a fascinating next-generation talent and Allyson as a fascinating foundation through which to learn more about Laurie (who might even take over for Curtis).
Halloween Ends is a decently satisfying way to wrap up the H40 trilogy, which overall offers the finest Halloween sequel continuity out of the franchise's twelve films released after Halloween 1978. Since Laurie's journey spans from Halloween 1978 to 2022, a satisfying climax was worth any flaws that plague Kills and Ends, even though Green gambled (and lost) on an unimpressive fundamental premise for Ends. Even still, it's difficult to deny that Halloween 2018 set a high standard for Green's resurrection trilogy, a standard that was lowered by the subsequent chapter and barely raised by Halloween Ends.