Halloween Ends will be misinterpreted, misunderstood, and crushed by the nostalgia of a Michael Myers that never was
It is fitting that Halloween Ends is the third installment of this latest trilogy as it will likely be disavowed and misaligned the way Halloween III Season of the Witch was back in 1982.
The story is a bit convoluted at times, but it is successful in the message — some monsters are born and some monsters are made.
At the core of the original Halloween and the 2018 redux, was the notion that Michael Myers was pure evil, always has been, always will be, because he was born that way.
At the core of Halloween Ends is the suggestion that a monster equal in evil can be created, made, and shaped, because society made him that way.
This is a movie that aims to be much more than its predecessors and break the mold of the traditional Halloween slasher, and it will likely be despised for those reasons.
Michael Myers is a mindless killing machine because it is his nature. Halloween Ends creates something shaped by the influence of society. Something that becomes a killer from a direct cause and effect relationship that influence a person’s nature. This killer understands wrong from right. This killer has a conscience. This killer is fully aware of what they are doing and what they are becoming.
Halloween Ends introduces something that is more human than monster. And, while this is the strongest point of Halloween Ends, it may very well be its downfall with fans of the franchise — a franchise which wants its true evil to be an unexplainable monster. One that kills without emotion, rhyme or reason, but that’s not the case here.
Halloween Kills makes the citizens of Haddonfield, those eager for revenge — they are the greater evil. Halloween Ends places that evil on society as well as our penchant for self-righteousness, ultimately creating a monster worse than Michael Myers.
Therein Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode reminds us that evil doesn’t die, it changes shapes.
Gordon’s Grade: B+
