Halloween Ends at the IMAX isn’t a Great Experience
I have to start this Halloween Ends review by stating that we saw Halloween Ends at the IMAX theatre. Watching a slasher film on a giant screen was a unique opportunity we didn’t want to pass up. This experience might be different in a normal theatre because the technical aspects won’t be the same. Also some of the things I’m about to say could be the fault of that individual theatre and not of the IMAX experience in general. Lastly, I’ll be starting the review out with how poorly this film is being presented as a whole compared to other wide release horror films.
As we opened the door to find our seats the sound was absolutely blaring through product commercials. It was so uncomfortably loud that I was laughing throughout at it’s obnoxious sound levels. “At least we’ll see some cool upcoming horror film trailers!”, we foolishly exclaimed as we suffered through another car commercial that was so loud it sounded like Michael Myers was forcing our heads against a live revving engine. The few trailers they somehow find the time to cram in between selling you vehicles and beverages are not for anything rated R let alone horror films. We’d been tricked and hoped the feature presentation was going to be the treat.
Halloween Ends begins by introducing a new main character named Corey, for the final installment in this new film universe. And again, I’m sorry to have to do this. I’d love to just be able to talk about the story and characters but there was a much more menacing villain stalking this film last night and that my friends was the sound.
As soon as these new characters began talking it became apparent that it was going to take great concentration to understand what anyone was saying. Every character in the opening scene sounded like they were talking through an invisible cardboard box that was pulled right down past their necks resting firmly on their shoulders. The sound was so mufflled I was attempting to mimic it at home by placing my clasped hands over my mouth while performing some dialogue and was shocked by how accurate it sounded to what we experienced. Hopefully in a regular theatre it doesn’t sound like the dialogue was recorded from within the suffocated head of the sorority sister from Black Christmas. You can imagine how difficult it was to hear the dialogue through any scenes with loud music and I tell you, this movie loves blaring loud music. But let’s get back to the story.
The Plot of Halloween Ends
The opening scene in Halloween Ends is one that grabs your attention immediately with a crazy moment that is sure to hush any normal crowd having trouble settling down. As a slasher fan this moment made me burst out in surprised laughter. The fun had already begun and I could start the morbid checklist of slasher film tropes and expectations that rests in my skull.
Times are clearly going to be rough for Corey. The incident which seemed to pass without any acknowledgement of investigation or reason has made him the unwanted talk of the town. Unfortunately Corey’s baby sitting income has left him with no financial backing to run or hide so he is forced to just float through his small town existence ducking bullies and attempting to keep a low profile.
Everything seems dire for Corey until pounding music and a few beers at the local club beckon him to cut a sick rug on the dance floor. Witnessing this public display of shedding the proverbial shackles of his existence is Laurie Strode’s grand daughter Allyson, who sees a kindred spirit of circumstancial consequences. Immediately falling in love with this wacky dancing buffoon, Allyson tries to help Corey return to some sort of stable existence she herself seems to finally be settling into. The guilt Corey feels is clearly not the same as the trauma Allyson endured, sinking Corey back into the suffocating self loathing existence he lived before meeting the new pretty girl in his life.
Allyson has become a nurse and clearly brings that trait of wanting to fix people into her personal life. As we know, nursing is a full scheduled, over worked and underpaid position leaving little time to counsel her romantic interest. Corey, now abandoned because the world doesn’t revolve around him, returns home where his overrreaction in the opening of the film starts to make a sliver of sense.
Where is Michael Myers?
I’ll remind you, dear reader, at this moment that this is a Halloween movie. Although this is the third installment of this Halloween franchise, Halloween Ends is not like Halloween 3 : Season of the Witch and does soon have Michael Myers in it.
This is not a traditional slasher movie in any sense. Halloween Ends cannot be compared to other Halloween films as it feels about as out of place in the series as Season of the Witch. Season of the Witch being the movie about cyborgs, sorcery and mutating halloween masks.
You get the sense that evil did indeed die on the night of Halloween Kills, because he is totally absent as the Shape until about an hour into the film. This makes Halloween Ends feel like the start of a new universe rather than the conclusion. At this point, that living, breathing Slasher Film tropes checklist in my brain, ready to party once it sees a pair of breasts or some blood splash on the floor was in a deep slumber waiting for the Slasher Film to start. This is where fans are going to be divided and without spoiling it, it’s a division that isn’t new in our world.
Poor Writing Kills Halloween Ends
The wait to see Michael Myers is hampered by characters who were written so one dimensionally and bland it wasn’t interesting and fleshed out enough to care about any of it as an alternative perspective to a slasher film.
Two-thirds of the movie is gone at this point and now we’re firmly planted in a Halloween movie. The kills are few but a couple stand out and will be talked highly about. The best one including a cameo by someone completely unexpected in a wide release film. The others are either somewhat off screen or totally forgettable. Myers has never been about extreme gore like Jason Voorhees. The characters were usually likable enough to carry the films. These characters are not iconic and feel empty. Allyson, three movies in should feel as important to the story as Laurie Strode and she doesn’t at all. Her part time girl friend character has very little impact on the story and her blind infatuation makes her seem like an airhead which I guess given the lack of explanation couples her well with dimwit Corey.
Final Head Count
Halloween Ends is a bunch of ideas mashed into a running time that can’t possibly support such inflated concepts. It feels like it was written and would be better adapted for TV as a fleshed out episodic narrative. I’m glad I sat with the experience and slept on my initial feelings before writing this review to prevent a dissapointment fueled knee jerk tirade. It’s awesome being able to respectfully discuss polarizing films like this with people who see it from different sides. I can tell you without a doubt this film is going to be talked about within the community and analyzed and picked apart for years to come.
The worst thing they did outside of not giving a proper background story to Corey is release this anti-slasher film in October and market it as a slasher film fit for the Holiday.
Halloween Ends feels entirely out of place in an already confusing series of films. Awesome soundtrack though if it didn’t overpower already muffled dialogue.
2/5
Halloween Ends Review - Graveside Entertainment
Date Created: 2022-10-14 10:41
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