Halloween Ends (2022)

It sucks.

Jamie Lee: Locked & Loaded

I wanted it to be good. Bummer

It's so, so chic.

Corey is cute, so it’s an instant classic.

It's. . .a buddy movie?

WTF?

This is horribly stupid.

I liked the last 2 movies but this one is markedly different. The plot meanders, Michael doesn’t figure into the picture for about 80% of the movie, Kyle’s in like 3 brief scenes…ugh. They spent way too much time on Cory’s story & put JLC on the back burner.

There weren’t even any scenes where 10/31 or trick or treating is featured! Other than the flapper costume in the opening sequence, barely any costumes either.

3/10 for me.

This 2018-22 David Gordon Green/Blumhouse trilogy has been similar in trajectory to the 2015-19 Disney Star Wars films.

Halloween (2018), or "The Myers Awakens": Box-office hit. Generously reviewed by critics and received by audiences. No one thinks it's a classic, and a lot of it is blatantly recycled material, but hey, the familiar beats are satisfying and it's nice to see the callbacks and nods to history. The new characters (even the kill fodder) are appealingly cast, acted and written, for the most part. It gets the job done as nostalgic fun. We'll see where this thing goes.

Halloween Kills (2021), or "The Last Vigilante." Polarizing...which means, as it usually does, that the people who disliked it REALLY hated it. Some impressive visuals. Ham-fisted sociopolitical commentary. Annoying new faces, far less appealing than those in the previous film, seizing center stage and trying the audience's patience, while the marquee star from the '70s film is poorly used. A downer of a death at the end.

Halloween Ends (2022), or "The Rise of Cunningham." Not really better than what came immediately before, just bad in a different way. Almost the whole first half is taken up with labored business that ends up meaning very little. Feels thrown together by committee and/or extensively reshot. Doesn't seem to follow from what was set up in the previous film. Cements the impression of the new trilogy as a poorly planned letdown. Fodder for people who think "they" don't make movies the way they made them in the good old days.

I hope Kyle gets killed.

My sister saw it this evening and said it was "pretty poor".

Jamie Lee Curtis has been in seven Halloween movies and only 1.5 of them were good

I was well aware of the shitty test screenings and I read a synopsis before going in, so my lowered expectations paid off. I actually really liked it and think it will benefit from repeat viewings. It’s a different type of movie, like it’s been said, mostly a drama or thriller. It feels almost like a spin-off. It was nice to see the Michael Myers story in a new way. Jamie Lee Curtis was actually in more of the movie than I expected.

The last 30 minutes is pretty much the movie the studio marketed. I can see why people would be pissed if they went into this movie fresh.

The Corey Show is awful.

Even WORSE than RESURRECTION.

I read the plot summary on Wikipedia and almost thought someone had written it up as some kind of joke. It sounds utterly awful, like something written by an eight-grader. I saw the 2018 "Halloween" and thought it was just okay, but I didn't bother with "Halloween Kills" (also, what the fuck kind of title is that?). I definitely have no interest whatsoever now in seeing "Halloween Ends".

I thought "H20" was pretty damn good all things considered; "Resurrection" is bad but it's at least entertaining. I also really liked the Thorn curse subplot that they worked into "Halloween 5" and based "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" upon. I know it alienated a lot of fans, but I thought it was a weird and intriguing turn—certainly far more interesting than the trash heap David Gordon Green has served up. He is apparently going to be directing a remake of "The Exorcist" next, which is laughable. The guy is a hack.

Michael is now supernatural once again.

The Thorn is much better than the evil transference in ENDS.

Jamie Lee's trans daughter is Halloween enough

I love horror movies. I even like Rob Zombie movies. I'll watch anything horror and mostly like it. I hated this movie. I couldn't stand the lead actor, didn't give a shit about his story, it's meandering, there's hardly any Michael. I understand what they were going for, but I I still didn't like it. At all.

