On Oct. 14, 2022, “Halloween Ends” was released into theaters and brought in a total of 43.9 million dollars to the box office. “Halloween Ends” is the 14th installment in the “Halloween” franchise, making it the final “Halloween” movie to be released. It is important to note that this article will contain information about the film, so in order to prevent spoiling the movie I suggest not reading any further if you have not seen it.

As a fan of the “Halloween” franchise, I patiently waited for this film to be released following “Halloween Kills,” which I reviewed early last year. I was beyond excited to hit the theaters because I had such high hopes for the film following last year’s installment to the franchise. However, within the first ten minutes of the film, I realized that my excitement was for little. 

When I walked into the theater, I was under the impression that Micheal Myers would finally come out from his four years of hiding to have a final battle with Laurie Strode, who he has terrorized for nearly forty years. However, the beginning of the movie suggested that the story line would move otherwise. 

The very beginning of the movie started off to a slow, confusing start. Viewers are introduced to a character named Corey Cunnigham, who is babysitting a young boy named Jeremy while his parents are off at a Halloween party. Jeremy ends up tricking Corey, and locks him into the attic, which is about four stories high up in his house. As Jeremy’s parents return back from the party, Corey manages to escape the attic, but accidentally knocks Jeremy over the staircase railing, and after falling multiple floors, he accidentally kills him. Corey is blamed for Jeremy’s death, and then the screen flashes to the opening credits.

I was caught off guard by the opening scene, because it was completely different from any past movies in the “Halloween” franchise. There was no emphasis on the threat of Micheal Myers either, just a new, random character. 

Throughout the entirety of the story, Corey’s story line continued to confuse me. Four years after the incident with Jeremy, Corey was cleared of manslaughter, but his life spiraled downwards. After multiple encounters with bullies from a local high school, he gets thrown off a bridge by them, and pulled into a sewer by an unknown figure. It turns out that this was Micheal Myers, who had been living in the sewers ever since the events that took place during “Halloween Kills.”

Myers ended up not killing Corey because he sensed the same darkness in Corey that he had in himself. However, the next part of the film took a confusing turn. Corey ends up “training” to be the “new” Micheal Myers, continuing to take away the frightening aspect of Micheal Myers, which made the franchise what it was. 

Another part of the film I found disappointing was the lack of Micheal Myers in the film. According to Screen Rant, Micheal Myers only appeared in “Halloween Ends” for a total of 9 minutes and 37 seconds. Even though in the original “Halloween” movie Micheal Myers only appeared for 10 minutes and 55 seconds, there was still suspense focused on his presence throughout the entire film that made up for the lack of his appearance. However, in “Halloween Ends,” there was a lack of suspense surrounding Micheal Myers, because all that attention was focused on Corey. 

Towards the end of the movie, Corey kills himself, and Micheal comes back one final time for Laurie. After Laurie wins the fight and slits one of Micheal’s wrists, she goes to pull off his mask, giving viewers the expectation that we will finally get a reveal of his face. However, viewers only get shown the back of his head, and I found this to be a disappointment. In all the forty-four years of Micheal Myer’s terror, we will never get a full face reveal. 

In the end, I found this film to be a disappointing end to the “Halloween” franchise. I believe that if the story line did not focus so heavily on Corey as it did, viewers could have been provided with a higher quality written ending to an iconic film series. To view a trailer of this film, visit here.