Revenge of Graphic Content #42: Halloween Ends (2022) - Unearned Confidence

And with this post, we have officially wrapped up a rundown of every Michael Myers film for this year’s installment of 31 Days of Halloween. It really is a pity this little subseries has to end on such a down note, however. In truth, I just kind of felt insulted watching Halloween Ends (2022) again, especially when I see good ideas delivered so poorly.

From here, I have three more films to cover to complete this volume of 31 Days of Halloween. I think I will be watching a ghost story, a modern viral horror film, and a holiday classic that is more about Halloween vibes than anything particularly horrific. Stay tuned for future installments of Graphic Content.

Also, I am probably doing this again next year, and I am leaning toward covering every Friday the 13th film. Please comment and try to talk me out of it.

Poster for Halloween Ends (2022) from IMDB

It feels like a bummer to leave the Halloween franchise here with Halloween Ends (2022), given how much of a downgrade it is from Halloween (2018). The David Gordon Green trilogy is an exercise in diminishing returns that picks and chooses themes and iconography from across the Michael Myers films, but does little to weave them into a compelling whole. There are ideas there, but few of them stick the landing and actually add anything to the franchise.

In truth, I don’t really feel like I have much to say about Halloween Ends because I see a lot of squandered potential. I applaud the ambition, but it is wasted without proper execution. The Blumhouse legacy sequel trilogy loosely establishes an escalating corruption of Haddonfield on the back of the murders of 1978. While much of the first two films focus on Laurie and her family, the whole town has fallen under a darkness Michael instigated, and the Shape is no longer a singular madman but a metaphor for generational madness. At least that is what the Blumhouse series is trying to get across, but it doesn’t land all that well. Kills and Ends suffer because there wasn’t enough established in the 2018 film to organically develop the larger point.

Still from Halloween Ends (2022) from IMDB — I like the idea of Corey, I just don’t like the lack of development.

I generally like the idea of Corey, a victim of Haddonfield, nearly becoming the next Michael. My problem is taking a trilogy-long story and fitting it into the third act of a trilogy, not allowing the story to develop organically. I dislike the cowardice of establishing such a radical concept only to dispose of him so abruptly, reducing his arc to an excuse to add a final Laurie and Michael fight when the point the movie was building toward was that the Shape is no longer just Michael. Maybe if we had more time with Corey, writing him out in such a way in the final act of the final film would work better.

But it is the unearned confidence of the films, especially that of Ends, that bothers me most. Ends tries to make a grand, sweeping ending cobbled from an abandoned idea, replaced by nostalgia-bait references to previous films and franchise memories. The legacy sequel trilogy plays like a greatest hits played by a cover band at times. In attempting to correct the franchise’s past errors, the creative team simply remixes those mistakes into something equally messy. Halloween Ends is another take on the succession idea flirted with in Halloween 4, referencing Jamie Lloyd’s potential evolution into a monster, which was squandered by its sequel. Ends abruptly abandons Corey entirely, just to revisit the domestic kitchen brawl of Halloween H20, all within the same twenty minutes.

I think that has been the most frustrating element of rewatching the franchise this month, seeing an ebb and flow of bold narrative choices and hesitant, cowardly backtracking. I think that is maybe why I was so taken with Crystal Lake. Halloween is a series of a couple of fantastic highs and a frustrating tendency to retreat upon itself. Crystal Lake is only the second reboot of Friday the 13th, a series that radically changed over a bunch of movies, making choices and sticking with them and not going with constant reboots.

After Halloween Ends, I think I am done with Michael Myers for a good, long time. I would rather wait until a strong concept arrives that moves Michael and Haddonfield forward than risk another reboot that tries to play the hits and backs away from anything meaningful. He is still one of the most beloved and iconic slasher characters out there, and I will always make time for the 1978 original. But if I am going to watch any other film in the series, it would just end up being Halloween III, the only remnant of the anthology concept that the series should have always been.

As for how I would rank the films, here is a complete list from my favorite to least favorite. And yes, I am throwing Halloween III: Season of the Witch in here, though it has nothing to do with Michael because it is one of the best movies.