Everyone who has seen every damn movie in this mongrel-filled franchise has that one entry they think is better than its general rep, and mine is the Producer's Cut of 6/Curse. I don't think the Thorn cult was a good direction in which to go, but I enjoy this as a horror film anyway...much more than 5. Joe Chappelle (some time before The WIre) did a really solid, atmospheric job of directing. It has some chilling scenes: the chase through the dark tunnels near the beginning; Michael stalking the Strode woman while she's doing the laundry; the Howard Stern knockoff getting in the wrong van; the little girl singing about red rain (not the Peter Gabriel classic, alas).

The theatrical cut has edits that make nonsense of some story beats. There's no disguising that it's less than a great script, but it at least deserves a chance to be as coherent as it can be.

I loved this film. The best of the trilogy. It went to new unexpected places for slasher films.

My fave is still Halloween 2 (the late 70s), H20 & then this latest one.

I'll watch it again here soon...

Does it really end? Does Laurie die? Michael Myers? What happened at the end? I'm not going to see it so just tell me, ok?

R18 agreed, I’m a fan of the H6. The producer’s cut is a better film stylistically and more in line with the rest of the series—it’s moodier and a bit gothic. The theatrical cut is much more stylized in a hokey ‘90s way (music, sound effects, more gore). That said, I don’t think either version is particularly better than the other, narratively speaking. Both cuts have a major “WTF” sensibility in terms of how they attempt to wrap up at the conclusion. Overall though, I think it’s an atmospheric and effective horror movie, and one of the creepiest (if not the creepiest) of the sequels.

r20 I'm not going to type it out here in case someone doesn't want it spoiled and would accidentally see it. But the wiki entry is all true.

This movie was so boring that I accidentally hit pause on the remote but didn't notice for about two minutes because I figured the horrible director was just lingering on a tunnel for some reason.

I should stop. I'm writing while angry. God I hated this movie.

I laughed out loud at several points. It was just awful. The dynamic duo is just too much.

MM was still killing during those 4 year. Did you not catch the hints with the ‘Missing’ posters around town?

Michael is ground up like hamburger in the junkyard.

Laurie says evil never dies: it just changes shape.

Then the sheriff gives her a basket of vegetables, and they have a warm glowing ending on the porch. THE END.

Worst movie in the franchise.

I was suprised when Crystal Minkoff came out and killed Kyle Richards in a cameo.

LOL Lindsay doesn’t die.

Review: Spoilers

Not as bad as I thought it would be but nowhere fitting the ending of JLC playing LS.

JLC had a satisfying character ending. She was back to normal. She killed MM. She had a few good lines with him as she killed him. It was way too short a final confrontation.

The blue letters instead of orange? Why?

I think the final film needed the soap opera/ non-killing content so I was perfectly fine with that. It was well done.

It didn’t have a Halloween aura about it.

The Corey angle could have been shortened. It needlessly took up too much of the film.

No really good kills.

The opening was not the opening I was led to believe was so good. Ok is better.

This should have been the 2nd not the 3rd, except of course the very final way MM dies.

R26, that was very dark!

The jack-o-lantern sequence was stupid, cheap CGI.

Why are shills raving about that?

It was stinkier than my dinner.

It was a supreme turd of a movie, simply awful. David Gordon Green is a mediocrity in every sense, and he’s gonna reboot The Exorcist?! Fat faced non-talent Danny McBride has been shoehorning in his lame jokes and fellow unfuckable comics in this films as bit role failures, it’s all shit. SHIT! The lead actor has two looks, Hit Me and Hate Me, rancid choices, horrible narrative. Film spends eight horrors on a retard Bonnie & Clyde then switches to the worst Halloween film ever, Busta Rhymes laughs at this crap. Fuck you DGG! Hack shit!

holy shit it was HORRIBLE

just watched

I fucking laughed at how bad it was. I agree it was stupid to put so much focus on Corey, the wannabe Michael. It was weird how Lindsay was just more of a cameo and had nothing to do with the plot and never in any of the action scenes.

the stupid granddaughter wants to date Corey, the new serial killer and she doesn't believe any of the rumors about him. She's supposed to be a nurse too

DL will love when the brat at the beginning gets what's coming to him

the final fight scene was absurd. JLC is now in her 60s yet she can survive getting her head bashed repeatedly off a fridge, getting stabbed in the side of her face, choked out and slammed on a kitchen island?

