Halloween Ends (2022) or, Halloween Snores

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The central two characters of the decades-long franchise stand back-to-back in a fiery darkness on this poster for David Gordon Green's Halloween Ends

Michael Myers and Laurie Strode' decades-long bloody battle in Haddonfield, Illinois finally reaches its conclusion.

 

Halloween Ends is written by Chris Bernier (The House: A Hulu Halloween Anthology (2017, miniseries)), Paul Brad Logan (Manglehorn (2014)), Danny McBride (Your Highness (2011)) and Arkansan master filmmaker, co-writer/director David Gordon Green (George Washington (2000)), whose 15th feature it is. It is the 3rd and last in Green's Halloween trilogy (2018; 2021) and the 13th in the Halloween franchise overall.

The film opens strongly with a pre-title sequence about a young engineer student, who accidentally kills the boy that he is babysitting. The title animation, credits and accompanying, exploding jack-o-lanterns are rad. But the film that follows is an immovable, deeply uninteresting turkey:

It turns out that the guy from the pre-title sequence is to be followed throughout Halloween Ends, despite his being extremely uninteresting. No other characters spark interest or tension, and that leaves one mentally snoring all the way to the picture's overly brutal ending. SPOILER Who wants to see an aging woman get beaten up and then stabbing the perp, her also senior citizen-aged brother, again and again?

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2018) - Great-looking mayhem

Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - Myers returns to turkeyville 

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - Precious few cuts from rock bottom 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

David Gordon Green: Halloween (2018) - Great-looking mayhem 

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess

The Sitter (2011) - Green and Hill's inappropriate babysitter movie is a crude hoot 

Your Highness (2011) - Green's dismissed, golden stoner/raunch adventure comedy

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

Pineapple Express (2008) - Funny people incite laughs in ludicrous stoner comedy

George Washington (2000) - Green's evocative North Carolina youth debut masterpiece 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 33 mil. $

Box office: 104.3 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.16 times its cost)

[Halloween Ends premiered 6 October (Sitges Film Festival, Spain) and runs 111 minutes. Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween (1978)) was paid 3.5 mil. $ for her performance in the film. Shooting took place from January - June 2022 in Georgia and Utah. The film opened #1 to a 40 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent 2 more weekends in the top 5 (#4-#5), grossing 64 mil. $ (61.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 5.4 mil. $ (5.2 %) and Mexico with 5.3 mil. $ (5.1 %). Green returned with The Righteous Gemstones (2019-22) and theatrically with The Exorcist: Believer (2023). Curtis returned in The Bear (2023, TV-series) and theatrically in Haunted Mansion (2023). Halloween Ends is rotten at 40 % with a 5.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween Ends? 

Halloween (2018) - Great-looking mayhem

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Franchise star Jamie Lee Curtis returns to 'face her fate' - the scarred, menacing mask of her brother Michael Myers, on this dark poster for David Gordon Green's Halloween

40 years after the murders in Haddonfield, Illinois: Survivor Laurie Strode has become a strange hermit living in a kind of fortress, as her mass-murderer brother Michael Myers breaks free from a prisoner transport - right before Halloween ...

 

Halloween is written by Jeff Fradley (Vice Principals (2016-17)), Danny McBride (Your Highness (2011)) and co-writer/director, Arkansan master filmmaker David Gordon Green (George Washington (2000)), whose 13th feature it is. It is the 11th film in the Halloween franchise and a sequel to the original Halloween (1978), which ignores all the following sequels and reboot. 

The film succeeds in giving the languishing franchise a strong dose of fresh juice. The murders are many - really many! The look is dark and deeply professionally done. But the scares are not as palpable for a horror veteran. Perhaps Jamie Lee Curtis' (Virus (1999)) Laurie Strode has become too militant, and everyone else on the contrary, too easily kill-able?

