The release of the newest Halloween trilogy from writer/director David Gordon Green and writer Danny McBride spurred me on to watch every single entry. It wasn’t that I loved them at first, it just made sense to finally watch them all since the series was relevant at the moment. I liked the 2018 (hereafter just referred to as Halloween) film well enough, but Kills didn’t impress me at first. Then I watched them all and revisited those two films along with the newest entry, Halloween Ends, and something clicked with me.
The general consensus is that Halloween was a great return to form for the series, Kills destroyed that goodwill, and Ends was head-scratchingly bad. But as I rewatch these films, I feel nearly the opposite. Ends is my favorite with Kills a close second, and I find Halloween to be the most boring entry (though I really like that one, too). After watching Ends the first time, it made me reflect on what Green and McBride may have been trying to do with this trilogy.
To be clear, I didn’t do any research as far as watching interviews about this or any other behind the scenes material. In all likelihood, there was not much of a plan when it came to this trilogy, especially since the pandemic messed with their original release schedule. Much like the most recent Star Wars trilogy, each film seems to be its own thing, adding and dropping ideas from film to film. That didn’t work for me with Star Wars, but with a sloppy-ass series like Halloween, it didn’t bother me at all.
With Halloween, it seemed like this was the attempt to make a classic Halloween film. Every sequel was ignored, and Jamie Lee Curtis was brought back once again, this time sticking with the original plotline that did not have her revealed as Michael Myers’s sister. John Carpenter was brought on to do the music (and as a name-only producer), and it generally felt like it belonged in the same world as the first film. It did well critically and commercially (a rarity for the series), and people were excited about the series for the first time in a long time. I like it, but upon a rewatch I find it a bit boring and too safe. We all know Michael is going to escape and get his mask, yet we still have to go through the motions we’ve seen multiple times. I wish the film had moved a bit faster.
Kills directly addresses my issues as it lives up to its title. Michael is a true killing machine in this from the get-go, and we don’t have to waste time with him finding his mask or any nonsense like that. The first film took its time setting up his return, so Kills gets to unleash him. In this way, the film felt like Green and McBride doing their best version of an ‘80s slasher movie. Goofy characters are introduced seemingly just to be killed, and the kills are much more brutal this time around. Critics, and some audiences, were put off by this, for some reason. I’ve read comments along the lines of feeling “betrayed” by the setup of the first film to then take this turn.
But this is exactly what I want from a Halloween movie. I want to get introduced to Lenny Clarke playing with a drone, only to have Michael using Lenny’s back as a knife block moments later as Lenny’s wife watches as she fights for her life. I feel like Gordon and McBride found that elusive sweet spot of goofy and horrific with Kills.
The only thing that holds it back for me is the “Evil dies tonight!” nonsense, and the tacked on idea that the anger of the townspeople somehow powers Michael. Yes, the mob forming and forcing a mental patient to kill himself makes a bit of a point of how Michael and fear in general has messed up the town. But the mob then attacking the actual Michael being presented as something wrong that inadvertently powers Michael didn’t work for me. What were they supposed to do, forgive him? It just felt like an afterthought tacked on to this otherwise gloriously gnarly film.
And then Ends comes out and Michael spends a lot of it hanging out in a sewer while a dude named Corey sort of becomes the new Michael while trying to date Jamie Lee Curtis’s granddaughter. This movie should suck, but it’s my favorite of the trilogy and nearly my favorite in the entire series.
By leaving Michael and Laurie on the sidelines for much of the film, Ends is able to finally present Haddonfield as an actual town. More people are introduced, but not just to be killed (but yeah, almost all of them end up dead). They are there to show how ugly this town has become and how Corey and Allyson are products of the town’s response to Michael. My main issue with the commentary about the townspeople in Kills is that it just doesn’t make sense that Michael’s actions in the 1978 original are enough to alter a town so much. (One of Allyson’s friends mentions this in the first film, but that doesn’t excuse it.) It simply isn’t plausible to me that the town would be able to be this riled up so quickly, but it’s a movie, so who cares? It just didn’t work for me.