The movie just felt very disjointed.

I hope this is truly the final movie in this franchise

R33, I get the feeling that Lindsay was supposed to die in Kills but they kept her for the marketing and her social media presence. You can tell they never intended for her to be in the actual story hence the grafted on subplot.

R34 I get that but it's an odd choice. They had plenty of time to add into this film's plot-either kill her off in this "last movie" or have her help kill Michael. She's 1 of the only OG characters left and it felt like they wasted a chance to tie everything together.

I thought her tarot thing was going to actually mean something. Nope.

The Thorn laughs at this crap!

I guess the finale of The Exorcist trilogy will have Chris MacNeil defeating Pazuzu in a death match.

I assume the recent reshoots were to sequence in more JLC throughout the horrible movie. Her wig looked different in several scenes.

Spoilers abound.

Classic case of dueling visions by the creators and producers and we the audience get something half baked.

I think it could have been good if it continued on the path with Corey and Allyson becoming anarchists together. I liked the madness / mad love in their relationship in the early scenes. I was hoping they would level Haddonfield. I liked that Haddonfield was a poisoned town (metaphor for real world Opioid epidemic impact on some small cities) with all the suicides and murders.

I liked how Allyson had a taste for anarchy / recklessness especially as compared to her dumb boojy colleague. I thought the relationship with Corey—the pull between them—was convincing, except it started too instantly.

However…integrating Michael Meyers into this brew was a huge fail. The first sewer (?) scene reminded me of the old Universal B&W Frankenstein sequel when the monster is frozen in the ice. (I think there was a similar Jason / FT13 scene, too.)

So very unclear in that center part of the movie: -Is Corey possessed?

-Is Corey reviving Michael and becoming his apprentice, then partner?

-Is it all in Corey’s mind?

The scene with JLC waiting for Corey to wake up in the boarded up house is also poorly executed/tacked on. In the scene just prior, Corey & Allyson are getting ready to run away. Then…what?

Then it becomes all about the kills, which are a mixed bag of assorted pops and squishes.

I get the ending. They return to the theme of the town needing a cathartic moment / cleansing and we’re back to the villagers destroying Frankenstein, in a way. Or watching a public lynching.

It also seems like the only way to truly end Michael and respond to what audiences have been shouting at the screen for decades whenever Michael is down: “make sure he is truly dead!”

I sorta liked it because I am a fan, but it was a real cop out. They clearly had something unique in mind and then kept amping up the Michael Meyers until they got a lame blend.

At least the “leaked script/story” of the last few months is not what we saw.

Yes, it is. Corey Cunningham as Michael’s apprentice is the star of the movie, and Laurie grinds up the body in the end. That was all leaked and was in the released film.

JLC had obvious reshoots to boost her presence in the movie. Too little, too late.

Contrarian Gays pretend to like this bilge, “I like that they did something different.”

But a HALLOWEEN franchise film is an Event, not a trippy character study, especially not the finale of an anticipated trilogy.

If anything, ENDS now makes KILLS look not quite as shitty.

Did they show MM face with the mask off? They teased that in H20 but never showed it but JLC played it with hesitation seeing her brother's face and not the bad Shatner Mask.

R40 yes. Briefly from the side, but not a full on frontal shot. Half of his face is burned and his hair is gray. I briefly thought she was going to kill and grind Corey up with Michaels mask on and then Michael gets away, ala H20. But Corey is killed first by Michael. Glad they didn’t go there at least. JLC has said it would leave audiences angry. I’m unsure what she means by this.

Maybe she knew it was a steaming pile of shit and a lot of fans would hate it?

I can't believe DGG is going to ruin the Excorcist next. The first is my favorite horror movie of all time, and number 3 wasn't bad, either.

It would have been so much better if after she killed Michael her eyes go black as if she inherited the madness in her family. Like it was passed on to her, Could be a whole new twist to the franchise.

Showing Michael Myers as a hulking, puffy faced senior citizen was so incredibly stupid, the actor playing him is also subpar as far as any dramatic physical talent. The original Michael Myers WASN’T six foot five, and he did not lumber around like Jason Vorehees, this hack creative team really is the very worst of the worst.