Halloween is highly brutal and has a strong ending. My favorite part, however, was the new score by John Carpenter (Escape from New York (1981)), Cody Carpenter (Masters of Horror (2005-06)) and Daniel A. Davies (Condemned (2015)), which is built around Carpenter's original score and is awesome.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - Myers returns to turkeyville 

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - Precious few cuts from rock bottom 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

David Gordon Green: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess

The Sitter (2011) - Green and Hill's inappropriate babysitter movie is a crude hoot 

Your Highness (2011) - Green's dismissed, golden stoner/raunch adventure comedy

George Washington (2000) - Green's evocative North Carolina youth debut masterpiece 

 

 

Watch a teaser trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 10 mil. $

Box office: 259.9 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 25.59 times its cost)

[Halloween premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place from January - February 2018 in South Carolina, with re-shoots in June 2018. The film opened #1 to a 76.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and another one in the Top 5 (#5), grossing 159.3 mil. $ (61.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 12.4 mil. $ (4.8 %) and the UK with 11.5 mil. $ (4.4 %). Universal reportedly spent 75.5 mil. $ marketing the film. The film was followed by 2 more in Green's Halloween trilogy; Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022), both with Curtis as well. Before Halloween Kills Green returned with Dickinson (2019, TV-series) and Mythic Quest (2020, TV-series). Curtis first returned in An Acceptable Loss (2018). Halloween is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween? 

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - Myers returns to turkeyville

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A new troupe of young stars back franchise cornerstone Jamie Lee Curtis on this ominous poster for Rick Rosenthal's Halloween: Resurrection

Michael Myers irrevocably kills his sister, who is in a mental hospital, where she feigns to be sick (...), and then he throws himself at a group of young fools who are doing an Internet reality show in Michael's dilapidating childhood home.

 

Halloween: Resurrection is written by Larry Brand (Paranoia (1997)) and Sean Hood (The Legend of Hercules (2014)) and directed by Rick Rosenthal (Halloween II (1981)). It is the 8th and final film in the original Halloween franchise, before it was rebooted in 2007 and then again in 2018.

It begins fairly decently but gradually gets worse until a point where it is almost impossible to sit through the stupidities on-screen. There are no-one to root for, and several of the film's grisly murders are involuntarily comical, as when a murder gets cross-cut to Tyra Banks (Glee (2013, TV-series)) making a Milo while dancing in her editing trailer, (don't ask why.)

The very small light points in Halloween: Resurrection are Busta Rhymes (Narc (2002)), who brings a likable energy to the turkey, and Billy Kay (L.I.E. (2001)), who is regrettably only in the film a very brief time. Every one else is at best undistinguished in this horrible film, which even suffers from enormously ugly credits.

 

Related posts:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - Precious few cuts from rock bottom 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

 

Curtis candidly explains her troubles with Halloween H20 (1998) and Halloween: Resurrection in this video

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 37.6 mil. $

= Even (returned 2.50 times its cost)

[Halloween: Resurrection premiered 1 July (USA) and runs 94 minutes. Jamie Lee Curtis (Love Letters (1983)) was paid 3 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from May - June 2001 and September - October 2001 in British Colombia, including in Vancouver, and in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Men in Black II and fellow new releases Road to Perdition and Reign of Fire, to a 12.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 30.3 mil. $ (80.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 2 mil. $ (5.3 %) and Mexico with 1.1 mil. $ (2.9 %). Michael Myers returned in Rob Zombie's reboot Halloween (2007), now without Curtis. Rosenthal returned with 11 TV and short credits prior to his theatrical return with Nearing Grace (2005). Curtis returned in Freaky Friday (2003). Halloween: Resurrection is rotten at 12 % with a 3.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Halloween: Resurrection?

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - Precious few cuts from rock bottom

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A child in Halloween costume is set against a giant hunting knife on this dark poster for Dominique Othenin-Girard's Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

 

Michael Myers again goes on a murderous rampage, despite the fact that he should be dead. His niece Jamie somehow can sense his wrongdoings, and the now mad Dr. Loomis uses her as bait to catch the man he should now already realize is immortal.

