Review | Halloween Ends movie review: Jamie Lee Curtis faces The Shape one last time in perfectly gory finale to the slasher series – at least for now
- Although the first half of the film is gentle by slasher standards, crushed bodies, torched heads and severed tongues later lend a satisfying amount of gore
- The movie closes on the word ‘Ends’, but is this really the finale of the Halloween franchise? In Hollywood, there’s always a way for the boogeyman to return
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3/5 stars
A decisive-sounding title like Halloween Ends suggests that this might be the very last movie from the long-running slasher franchise, but don’t count on it. The series of horror movies started by John Carpenter and Debra Hill, and starring Jamie Lee Curtis as terrorised babysitter Laurie Strode, has been through repeated reboots and resurrections since its 1978 debut.
This latest run, directed and co-written by David Gordon Green, has Curtis back as a PTSD-suffering Strode who must finally face off with her supernatural tormentor Michael Myers – aka “The Shape” (James Jude Courtney).
Now, four years on, Myers has disappeared, and the film begins with an incident that sees youngster Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) accidentally involved in the death of a boy he was babysitting. Although he doesn’t go to prison, he’s ostracised – forever known as the local “psycho”.
Strode takes pity on Cunningham and even introduces him to her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), with the two hitting it off. For the first half it’s all fairly sedate, at least by Halloween standards – with Corey’s struggles front and centre.
But with evil still lurking in the shadows, Halloween Ends will not disappoint those looking for a quick gore fix. One all-out assault at a scrapyard involves crushed bodies and torched heads. A severed tongue, left to revolve on a record player, also adds a dose of black humour.
Powered by Carpenter’s main theme – still as fresh-sounding as it was in 1978 – Green’s film also can’t resist the odd amusing musical cue, like the use of Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”.
It’s a pity that Strode’s voice-over narration (“He took our dreams and turned them into nightmares”) – which is meant to be a memoir she’s writing – feels so second-rate, but Curtis can still make bad dialogue sound credible.
Will Patton – who portrayed officer Hawkins in the 2018 and 2021 movies – also returns, as the local who takes a shine to Strode, but it’s a charismatic Campbell who does most of the heavy lifting here as Corey and, largely, succeeds.
Drenched in blood, drowning in screams, the film is an effectively grim way to round off Green’s tenure. But is this really it? It closes with an emphasis on the word “Ends” as the title flashes up, but this is Hollywood. There’s always a way for the boogeyman to make a comeback.
