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finalgirlincollege · 2 years

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An Open Letter to Halloween Ends

As some may infer from my blog, I have a clear and deeply rooted interest in Horror cinema, specially when it comes to Slasher films, a love that was planted in me literal decades ago during my childhood. Having had very little restrictions on media consumption as someone from the late 90s and early 00s, and with the understanding that all the on screen monsters were fake (thanks to countless hours watching Scooby Doo), I remember watching the first 5 Halloween films (excluding the 3rd) on TV when I was around 8, suffice to say—though thanks to my older cousins, this wasn’t my first experience with Horror films (that honor goes to Ghost Ship, Steve Beck, 2002)—I was immediately taken with this type of movies from then on and my life long passion was born.

Almost 20 years have passed since then and Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) is still my favorite movie, which made me feel an excitement that I have trouble to put into words when it was announced around five years ago that there was to be a new movie (Halloween, David Gordon Green, 2018) produced by Blumhouse and subsequently two more, firstly because there had been so many years without something from this franchise and secondly, because this time I was old enough to witness the comeback of this phenomenon first hand.

I’m not going to pretend like David Gordon Green’s trilogy has no flaws; in fact, the main motivation for the present text is to delve a little deeper on the deficiencies from the final installment: Halloween Ends (David Gordon Green, 2022) but before I go on, I’d like to touch briefly on why I actually liked the new three entries as a whole, even with the faults I saw in the latest film that I’ll acknowledge further along the text.

Ignoring Rob Zombie’s Halloweens—for I think they should be seen without a connection to the rest of the franchise’s films—, the last entry was Halloween Resurrection (Rick Rosenthal, 2002), a film that seems to be hated or at the very least disliked by most of the Halloween fandom due to the absurdity of it. In my case, my distaste is rooted on the blatant disrespect at Laurie Strode’s Character for, even when having one last confrontation with Michael, truly she seems to die thanks to an accident; I mean, Laurie Strode, who had survived—according to that time line—three confrontations with Michael, dying so unceremoniously! Of course I would be on board with a new storyline that promised to give us an ending deserving of one of, if not the OG Final Girl.

Having seen Halloween Ends on it’s opening night, I’ve been letting my thoughts on it simmer on my mind for the last couple of days. I must add that with this text I have no pretensions of offering an essay or article with proper analytical depth or even objectivity, instead what I would like to do is share some of my opinions with anyone who would like to read them.

One disclaimer I have to present is the fact that I thoroughly enjoy the ending to Halloween: 20 Years Later (Steve Miner, 1998) for I believe the last sequence of the film gives us a satisfactory final battle between Michael and Laurie after enough emotional distress and suspense, ending with Laurie taking hold of her fear and confronting it, refusing to be controlled by it. On the same note, knowing that at least for me it would be difficult to have a resolution that gave me the same level of satisfaction like the one I previously mentioned, I also had Laurie’s death from H. Resurrection very present in my mind, making me hope that at least the finale of Gordon Green’s trilogy could be better than that. In sum, I had little objectivity when criticizing the conclusion to Halloween Ends, but more on that later.

From the start, H. Ends seems to offer something different than the previous film; while the one from 2018 was setting the scene for what was to come and Halloween Kills (David Gordon Green, 2021) was packed with action, H. Ends seemingly wanted to approach the topic in another way, giving a deeper look at the effects Michael or his evilness had in Haddonfield in the last four years since his disappearance at the end of H. Kills.

Furthermore, lets remember that by the end of the previous film, all the spendable characters we had met in the 2018’s movie have been killed, making a necessity to introduce new ones, and though this is common for Slasher films, it is here where I found the biggest flaw. Given that the first two installments of the revival of the franchise work as one (for they are supposed to have happened in the same night), one would expect that the third film work just as seamlessly with the other two even if its set four years apart, which means that not only there must be concordance between the three with having Laurie as protagonist and Michael as antagonist, but the whole universe should makes us feel like we are, in fact, witnessing the conclusion to the on going story.

For that reason, I was quite startled when H. Kills saw the demise of most of the—by now—well known and maybe beloved characters, taking me by surprise when after Cameron’s death, Allyson lost her mother as well, for this is not a loss only in the eyes of other characters but also with the spectator. As such, with the deaths of Nurse Marion, Tommy Doyle and even Lonnie, by the end of H. Kills, aside from Laurie and Allyson, there are very few characters left with whom we have emotionally connected.

If I remember correctly, I think that with the previous films there was some backlash that called them too focused on nostalgia and so maybe the team behind H. Ends was trying to distance themselves from said perception with the last film, but if that was the case or not, I feel like they simply missed the mark completely; by ignoring the elements that would resonate with longtime fans, going as far as apparently forgetting the existence of Lindsey after the first half of the film, they seemingly ignored that this was the conclusion to a franchise that—at least in horror—has no comparison; a movie that 40 years ago cemented the groundwork for what would be known as Slasher film.