 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is written by Michael Jacobs (Certain Fury (1985)), Shem Bitterman (Peephole (1993)) and co-writer/director Dominique Othenin-Girard (After Darkness (1985)).

The 'plot' of Halloween 5 is wildly ludicrous, as it attempts to precisely reproduce successful sequences from previous Halloween films. There's an embarrassingly bad and tasteless mickey-mousing cop subplot; sudden, unexplained sex, terribly unengaging 'characters', terrible sound work and noise, and futile violence. The only alleviating elements are really the copy-paste scenes of domestic terror.

Poor Donald Pleasence (Eye of the Devil (1966)) and children involved here. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is really an execrable film.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

 

Watch a short clip of an instance of the 'mickey-mousing' effect used in the film's police subplot here

 

Cost: 5.5 mil. $

Box office: 11.6 mil. $ (North America only)

= Uncertain but likely a box office success (projected return of 2.72 times its cost)

[Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers was released 13 October (USA) and runs 97 minutes. Production was rushed, following the success of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988). Shooting took place from May - June 1989 in Utah. The film opened #2, behind Look Who's Talking, to a 5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 11.6 mil. $. The international gross numbers are regrettably not made public, so it is impossible to say for sure, if the film was a success: But a small international reception to the tune of a 15 mil. $ final world gross would result in the film being a box office success. Othenin-Girard returned with Night Angel (1990). Pleasence returned in Casablanca Express (1989). Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is rotten at 12 % with a 3.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers? 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror

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Eeriness abounds on this poster for Tommy Lee Wallace's Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Evil Halloween masks threaten national security, and only one cop is on the right track!

 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is written and directed by debuting Tommy Lee Wallace (Baywatch (1989, TV-series)), with John Carpenter (Escape from L.A. (1996)) and Nigel Kneale (Quatermass 2 (1957)) contributing uncredited writing. It is the third entry in the Halloween franchise (1978-) and the only entry not featuring slasher boogeyman Michael Myers.

Tom Atkins (Masquerade (1983, TV-series)) is good as the protagonist cop. Though Myers is entirely absent, and the story has no connection to preceding or later Halloween movies, the feeling of dread is clear and present in Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which is an effective, infernal b-movie horror of its very own ilk.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

 

Watch a VHS trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2.5 mil. $

Box office: 14.4 mil. $ (North America only)

= Some uncertainty - but at least a huge hit (returned 5.76 times its cost in North America alone)

[Halloween III: Season of the Witch was released 22 October (North America, Turkey) and runs 98 minutes. The original Halloween's writers Carpenter and Debra Hill envisioned Season of the Witch as the first film to turn Halloween into an annual anthology horror franchise, each with a wholly fresh plot and characters. Kneale had his name removed from the credits, because executive producer Dino de Laurentiis insisted that more gore be added to the script. Joe Dante dropped out of directing shortly before production to work on his segment in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), and Wallace was consequently hired. Shooting took place from April 1982 - ? in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release First Blood, to a 6.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#2) and grossed 14.4 mil. $. Regrettably the film's international gross numbers are not made public. It is the lowest-grossing in the Halloween franchise, and this fact turned the filmmakers and studio heads to the opinion that all future Halloween movies must center on slayer Michael Myers. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Wallace returned with The Twilight Zone (1985-86), Max Headroom (1987, TV-series) and theatrically with Aloha Summer (1988). Atkins returned in 6 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in The New Kids (1985). Halloween III: Season of the Witch is rotten at 41 % with a 4.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween III: Season of the Witch? 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher

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The white mask of Michael Myers makes up most of this poster for Dwight H. Little's Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Michael Myers is getting moved after ten years in the slammer, but he escapes, and again Dr. Loomis has to alarm the Haddonfield community, who nevertheless go through a raging bout with evil!

