After Many Years, One of Cinema’s Most Famous Final Girls Has Her Final Fight

Jamie Lee Curtis and Rohan Campbell in 
"Halloween Ends"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

Forty-four years after John Carpenter’s masterful slasher film, “Halloween,” hit theaters in 1978 and became an iconic film in the horror genre, we’ve reached the end of the era of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers.  After director and co-writer David Gordon Green delivered an enjoyable legacy sequel with “Halloween” in 2018, it was hard not to get excited when considering how he would continue the franchise.  When the second film in his trilogy, 2021’s “Halloween Kills,” failed to bring anything new to the series, you had to wonder if he’d be able to get back on track to bring us the conclusion that Laurie’s saga deserved.

He manages to do so with the latest installment, “Halloween Ends.”  It’s an entry that’s certainly not going to be to everyone’s taste, but it’s hard not to admire the strange routes that it takes to bring us something different.

Four years after the events of “Halloween” and “Halloween Kills,” Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her granddaughter, Allyson (And Matichak), are living a quiet life in Haddonfield, Illinois, having gone those years without another appearance from Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle).  When some troubling events take place that cause Michael to re-emerge, Laurie will face him in a final confrontation towards which her life’s been building.

More than four decades after becoming one of the cinema’s most memorable scream queens, Curtis brings it in her final performance as Laurie.  Near the beginning, Curtis exhumes the peace that Laurie always wanted, showing the relaxed side of her that we haven’t seen since her carefree first hour of Carpenter’s original film.  However, she also still expresses some of the pain that has come with years of living in fear.  Once her face-to-face with Michael arrives, Curtis evokes Laurie’s I’m-fed-up-with-this energy and once again shows us the bravery of her character facing her monster, unleashing the fighter that she’s become in preparation for her battle with fate.

In his first major film role, Rohan Campbell delivers a terrific performance as a new character, Corey Cunningham.  I can’t go into too much detail about him for fear of spoilers, but Campbell offers engaging work as a Haddonfield resident with a troubled past who has the town turned against him.  He’s a character who adds a new layer to the Laurie-Michael saga, and Campbell embraces the air of mystery that Corey has whenever he’s on screen.

The screenplay by Green, Danny McBride, Chris Bernier, and Paul Brad Logan makes some pretty bold creative decisions to veer away from the “Halloween” slasher formula, and those choices are going to divide fans.  However, after the lackluster job that was done on the previous film, it’s hard to deny that the new directions in which this movie goes are refreshing, which becomes evident right from the unsettling opening scene.  The narrative shows the aftermath of a Haddonfield that’s been beaten down by Michael’s carnage, examines the nature of evil from a couple of angles, and puts a lot of focus on Corey’s arc, a plot thread that brings a welcome dose of unpredictability to the story.  Although it feels at times like the screenplay’s trying to do too much by bringing in these factors, while also trying to stage the final meetup between Laurie and Michael, this results in a bit of a lack of focus.  But, with this being the final “Halloween” movie for Laurie’s character, some diversion from the usual franchise fare is welcome.

Green showed promise as a horror director with his first “Halloween” film, and he brings that back to finish his trilogy.  Although this movie has its share of blood, Green thankfully tones it down from what we saw in “Kills,” where the bloodshed came close to what we saw in Rob Zombie’s 2007 “Halloween” remake and its sequel.  He doesn’t feel the need to go all-out for the finale, instead keeping it closer to the levels of the 2018 film.  Aside from the slasher set-pieces, Green uses his experience from working on his more dramatic films to focus on the growing relationship between Allyson and Corey in the first half of the film, as well as the meaningful interactions between other characters.  Doing this allows us to build up some investment in these individuals before the more horror-oriented second half begins.  

Whether or not we get new installments of this series without Curtis is anyone’s guess, but we can at least know that “Halloween Ends” offers a satisfying sendoff to this chapter in horror-movie history.

Grade: B+