Rating: 4/5
AKA: Corey Stops Taking Shit
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SPOILERS
Words fail me in moments like this, where you basically eat your own hat after being proven so wrong.
I want to time travel and slap the fuck out of myself for being so dumb in posts and videos regarding Halloween Ends.
I don’t know if it was on accident or the right circumstances, but Halloween End does, what its predecessor Halloween Kills, could not, and that’s tell a compelling, beautiful story in a horror movie.
Some from the production of this movie likened their vision to that of the horror Classic Christine, but I almost daresay it leans more in line with Bram Stoker’s Dracula and a dash of Frankenstein.
We’re gonna deep dive here so get the fuck ready but I want to start off by reiterating:
4 years after Michael Myers symphony of triumph, Laurie Strode has moved into Haddonfield proper along with her granddaughter Allyson, trying get on as best they can with their lives.
During the interim between 2018 and present, a young man Corey accidentally kills the bratty asshole kid he was babysitting during a prank gone wrong.
In the present Corey along with Laurie & Allyson are all treated like social pariahs or more accurately, whatever the community wants them to be, typically emotional and sometimes physical punching bags.
This ill treatment from the townsfolk eventually leads to Laurie befriending Corey and introducing him to Allyson.
Things begin to unravel fast for Corey and he finds himself face to face with a weakened Michael Myers, whose been hiding in a sewer pipe apparently for the better part of 4 years.
The 2 seemingly bond or vibe or whatever (look I didn’t care that it happened I was down with it by the time they meet) but MM decides he has a kindred spirit in Corey and the 2 team up for party time Terry Silver, John Kreese Karate Kid 3 style.
Corey struggles with his humanity, his shitty life and trying to find happiness with Allyson which culminates in the inevitable confrontation of all parties for a definitive conclusion.
Most of my negative criticism regarding the previews, leaks, and initial information regarding the plot, stemmed from what was delivered to us in Halloween Kills (HK). While I love MANY things about that film, it is one of the most unwatchable films in the franchise, for all the wrong reasons.
My main complaint from the previous film was that they tried to tack on a lot of public morality police bullshit during a horror movie. Which if done correctly as befitting the genre and subject matter could have worked.
HK failed to do that, and completely tarnished the good foundation 2018’s Halloween had created.
To briefly sum up:
HK mainly centered around the town going bloodthirsty once they learned MM was still alive and in town killing again. They ended up chasing a goofy ugly freak who was on the same bus MM escaped from, thinking he was the masked man himself.
We were treated to scenes and monologues about how mob justice is wrong and ultimately the short fat goof they chased, threw himself out a window killing himself trying to escape.
Not only that, “doing the right thing” was all over the movie as a running theme.
Then at the end, Karen Strode (Laurie’s Daughter) decided to utilize the same mob she was against, to assist her in killing MM, which thankfully backfires and ends with her dumbass being dead.
I can’t go on enough how forced and invasive this was to the film, it did nothing to make anyone “think” it just got in the way of a good time.
Corey getting the old Strode Strudel 🤣
In stark contrast to HK, Halloween Ends (HE) the story uses the same tale weaving systemic approach HK tried but integrates it to something everyone deals with: coming of age, shitty social circumstances, trying to find happiness and in the end taking ownership of who you are, decisively marching down a path of your own choosing.
The main difference from HK aside from the subject matter, would have to be how seamlessly, these themes blended into the movie. You have multiple moments eloquently implanting these nuances in the plot beautifully in most scenes.
Essentially though this change is mostly represented in Corey as you see his gradual progression into darkness AKA Being the fucking man, but we’ll get to that.
Mostly whatever mistakes happened in HK’s forced narrative, do not exist in HE. In short, they gave us something that doesn’t just simply pass as a movie but give us glimpses of brilliance.
It’s almost like HK tried hard to do this, and HE effortlessly pulls it off. Very stark contrasts indeed.
First it has to be said that one of the major hang ups in HE stems from this trilogy’s stance on supernatural versus mortal Michael Myers fandom.