 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is written by Alan B. McElroy (Tekken (2010)), with Benjamin Ruffner, Larry Rattner (Horseplayer (1990)) and Dhani Lipsius (The Greed of Men (2013, executive producer)) contributing story elements, and directed by Dwight H. Little (KGB: The Secret War (1985)).

Formally Halloween 4 may not be too bad, but it bores and fails to affix new relevance to the franchise with a plot that's lacking in surprises, and which doesn't find new scares to compare with John Carpenter's 1978 original.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

 

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: 17.7 mil. $ (North America only)

= Big hit (returned 3.54 times its cost domestically alone)

[Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was released 21 October (USA) and runs 88 minutes. After the lukewarm reception to Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), the only Halloween movie not to feature Michael Myers, it was decided to bring him back for the following sequel. Shooting took place from April - May 1988 in Utah, including in Salt Lake City. The film opened #1 to a 6.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and one more in the top 5 (#5), grossing 17.7 mil. $. The film's international gross numbers are regrettably not made public. Little returned with Freddy's Nightmares (1989, TV-series) and theatrically with The Phantom of the Opera (1989). Donald Pleasence (Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959)) returned in Paganini Horror (1988). Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is rotten at 29 % with a 4.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers?

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

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A jack-o-lantern that becomes a strong hand stabbing with a kitchen knife makes up this iconic poster for John Carpenter's Halloween

Michael Myers is evil incarnate; locked away since childhood for murdering his older sister. Now he has broken free from the mental hospital, and he is heading home to Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween - with blood lust!

 

Halloween is written by co-writer/producer Debra Hill (The Fog (1980)) and great New-Yorker filmmaker, co-writer/director/composer John Carpenter (Dark Star (1974)).

It is an incredibly simple premise in one of the all-time strongest horror classics. Jamie Lee Curtis (Love Letters (1983)) is a brave sport, and Donald Pleasence (Dracula (1979)) is ideal as Dr. Loomis, who has long ago seen and recognized the dark evil in Myers.

The mask is just as important, and Carpenter's catchy musical theme. You simply can't argue with the effectiveness and screaming thrills of Halloween.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

John Carpenter: Cigarette Burns (2005, TV movie) - Carpenter burns out in weird, tiresome TV movie

Dario Argento: An Eye For Horror (2000, TV documentary) - Great bio-doc of master filmmaker Dario Argento (interview subject)

Escape from L.A./John Carpenter's Escape from L.A./Escape from Los Angeles (1996) or, Snake Plissken in Crazy-World! 
Christine (1983) or, Bad Plymouth!

Top 10: Best future-set movies
Escape from New York (1981) - Carpenter introduces Kurt Russell as action star in dystopic dream
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) - Solid action guerilla film-making 

 

Watch a short TV spot trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 300-325k $

Box office: 70.2 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 216-234 times its cost)

[Halloween was released 25 October (North America) and runs 91 minutes. Carpenter earned 10k $ and 10 % of the profits for his work; Pleasence was paid 20k $; Curtis 8k $. Shooting took place in April 1978 in California, including in Los Angeles. The Myers mask was actually a cheaply bought Captain Kirk mask (molded from William Shatner's face) with widened eye holes and then spray-painted a bluish white. The film opened to a 1.2 mil. $ first weekend in 198 theaters in North America, where it grossed 47 mil. $ (67 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. NBC bought the original TV rights for 3 mil. $ in 1980. A novelization and a video game followed, along with 11 sequels (including remakes and reboots); Hill and Carpenter were involved as writers and then producers of the first two of the sequels, Halloween II (1981) and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). Carpenter returned with Someone's Watching Me! (1978, TV movie), Elvis (1979, TV movie) and theatrically with The Fog (1980). Curtis returned in The Love Boat (1978, TV-series), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979, TV-series) and theatrically in The Fog; Pleasence in 3 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in L'Homme en Colère (1979). Halloween is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Halloween?