The main flaw is that, for 40+ years, they’ve continued to attempt to deliver the same experience and leave it open for more sequels.

It’s impossible to do that and achieve great storytelling.

R45 you are so correct. If Halloween 2018 actually did a REAL clean slate reboot, ditch everything but Myers, create a babysitter murder Halloween night narrative, start as fresh as possible. Instead it was this plodding mess from the mediocre launch pad.

Laurie even talks/writes about the "decades" of atrocities that Michael has inflicted on the residents of Haddonfield. Huh? He killed his sister in 1965, a few kids in 1978, and then returned in 2018 (for no reason if they aren't related).

But the way Laurie says it, it's almost as if she's referring to the retconned-out films between 1978 and 2018. Otherwise, he speech makes no sense. Michael killed a few kids on Halloween 1978, hardly the worst tragedy in the world. Certainly nothing for Haddonfield folk to be lamenting for 40 years.

The whole reboot has been ill-planned and executed even worse, with ENDS being the worst.

It’s too bad they didn’t stick to the 44 year timeline. Yeah she was supposedly killed in Resurrection, but she still could’ve survived it (not anymore unrealistic than wiping away all the films from Pt. 2 until Resurrection). This anything goes, let’s play fast and loose with the history of it was a big mistake, and helped dilute the franchise. I wasn’t a huge fan of the brother and sister angle, but would’ve tolerated it if they would’ve picked up years later from 2002 Resurrection film.

Anything to keep the license going…

I feel like I’m browsing Apple products with built-in obsolescence when these reboots occur

ENDS debuts much lower than expectations, and it will only get worse with the horrible word-of-mouth.

Ha ha, DGG and fat fuck Danny McBride!

I understood thematically exactly what they were going for here. I get it. But I did not enjoy this direction. I think it shat on everything that makes the franchise what it is and what the 2018 Halloween got so right (until they bungled the ending).

People will HATE this. And it is not a fitting end to a 40+ year saga. JLC should’ve stepped in. I realize that what the fans would’ve preferred was something a bit more “obvious,” but they should’ve taken greater pains to make more of a crowd pleaser.

The fans deserved better than this.

So it wasn't a Shatner mask after all?

It was a mask of the aged Jamie Lee Curtis sent back in time?!?!?

Finally it all makes sense.

Yes, there's one scene of bloated, old Michael in the mask, and he looks just like 2022 JLC.

R43 where have you been? They aren’t siblings in this timeline

The biggest issue is you DO NOT introduce a new character as a main character in the finale to a film series. He should have been introduced in 2 of anything. The finale should be then closing out everyone’s stories. Not focusing on a new character.

And they reshot a lot of scenes because the film failed so bad with test audiences. JLC was also in even less of the movie originally. I said this while they were filming, she filmed her scenes over the course of a few days. I knew she was barely in it but DL argued. I was right. They literally had to add new scenes with her.

Lindsey should have been given more to do. She died in Kills originally but they cut it out and added in the scene of her being taken into the hospital in a wheelchair later.

After finally seeing the film its not as bad as I expected based on the script. If this Corey concept would have been done over the course of the 2nd and 3rd film, instead of all in the 3rd- it could have worked.. The guy playing Corey was actually very good, and I enjoyed the relationship with Allison much more than I expected.

I of course enjoyed the junkyard and radio station scenes (I loved Kills)

What kind of shocked me was I got a little teary in the fight scene. I thought the scene was very intense/ the flashbacks were great/ and I just like Jamie Lee a lot. I was a little moved. I have been such a fan of this franchise since I was a kid.

It's a shame that they really fucked this up so much. There are two good films in the 3 films they made- all 3 should be reedited.

C- CinemaScore. That’s terrible.

Did you catch my farewell tour?

Yes Cher, all 13 or the Fairwell Tours since 2002.

I’m in a fan group on FB and many of them are PISSED about this movie. Some even say the latest Texas Chainsaw movie was better than this

[quote]The blue letters instead of orange? Why?

