Most people know the name, Micheal Myers, first gaining popularity in the 1978 slasher film Halloween displaying a formula of stalking, killing, and the trope of the last girl. Laurie Strode played by Jamie Lee Curtis, played the iconic last girl in nine out of thirteen films. However, Halloween Ends was no short of a letdown, containing little of the original film’s formula and charm, the star himself Micheal Myers had very little screen time. The film was released on October 14, 2022, as Jamie Lee Curtis and American actor, James Jude Courtney (who has portrayed Micheal Myers in 2 previous sequel films), come back to play their respective roles. Reviews show a continuous decline in both its classic slasher roots and the overall quality of the franchise. Halloween Ends is no exception, scoring a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes and 1.9/5 for an audience rating. 

The film started with a slow rise to the climax of a story set four years after Laurie’s previous encounter with Micheal in Halloween Kills and the 2018 Halloween film. Laurie is living with her granddaughter while writing a memoir; we are then introduced to the young killer Corey who accidentally murdered a young boy on Halloween night. Later on, Laurie meets Corey after he was attacked by teenagers for not wanting to get them alcohol. Laurie then decides to set him up with her granddaughter despite his similarities to Micheal he developed after encountering Micheal in an underground sewer leading to his choice to kill people he deemed in his way or wronged him.

Corey’s rise as a killer is the true failure of the film, giving you no classic Halloween nostalgia, and is in every sense of the word, beating a dead horse. The film breaks apart with an ending leaving you in a sense of disappointment and regret. A large part of the movie is spent on characters that have nothing to do with the beginning of the film, bringing us to the point where the movie was shown as the end of it all but seemed to just be another quick kill on the writer’s part. The writing as a whole didn’t bring much to the table, what it became would disappoint many long-term fans and people that have enjoyed earlier films. The lack of bloodshed and gore on Micheal’s part is another issue, no longer garnering the same feeling past films created. Overall the movie is passionless and accumulates a tedious tone making it hard to sit through, let alone enjoy.