Critics have shared their thoughts on the new slasher sequel Halloween Ends ahead of its release tomorrow, October 14. Halloween Ends is the third and final film in Blumhouse's new trilogy of Halloween films, directed and co-written by David Gordon Green. The trilogy began in 2018 with Halloween, a project that ignored the continuity of every other sequel in the franchise after 1978's Halloween, following Laurie, her daughter (Judy Greer), and her granddaughter (Andi Matichak) as they square off against the masked serial killer Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney & Nick Castle) yet again.
This final film in the Blumhouse trilogy will take place four years after 2021's Halloween Kills, which was set on the same night as the 2018 entry. Now living with her granddaughter, Laurie is forced to reckon with the trauma of her past when a brand new local teen is accused of killing a child he was babysitting. Naturally, in the midst of all this chaos, Myers will eventually resurface and face down his longtime victim once and for all. In addition to Curtis, Matichak, Courtney, and Castle reprising their roles, the film features returning Kills performer Kyle Richards and newcomer Rohan Campbell as Corey Cunningham, the young man at the center of the murderous accusations.
Today, the embargo lifted on reviews of Halloween Ends, and critics were able to share their full thoughts on the film. While some find the film to be satisfying on its own merits, the bulk of critics agree that it is a disappointing conclusion to an iconic franchise that has lasted over 40 years. They are less certain of whether it's an improvement on Halloween 2018 and Halloween Kills. Most seem to applaud the 2018 effort as the best in the new trilogy, but waver on whether Kills or Ends is ultimately more satisfying. Check out selected quotes from reviews below:
Ben Kendrick, Screen Rant:
Halloween Ends is a satisfying enough conclusion to the H40 trilogy and, overall, the three films provide the strongest Halloween sequel continuity of the franchise's twelve post-Halloween 1978 follow-ups. For that reason, even if Green rolled the dice (and lost) on an underwhelming central premise for Ends, a satisfying conclusion to Laurie's story from Halloween 1978 to 2022 was worth any missteps that plague Kills and Ends.
Tom Jorgensen, IGN:
Halloween Ends concludes the Myers/Strode rematch trilogy with an ambitious, if somewhat confused, final chapter. Despite dialed-in performances from Jamie Lee Curtis and franchise newcomer Rohan Campbell, David Gordon Green’s larger exploration of evil and trauma expands on the conversation he started in Halloween 2018 and Halloween Kills at a rate that Ends doesn’t quite have time to keep up with.
William Bibbiani, Yahoo! Entertainment:
Perhaps “Halloween Ends” doesn’t work because — going back to that title — “Halloween” isn’t supposed to end. John Carpenter left the original with an almost complete lack of closure, which played less like a sequel tease and more like a threat. Michael Myers is still out there somewhere, literally or figuratively, and he’s going to get you. If he’s not, then this whole enterprise comes across as rather pointless. If evil can truly end — and especially if it ends this anticlimactically — it must not have been that powerful to begin with.
Scott Mendelson, Forbes:
Halloween Ends works as a mournful and somber epilogue for the Michael Myers/Laurie Strode franchise. It’s almost a dare to folks complaining that Halloween and Halloween Kills were just the same old thing and/or just Michael killing people for 100 minutes, offering up a Halloween sequel that works (at least initially) as a drama first and a slasher second.
Brian Truitt, USA Today:
That’s how “Ends” rolls, though: It’s a denouement that ventures too far afield from familiarity, a good-vs.-evil slugfest more complicated than it needs to be, and a “Halloween” flick that should go out with a roar but instead closes with a masked wheeze.
Kate Erbland, IndieWire:
If there is one lesson that “Halloween Ends” — hell, that this entire trilogy, this entire franchise — easily imparts, with blood and guts and terror to spare, it’s that horror never really ends. It just takes a different shape. This story surely will, too, but for now, it’s concluded in fine fashion.
Is Halloween Ends Better Than Halloween Kills?
At the time of writing, the review aggregator service Rotten Tomatoes has given Halloween Ends a Rotten score of 44% between 43 reviews. As more reviews come in throughout the week, that score could fluctuate considerably. So far it has not dipped as low as the rating for Halloween Kills, which ended up with a particularly low score of 39%.
It will be some time before fans know for certain if critics found Halloween Ends to be conclusively better than Kills. But any way it's sliced, the film seems too close in quality to the previous entry to appease fans who didn't appreciate that particular outing with Myers. However, that doesn't seem to be impacting its box office potential, as the film is still poised to beat Kills' opening weekend quite handily, though it may experience a significant week 2 drop if audiences feel the same way as the critics.
Source: Various (see above)