R28 It mirrors the font used in Halloween III, 40 years ago. Each movie in this trilogy used the same font as the movie directly from 40 years ago.

I really liked this movie. I don't get the bad reviews. Yes, yes, I must be a shill if I didn't hate it.

You gays watch crappy movies and you *don't* watch good movies!

R62- R56 here, I have to say that I liked it as well. Same boat, I don't want to be accused of being a shill. (I saw the script man months ago and warned everyone here)

It was a mistake on many levels, but as a standalone film, I quite liked it.

However, for the final film of the trilogy, it was a massive mistake.

And worse, was the trailer- so misleading.

And I loved the opening credits and especially the latest version of the Halloween Theme- Check out the soundtrack, its pretty damn good.

And no joke, that final 30 minutes really worked for me. "Old man Michael Myers DID NOT"- They should have handled the Michael /Corey connection in a different way.

I’m being honest when I say Halloween Ends is one of the dumbest films I’ve ever sat through, the script was so pedestrian and didn’t earn a stitch of what it was aiming for, I also thought JLC gave a terrible performance this time, unfocused and static.

Get fucked Billy. I would not watch that piece of shit if it was the last film on earth.

Fucking lame.

More Contrarian Gays pretending to enjoy something universally reviled just to be different.

Pathetic.

The one before this - “Halloween Kills” - was bad but at least it had a few good death scenes.

If they wanted to go in a completely different direction (like the underrated Halloween 3), they should have omitted JLC altogether. This one set up the expectation having the final Laurie vs Michael showdown as its focus but then introduced a new character who becomes the film’s central character? And all of the action/kill scenes were extremely lackluster. What a mess.

I agree with the poster above who said that Rowan Campbell who played Corey did well in the role all things considered. I’ve watched him in Hulu’s “Hardy Boys” and he can sit on my face any day.

And, yes, the opening scene of the brat falling to his death was my favorite scene in the movie 😈.

Danny McBride is a fucking moron, he’s just lucky that his bloated douche bag persona gained him some fame. He’s a caustic fat fuck who couldn’t write a suspenseful story if you put a gun to his carb faced skull. His lame “comedy” ruined this trilogy. These three films also had the most grotesque looking ensembles I have ever seen outside of a Fellini work. Tragic!

Laurie Strode is a maga cunt. I want Michael to splatter her guts everywhere already.

I hope they give Linda Blair a cameo. The audiences will stand and cheer.

Well I loved Kills- so for that you can call me a contrarian or a shill.

And what the fuck was up with Corey's parents having a Boston accent?

This the shit with Danny McBride and DDG- these pathetically stereotypical characters out of some low level sitcom.

Especially the mother. Couldn't they have made her a REAL person? Even her hair was a caricature. It would have made her death actually mean something.

There is a real laziness in the writing- its so amateur... So there's a genuine gripe.

R72 Do you mean Ends not Kills?

Corey's mother was clearly a riff on the Aunt played by Susan Tyrrell in 'Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker' (1981). David Gordon Green has said that was one of the movies he screened prior to production on Ends.

I had issues with Kills but it was fun and rewatchable, unlike 2018. 2018 was a good movie but slow and not one I cared about when I rewatched. Kills had me entertained.

This one was not a Halloween movie.

R73- Wow... Solved... I just saw that film a few months ago on Tubi-

I meant that I love Kills.

I liked Ends- more like I enjoyed some of it-

(I am called a shill here even when I trashed the script- it makes no sense, and its the same poster who has been a piece of shit in all these threads since day 1)

My biggest gripe is how weak they made Michael.

R76 Michael is 65 years old in Halloween Ends and was been shot, beaten, burned and stabbed numerous times in 2018. He's been hiding in a sewer for 4 years, barely surviving. Exactly how strong should he be? It's clear his strength is revived when he kills but he's an almost spent battery when Ends begins and he never gets it all back. Which makes perfect sense unless they were going to go fully-supernatural, which they thankfully did not.

Yes, they did. Michael sent part of his evil into Corey (just like The Thorn in the 1978 Halloween novelization which Carpenter worked on and approved).

