'Halloween Ends' Review

Shape of disinterest

The core issue of these later-day Halloween flicks is a frustrating lack of commitment. Is Michael A. Myers the literal shape of evil, an unstoppable and unkillable boogeyman? Or is he just a man afforded his status by hearsay and urban myth? Kills tried to push the latter, suggesting the shape of evil was not one man but several who indirectly idolize it, but then the film gave up and said 'oh yeah but there is still an unstoppable and unkillable boogeyman out there.' The way Ends tries to take up this thread again is perhaps subversive, but once again the film lacks the wherewithal to stick with it, instead undercutting itself yet again, as if it's all been a long-running joke that evil truly can change its shape.

Ends feels like in order for the film to not solely be the showdown between Michael and Laurie, the writers invented an entire self-contained subplot, the result being a climax meant to be a meaningful payoff to something the rest of the film simply isn't about. It's better than Kills by virtue of blunt coherence, but its air of loftiness in its ideology falls completely and totally flat, with the sense not even the film believes its own platitudes, and is instead just joylessly spinning its tires until the blood stops flying. Although, considering the entire affair is predicated on the bizarre concept of 'Michael gave up for four years,' maybe this should have been expected?