Nostalgia isn’t something bad or to be avoided all together, of course in the last couple of years we’ve seen a lot of media that perhaps has abused its use in its production, but nostalgia when used well, can be used as a powerful tool to achieve emotional contentions with the audience that may produce long lasting effects; therefore, if there was a moment to make use of it, I believe it was the highly expected Halloween Ends; sad to say, I feel like that was no the case.

In the new film, not only do we not have any emotional ties with the new characters due to them being new, but might even actively want them gone because they don’t seem to have redeeming qualities, they are rude and annoying and therefore—in a way—deserving of punishment. I must add that it’s because I felt such dislike towards them that their deaths had no lasting impact on me, unlike Vicky and Dave’s death (Allyson’s friends from the 2018’s), the first one being a character I liked much better than Allyson herself.

On this topic I feel like once again in trying to correct the critics they faced after H. Kills in regards to the—according to the Halloween franchise’s standards—abuse of violence that toyed with being torture porn in scenes such as Cameron’s death or the attack to the Caretaker and her husband; the kills in H. Ends ended up being bland and lackluster.

Moreover, it’s the same lack of connection that affects the new antagonist: Corey, because in the end, we don’t really care for him or even Allyson—who I must admit found painfully annoying—, what we really want to see is the final showdown between Laurie and Michael, not a Michael wannabe or Michael by proxy. If they so wanted to have his character as an exploration on how humans have the capacity of pure evilness if the correct circumstances so propitiate, maybe have Corey against Allyson as a way to show her battling her own demons, but not Laurie. As such, given that most of the duration of the film is centered on the older Strode in combat against Corey—both emotionally and physically—when we finally see her against the real Michael, their fight seems to ends in a blink-and-it’s-gone kind of moment.

On the same line of thought, if you see the three newest Halloween films as a whole, which is the way I personally believe they were intended to be seen, H. Ends doesn’t seem to work as a conclusion should. Whether it’s a a text, a visual medium o any other piece, a conclusion is the consequences of all the steps you took since the beginning and throughout the body of the work; therefore, a conclusion shouldn’t have new elements you haven’t been shown before like H. Ends did with Corey.

As I said before, it is common for Slasher franchises to introduce new characters with each entry; nevertheless, usually each movie acts as it’s own, with the only linking factor being the antagonist. On the contrary, each of the new Halloween movies acts like an act in David Gordon Green’s trilogy, making the introduction of all the new characters and themes in H. Ends a structural mistake.

Going back to Michael and Laurie’s final fight, aside from the fleetingness of it, it also lacked theatricality, by which I don’t mean violence, but dramatics. Once more making a comparison with H20, I would argue that the final sequence is quite clean when talking about the gore, even Michael’s beheading was sanitized by being presented with no blood in a quick manner; still it’s no less satisfying then than if we had been given said elements.

On the other hand, in the latest film we see Laurie cutting Michael and we observe as he bleeds out before being taken to the shredding machine where, unlike in H20, we see his body being destroyed; and yet I felt not the same satisfaction because though his death is slow—unlike the rest of the sequence—when he’s loosing his blood, it’s quite frankly simple and boring, not being in concordance with the amount of violence he unleashed on his victims. Even when we see him being thrown in the shredded, he seems to be so far gone that it doesn’t matter, there’s no vindication, sense of revenge or satisfaction.

In sum, yes, Michael is finally dead but I don’t think H. Ends hurt as much as it should’ve. At the same time, I think that I speak for many fans when I say that as much as we love Halloween, and maybe even if we didn’t find the fulfillment we wanted, I truly think that this story must be put to rest after some many years. Not only has the same plot been retold over and over again to the point of excess and unoriginality, but one of the things that has marked this franchise as different from the rest has become it’s own problem: there’s no Halloween without Laurie Strode, and there’s no Laurie Strode without Jaime Lee Curtis.

In Spanish we have a saying that goes, “si no está roto, no lo arregles”, which would translate to “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it”, but we all know that, as Hollywood tends to do, at some point someone will remake this film, they might cast young actors to play the well known and loved characters or change them all together; and in all honesty I can’t say I won’t watch that film when it inevitably comes to fruition, but it will never be what the original was, because with all of it’s flaws and all it’s strengths, John Carpenter’s Halloween and all its predecessors have become an landmark in Horror History.

So, here’s to the conclusion of the Halloween Saga and hoping that this time, Michael stays dead.

With love from a longtime fan,