It's explicit that Corey is infected with Michael's evil. Laurie and the hot dad both comment that Corey's eyes are different, and Laurie recognizes them as Michael's eyes (which she never really saw in this ridiculously chopped-up continuity).

The GLOWING EVIL in Michael's eyes appears in Corey's eyes.

Michael Myers is full-on supernatural in this terrible movie.

Halloween Kills established he isn’t a normal human, but a supernatural entity r77. Which is why no matter how many times they stabbed him, burned him, shot him etc. he was unstoppable. He literally kills most of the town at the same time.

This movie throws all that out the window.

It was clearly a choice, but the seemingly big, bustling, cosmopolitan and diverse Haddonfield of the Green/Blumhouse films didn't work well for me. And it wasn't just in the "now" scenes. Even when they flashed back to 1978, it didn't seem like the same town. Even the worst of the pre-Blumhouse sequels preserved the Midwestern small-town feel of Carpenter and Hill. The kind of hospital shown in the 1981 film made more sense than the multi-story one in 2021.

[quote]Laurie even talks/writes about the "decades" of atrocities that Michael has inflicted on the residents of Haddonfield. Huh? He killed his sister in 1965, a few kids in 1978, and then returned in 2018 (for no reason if they aren't related). But the way Laurie says it, it's almost as if she's referring to the retconned-out films between 1978 and 2018. Otherwise, he speech makes no sense. Michael killed a few kids on Halloween 1978, hardly the worst tragedy in the world. Certainly nothing for Haddonfield folk to be lamenting for 40 years.

Yes. From the start of the 2018-22 trilogy, they've wanted it both ways. They wrote prior sequels out of continuity, but still traded on 40 years of history. The Laurie of 2018 behaved as if she had survived not just the first film but also 2, H20, and Resurrection.

(Then, in Ends, even though her daughter and dozens of others had been murdered by a still-at-large Myers, she was moving on with her life, baking pies and carving jack-o-lanterns, showing a much wider range of emotion. I'm only speculating, but that played as if they'd accommodated a request from Curtis to be less one-note obsessed, rather than following through on the Cassandra-like "She-Loomis" character the writers had given us for two films..even though she had MORE reason now to be that way.)

The mother at the beginning looked great as a flapper.

R81- That first 30 minutes and last 30 minutes were actually a decent movie.

As a whole it was just a misfire...

R76- That was the WORST part of the entire film- it was just the biggest mistake. I was fine with Michael and Corey being joined in some energetic way- but "Old Man Michael" really was the worst part of the entire film.

The dad looked good as a train conductor.

This garbage continuity also wipes away Dr. Sam Loomis' importance to the story of Michael Myers.

According to DGG/DMcB, Dr. Loomis let Michael escape Smith's Grove in 1978, had nothing to do really with his capture, and then faded into the background.

The entire rest of the FRANCHISE (INCLUDING Rob Zombie's two films) showed how important Dr. Loomis/Donald Pleasance was to the series. DGG wipes Loomis away to basic nothingness, shitting on a beloved character and actor.

Jaime looks so old

R85 you’re right about Loomis but Pleasance wasn’t Loomis in the Zombie movies. Just needed to point that out.

In Halloween Kills we learn Michael is not a normal human. In Ends, he’s suddenly a normal weak old man. He’s only 4 years older now than he was in Kills, when he killed an entire town.

Also, Michael kills the gay couple who now owned his old childhood home and pretty much did so to go back home. One would think he would hide out there instead of in the sewers.

No joke, I was so happy that that lady lived (from Kills)

But when I thought about it, the poor woman was utterly miserable..

The script should have at least fucking made her fulfilled/happy or something-

DGG and these writers really miss on so many details.

R90 but why would she be? She was almost dead and stabbed through her neck. You wouldn’t be happy and fulfilled after that.

R91- I know, that's kind of my point. I was so happy she lived, but she was miserable, alone, and incapacitated.

It made sense in a way, but it wasn't something to be celebrated.

I literally said "NO WAY" when that scene happened and was really happy.

I no longer know what I am saying.

