HALLOWEEN ENDS

CONTAINS SOME MAJOR SPOILERS

Well, it's better than Halloween Kills, but that's not saying much. That second instalment of one of the most iconic slasher series wasn't just a depressing and senseless bloodbath that existed solely to slaughter as many innocent people as possible, it was a betrayal of everything Halloween started out as. John Carpenter's original was a horror movie you could show your children (or your parents) because it didn't have any swearing or graphic gore, but successive sequels, reboots, remakes and alternate timelines have amped up the body count and the blood spurts culminating in Halloween Kills' tedious massacre of anyone and everyone, whether a significant character, a firefighter, or a random passerby who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The first big surprise of Halloween Ends is that Michael Myers isn't actually in it that much, probably in recognition of the fact that he's 65 years old. Instead, the focus is on Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), a previously unknown character who accidentally killed a child on Halloween Night three years ago (this opening scene is actually pretty good, but after that it just sinks) and is still deeply troubled by it. Tormented and bullied by the locals, tonight might just be when Corey finally snaps, unless something comes of a tenuous romance with Allyson (Andi Matichak), Laurie Strode's granddaughter... Laurie herself (Jamie Lee Curtis for the last time, no, really, honest) has adjusted surprisingly well to the carnage: living a normal domestic life without the electric fences and the bunker and the shotguns, embracing the spirit of the Halloween festival, and almost entering into a tenuous romance of her own with Frank (Will Patton), who I actually thought was killed at least one film ago...

The second big surprise about Halloween Ends (With Any Luck) is that it's actually more reminiscent of Christine, John Carpenter's weakest and least interesting film (with the exception of Dark Star), than it is of Halloween itself. Our lead character is a loner named Cunningham, routinely bullied, miserably treated by his family, who spends a lot of time at the local junkyard. Why didn't they go the whole hog and have him drive around in a red Plymouth Fury? But all this does is to distract, to shift focus from what Halloween movies are about at heart: Laurie and Michael, Michael and Loomis, and now Laurie and Allyson. And why they've suddenly decided to riff on Christine, of all things, is as big a mystery as why Haddonfield still does the whole Halloween thing every year after all the misery and slaughter it brings them on a regular basis, or why Laurie Strode (or anyone else) still lives there after everything that's happened, rather than moving a thousand miles across the country.

On a technical level it's perfectly alright, well enough shot and decently put together, and effectively nasty when it wants to be, though Carpenter's score (with Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies again) doesn't make any impression. It is undeniably better than the last instalment, and it's better than Rob Zombie's Halloween II, the terrible Halloween 4, and the one with Busta Rhymes, but is that really enough? Personally I am just hoping this is actually the end, and Michael Myers is left in the past along with Jason (there hasn't been a Friday The 13th movie for 13 years now and there's no sign of one on the horizon), though the presence of Myers in the extended Blumhouse logo might suggest they're not going to drop him just yet and will instead milk him for every last dollar. Let him go.

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