But the amount of kills in…um…Kills coupled with Michael’s supernatural ability to survive and disappear legitimizes the darkness of Haddonfield in Ends. This makes for a disjointed experience which is why it’s probably true that these guys had no idea this is what the third film would be like, but it somehow works. Corey’s transformation from unlucky babysitter to new Michael is compelling because you can understand how the town did this to him. There’s still some supernatural stuff happening with him and Michael (he stares at him and makes some connection, and he appears to heal faster when he kills later on), but in general he seems to be more the product of Haddonfield than Michael’s evil puppet or something. Michael is just a gateway for him.
There’s a lot about Ends that I love, like the score and soundtrack or the brutality of the kills once Corey goes full Michael, but what sticks out the most to me is that they were able to replace Michael with some angsty dude, and it didn’t matter to me. I didn’t care who had the mask on when that blow torch kill happened because it was awesomely brutal. This may be called Ends because of the literal destruction of Michael at the end (though this feels more like fan service than where the story was naturally going), but it was the end for me because it made Michael irrelevant for most of the movie. And if Michael doesn’t matter, then Halloween can finally end.
Random Thoughts
It made sense for Jamie Lee Curtis to be back for the first film, but it seemed like they were forced to include her in the sequels. This is why you have that mob nonsense in Kills at the hospital because Laurie was stuck at the hospital, so there had to be some reason for something to happen there. But the point of the first film was that she was actually irrelevant to Michael. She was just in his way, and this is confirmed by having the doctor lead Michael to Laurie’s compound. It would have been much more satisfying if the rest of Laurie’s story arc was her dealing with the fact that her whole life of prepping was for this made up idea in her head that Michael was after her. But then they have Michael kill Karen, and it justifies Laurie’s mission. And by having Michael come back at the end of Ends it adds even more fuel to her made up narrative. He was just there to get the mask from Corey. It had nothing to do with Laurie. Once again, she was just in the way. And these films never explore that idea because fans want to see Jamie Lee Curtis vs. The Shape. It doesn’t ruin any of these movies for me, but it does make me wonder how much better Kills and Ends could’ve been with less or even no Laurie at all.
I like to think the repeated mention of cherry blossoms is a McBride reference to Stevie from Eastbound and Down, who went by Cherry Blossom when Ashley Schaefer made him dress up as a Japanese geisha.
Poor Ronnie. Dude was just hiding from his wife in his junkyard office trying to watch a Van Damme movie (Hard Target), and he ends up catching friendly fire from the douchiest character in the movie. His is the only tragic death in the film.
That is one nasty little three-way Michael, Corey, and Officer Doug Mulaney have in that sewer.
The diner in Ends claims it had Banh Mi Sandwiches. Good for you, Haddonfield.
The mythology of Michael was all over the place in this trilogy. In the first film, he’s just a man. In Kills, the hatred of the town makes him supernatural. But in Ends, he’s a wheezing, seemingly dying shell living in the sewer even though the town is as fucked up as it’s ever been. Why isn’t the hatred and death in Haddonfield fueling him anymore? Instead, he gets power from killing. Then why hasn’t he been killing more. The homeless dude mentions that Michael has been dragging people into the sewer over the years, but why not kill a bunch and be super powerful? It’s all a little confusing. But I just go with whatever each individual film decides Michael is. As a complete story in three parts, however, it’s messy as fuck. But at least it’s not the Cult of Thorn.
Officer Mulaney is at the diner with his buddies celebrating one of their birthdays. He made a cake for the guy. They have a balloon at the table. No wonder Ally doesn’t want to fuck this dorky dildo.
I rewatched this again right before I wrote this. But at first I just wanted to watch the part with “Come 2 Me” by Johnny Goth playing as Corey and Allyson ride on the motorcycle. I got sucked in and watched the whole thing again. This is a very close second in the entire series.
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