It was that kind of film. Just crazy amounts of weird/bad/dreadful/good/sad

Messy as fuck

This one gives Jamie Lee Curtis her best material in the trilogy and she's great, but her character doesn't make sense after all she's been through. She was a complete nutcase in the 2018 movie and basically the same in Kills except on a lot of pain meds. Her daughter and a chunk of the town are killed by Michael and he disappears into the night and, 4 years later, she's a happy grandmother baking pies and flirting with Will Patton in the supermarket. Wouldn't she have been an even bigger nutcase this time around? I know she says she's had therapy and stuff, but wouldn't you be a nervous wreck if a monster like Michael was still on the loose?

This would have been a better movie to start the trilogy with. As a stand alone movie, it's not half bad.

The “only people who like this are contrarian gays” troll can shut up the fuck up. Halloween fanatics are so weird with the gate keeping. It’s not as if this series has been all critical highs. We’re talking about movies where Michael is controlled by rocks and Busta Rhymes kung fu kicks him. Hell, even the original was a trashy rip-off of Black Christmas.

I’ve seen twelve Halloween movies with the same set-up. It was nice to see something different. I’m not saying you have to like it but no one made you The Queen of Halloween so your opinion has about as much weight as the rest of us.

R93 one of the other posters pointed this out. It should’ve been militant Laurie in this one and pie baking Laurie in 2018. And Laurie dropping f bombs in this one really turned me off for some reason. Oh well. Any kind of logic went out the window with the Halloween films decades ago anyway.

R94- Thank you. A dude I follow on Youtube is the ONLY high subscriber YouTuber I can see who liked the film. He mentioned that he felt bad for the guy who played Corey because the "Halloween Community is TOXIC" I am realizing that this is true.

I would give this film a 5.5/10. Period. It was utterly flawed at its conception. However, as a standalone, I enjoyed it.

Shocked that I did, as the script was even worse.

David Gordon Green is a hack. Honestly, I'd rather watch a remake of Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

[Quote] He is apparently going to be directing a remake of "The Exorcist" next, which is laughable. The guy is a hack.

Agree, and a trilogy to boot! I hope William Friedkin lives long enough to crush David Gordon Green's soul with his acerbic vitriol. I don't understand why so many have been obsessed over the years with upping the original, or capturing audiences the way it did. It can't be done, primarily because it was a product of its time.

Expect a decade of terrible films.

This movie is nothing like Black Christmas….

R55 Plenty of films have introduced new characters into their franchises = 1989 rebooted Batman franchise (Riddler, Two-Face & the blonde lead), NOES, 007, Jaws, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc., etc.

Also, why should the Scream franchise be the only one to be able to rewrite what's acceptable in the slasher genre?

The new character was a breath of fresh air for this trilogy & it needed one big time after Laurie was M.I.A. for the second disappointing film.

R101^^ I was shocked at how much I liked Corey and the actor! I was not expecting that! (He should have been a character from the first film and slowly evolved) But I learned initially the first film really was just a one film thing.. after its success it became a relative shitshow I guess..

This film really had some great elements- it will probably be considered a little better in 10-20 years.

I saw the original Halloween almost ten times in the cinema, I loved it, I’ve seen every other film in the franchise, including the Producer’s Cut of six, and this sadly is the worst. Not because it’s not creative, at least, but because it is horrifically written, plotted and directed. It exposed the absolute mediocrity that is the creative team, especially DGG, every moment is wrong, the pacing arbitrarily thrown against the screen and an absolute failure as a final installment. I am sick to my stomach with the thought of him touching the legacy of The Exorcist. Thankfully this film is TANKING as a true dud.

R103 Resurrection is the worst. Yeah this one could’ve been better, but it had its moments. It was the best out of the three from 2018 on. That’s not saying too much. I don’t think there’s a way most of the fans of the series would be pleased with the final one, short of Carpenter coming back in an alternate universe to write and direct it and even then. The first one was a product of its time. There’s been a trillion slasher films in the 44 years since that audiences have seen, unlike in 1978, when it wasn’t common place. So people have seen every variation on it. Each new Halloween films serves to dilute the good that mainly came from the first two. Just like with Freddy and Jason, it time to put Michael to rest. God I hope.