Is he evil because of a stupid mask? Was he possessed, does he possess supernatural strength, is he immortal?
In early Halloween 2018 pre production interviews, that they wanted to make MM human, that he’s just an evil man, if so then fine, just stick with it.
Yet among my many complaints with the first film, he seemed to have had some psychic or supernatural connection to the mask from Halloween (1978).
This plays a part in HE where Corey ends up taking it from the big guy (for real he gets down and just straight up takes it) This vagueness in definitively setting on sources of evil or power I think is intentional so that it doesn’t get in the way of the story.
It is acceptable but in hindsight a shortcut to thinking things thru for sure.
MM is not in the movie as much, this is a Corey Story for sure.
While that story is a damn fine one, you yearn for the type of screentime the boogeyman had in HK or 2018.
We really, REALLY. wanted Corey to get away and go off with Allyson, but it was not to be.
Definitely hated Laurie Strode and wanted her dead the entire movie, especially during the ending where they meat grinder MM into pulp at the junk yard.
A deviation from “He’s Pure Evil” is simply ignored in favor to trade off a weakened variant of MM presented in this film. Biggest complaint is, if he was only one armed and could move, being injured wouldn’t have stopped the mission of killing Strode and the townsfolk.
Corey, every fucking thing about Corey is magic. Very relatable to anyone who’s had to deal with shit, or a bad hand, or just things out of their control. His entire arc, and descent was brilliant.
Corey and Michael teaming up was funny AF and the kills were nice. So short lived though. That blow torch death is def a new fave.
There is a singular moment between Allyson and Corey where for a few seconds, I was transported back to my teen years reexperiencing those feeling of sharing a bond with someone who was going thru the same shit as you.
A movie hasn’t made me feel that way in years.
Brilliant camera shots, even though we hated Corey taking Michael’s mask, the way they filmed it was sheer old school static camera genius. In other words, “we didn’t like it” but it didn’t offend us the way it was presented. This ties in to another thing we loved:
Myers is weak AF when he meets Corey. Apparently, he’s been surviving thanks to some old crazy homeless guy feeding him and bringing him stragglers to kill. Though the crazy guy also called himself Michael Myers who the fuck know what’s going on there.
But anyway, we liked this because of the way MM is filmed, like a dusty broken Frankenstein or tinman trying to function.
You feel sorry for him, you want him to get out of that shit pipe and go to town on the majority of these fucks (most of the town is incredibly unlikable)
So, while we hated the fact he’s stuck down there, we loved the presentation.
Lastly, Allyson's plot is very well written and helps to solidify why it was so easy for her to get with Corey in this movie. Shes treated like an object which listen fam I'm the first to say sex girls all day everyday in a horror movie. In this context it makes sense, you get to see how everyone just treats her as the girl who had trauma with a kooky grandma, lemme tap that type of mentality.
MRHELLBOX – I had a good time, and this is the closest Blumhouse has ever gotten to touching the cinematic gods’ feet.
They’ll never come this close again. This is the Halloween film we needed to cap of this mixed bag trilogy.
Some will shit on how Myers spared Corey because he saw something, whatever. After Evil Dies Tonight one million fucking times, Ill forgive the film partially ignoring some character traits, in order to tell a story.
It was a beautiful experience and I WISH they had somehow traded places with that homeless guy, instead of killing him. That way Myers or Corey or both could have managed to carry on the mantle.
Would have made sense as we said earlier that homeless dude was crazy as hell calling himself Michael Myers. -4/5
DRUNKEN MASTER – Corey gonna bone your granddaughter Laurie XD Negan levels of trolling. Literally felt alive for a few moments during this film. This is storytelling, take notes you morons who try to make another HK type movie, this is HOW you do it. – 4/5
PRINCE PECTORALS – Sad seeing MM go, but he’ll be back the Akkad family already looking to make another one in different continuity LMFAO. But for real this was a surprise, loved it, just a few things keeping it back from being perfect. – 4/5
All images were clipped by me from this here:
Song Come 2 Me by Johnny Goth
