Why 'Halloween Ends' Got Terrible Reviews

'Halloween Ends' is one of the most controversial entries not only in director David Gordon Green's trilogy, but the entire 13-movie 'Halloween' franchise.

By Allison Schonter

Halloween may be among the most iconic horror franchises, but with a library totaling `13 films, there are bound to be a few misses. Released in 2022 as the epic conclusion to director David Gordon Green's trilogy, which began in 2018, Halloween Ends is not only among those misses, but also proved to be one of the most controversial entries in the entire horror franchise.

Concluding a three-film series that began with 2018's Halloween, a direct sequel to the original 1978 slasher flick, Halloween Ends is set four years after the events of 2021's Halloween Kills. The film brings back Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and Andi Matichak as her granddaughter Allyson Nelson, who sparks romance with the outcasted Corey Cunningham, who crosses paths with Michael Myers, setting off a string of violence and terror in Haddonfield. The movie also stars Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards, and James Jude Courtney.

While there was plenty of hype and excitement surrounding Ends ahead of its premiere, Ends ultimately fell flat, quickly cementing its place as one of the most controversial entries in the Halloween franchise. Not only did the movie become the lowest-grossing out of the trilogy, but it was also poorly received by critics and audience members alike, certified rotten in both metrics on Rotten Tomatoes with respective 40% and 57% scores. The critics reading reads, "Halloween Ends -- for now, anyway -- with a frequently befuddling installment that's stabbed, slashed, and beaten by a series of frustrating missed opportunities," with the audience saying, "Halloween Ends packs a few slasher thrills, but many fans will be disappointed by the way it concludes Michael Myers' gory saga."

Keep scrolling to see why Ends got such poor reviews. To weigh in on the debate, you can currently stream Halloween Ends on Peacock.

It wasn't the movie that was promised

The film was promoted as the final showdown between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, a film not only reported to mark Jamie Lee Curtis' final appearance as Laurie Strode, but also meant to bring an epic conclusion to the two horror icons' decades-long story. However, when Ends premiered, many felt that the movie failed to deliver on that promise, the story of Michael and Laurie proving to be just a small sliver of the film's plot that merely seemed like an overshadowed subplot.

"If this really is the end of the eternal battle between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, then it's a lacklustre finale which, for the most part, seems to forget it's meant to be an ending at all," Digital Spy's Ian Sandwell wrote, with Cathal Gunning writing for Screen Rant, "failing to give viewers this long sought-after battle would arguably go past the realm of playful subversion and into flagrant false advertising since the trailer for Halloween Ends promised a straightforward fight between the pair."

Corey Cunningham

Many viewers took issue with the introduction of Corey. While many fans of the franchise acknowledge that Corey was an interesting character, waiting until the final film in the franchise to introduce him, and all but making him the main character, was one of the movie's downfalls, with Looper's Larry Carroll describing it as "a bold choice."

"Adding a new character in the final entry of a franchise and making him the film's primary focus is a choice that makes sense in terms of the themes present but not when it comes to concluding the story of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers," Sara Clements wrote for Pay or Wait.

Meanwhile, Cathal Gunning wrote in their Screen Rant review that Corey "never became more than a distraction since the character never succeeded in dethroning the original villain of the series."

'Ends' made Michael Myers look weak

As the franchise shifted focus to Corey, Michael, the mysterious figure who for the past 40 years has haunted Haddonfield with one bloody rampage after the next, appeared weaker than we've ever seen him. Writing for Just My Opinion Reviews, Brandon Avery said, "I'm not a Michael Myers fan, but even I'm offended at the disrespect towards the character. Worst by far out of this new trilogy." CBR's Nicholas Brooks noted that "when the time came to see him as half the man he was, it made less sense and was disjointed from the power he was previously shown to have, ultimately sabotaging the vision for Michael."

Meanwhile, one audience member said on Rotten Tomatoes, "Michael was weak how can he go from killing 20 people to getting beat by a teen it took a half hour for Michael to come in and yet they still couldn't come up with any good kills waste of time." Somebody else added that "having only a few minutes of screen time --the most being the moment he gets killed-- Michael lives as a sewer rat and attempts to adopt a troubled teen as his follower (doesn't work). The ending to a literal monster is apparently to punch him a few times, cut his wrists, and throw him into a metal scrapper."

Lack of kills

Another major issue viewers had was the sheer lack of kills in Ends. With Michael currently reigning as the slasher icons with one of the highest body counts, totally over 160, "for a surprisingly lengthy portion of the runtime of Halloween Ends, no one kills anyone," Screen Rant wrote. Austin Burke added in a YouTube review of the film, "Halloween Ends features some excellent kills and thrills, but most of them come within a 20 minute window. The majority of the movie features a mix of odd decisions and awkward writing."

'Ends' is one of the 'least fulfilling endings to any trilogy'

Despite the excitement that surrounded Ends and Green's trilogy as a whole, the movie was dubbed by Matt Donato as "one of the least fulfilling endings to any trilogy, not to mention a rather inept Halloween film even compared to the franchise's previous huge swings."

Many critics agreed with that opinion, with film critic Victoria Luxford calling Ends "disappointing, given the most recent films have had a grounding in a very modern context.... There's nothing more disappointing than a sequel that's just there for the sake of it, and that's what this is for me." TheHindu.com's Mini Anthikad Chhibber wrote that "it is fun to see Curtis do her feisty grandmother act flinging refrigerators about with vim and vigour, but otherwise this end to the trilogy is quite dreadful."

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'Appalling letdown'

Jeff Nelson wrote for Showbiz Cheat Sheet that Ends "is an appalling letdown with blatant disrespect for both its audience and its characters." Maria Lattila wrote for whyno.uk that Green "truly has lost the way with his trilogy. What started out as one of the most promising modern reboots, has turned into the laughing stock of the genre."

'Baffling creative choices'

Critics and viewers alike blasted what many viewed as a series of "baffling creative choices," with FreshFiction.com's Courtney Howard writing, "filled with baffling creative choices, unearned thematic closure and no terrifying tension, this dreadful dud sputters to its conclusion." Added Bowling Green Daily News' Michael Compton, "it is easily the worst film in the trilogy -- and maybe one of the worst in the series -- with its meandering story and plot holes the size of craters."

"Few trilogies have ended as confoundingly and as pointlessly as Halloween Ends," wrote The Mary Sue's Chelsea Steiner. "Halloween Ends is one missed opportunity after another, squandering everything great about 2018's Halloween. The Strode women and audiences everywhere deserve better."

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