R101 every movie you named are movies who have new cast members every movie. Also, some of the ones you named had third films that were torn apart, especially Star Wars and Star Trek.

Halloween isn’t a big space blockbuster. It’s a slasher set in a small town.

The hyperbole about Halloween Ends being the worst Halloween movie is just patently ridiculous.

R106 true. 4, 5, Curse and Resurrection are absolute junk. 4 and 5 have their partisans, probably because they felt more like the first two, but I found them trash.

Halloween 5 is GARBAGE.

Ends is better than Halloween 5 any day of the week.

I love 4 and 5 and wish they didn’t erase those. Would love to see the Jamie saga continue.

Nope! Halloween Ends is the absolute worst of the bunch. Shit, total shit, and it’s a big fat bomb to boot.

Ummm it’s not a bomb. Debuting with $43 million isn’t a bomb.

Fuck, I think Ends is better than H20.. (H20 is the most overrated Halloween film of them all)

Halloween 5 is gutter trash.

Halloween 4 is definitely better than Ends.

The "What are you smiling about?" scene, with Laurie being accosted outside the store by fluorescent-bulb survivor and her sister, reminded me of Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk about Kevin. But the scene made more sense in WNTTAK.

In hindsight, this Blumhouse team and JLC should have been one and done. The 2018 film was a little overrated at the time, but much better than either of its follow-ups. The team turned out not to have much worth sharing that couldn't be dealt with in a single film. "Trauma survival" and "three generations of strong women standing together" were their big ideas for reanimating the series, and they said everything they had to say on those subjects in 2018.

Michael will return, I'm sure, in some reboot. He's as much a horror perennial as a Universal monster of the early talkies now.

R71 I'm surprised that Ellen Burstyn is doing it. She'll be 90 years old in a couple of months. I wonder if she'll have a substantial role or if it will be more of a minor appearance.

R111, WRONG it is being considered a huge bomb.

R115 because of the reviews. Not the box office.

Halloween Ends box office is going to be the worst of the trilogy, the film is a flop. Big dud.

R114: Burstyn still plays pretty substantial roles. She was Vanessa Kirby's mother in Pieces of a Woman recently. She gave a good performance and looked good for 88, but it was hard not to think, "How the hell old was this woman when she had her thirtyish daughter?"

Will Chris MacNeal still sport the same hairstyle and wear the same fashions she wore in 1973?

DGG felt it was necessary for Laurie Strode to do so, apparently.

Still better than Rob Zombie's abortions.

Has Rob Zombie commented on the DGG trilogy?

This was TERRIBLE. So incredibly bad. I actually fell asleep. The writing and directing are incredibly sub par.

R113, I actually think Ends is the only one of the DGG trilogy to actually look at trauma in any interesting way. It’s kind of the core of what brings Allison and Corey together, living through these horrible events and being shunned by the community. It also explains why she would overlook the red flags and how it can effect romantic relationships moving forward.

The trauma narrative in 2018 always felt so one dimensional to me. “Me, Laurie. Me, have trauma. Me, own gun.”

A couple down the aisle from me did a noisy walkout around the time Allyson and Corey were getting their dating montage and riding around on the motorcycle. The guy said "If I wanted to see SHIT, I would have stayed home." That struck me as funny even though it doesn't make sense. Maybe they're having plumbing problems at home? Or it was a slam on TV/streaming content?

I did notice when the lights came up that the theater was significantly less full than it had been at the start, and that's unusual with a horror franchise entry.

That's great and all r123 but not why people go see a movie like Halloween. Nobody comes to Halloween to see all that.

R125, absolutely. If you’re going to tackle a Halloween movie, try and make a good HALLOWEEN MOVIE. This entire trilogy suffered under the creative limitations of the mediocre creative team. David Gordon Green is a D+ lister, as an actor he was basically a bit player. They all got lucky with H 2018, but that was because the audience was starved for something Halloween that wasn’t shit. So they made a half a shit product and the crowd swooned. The people saying it was a new masterpiece and deserved Oscar nods were as mentally ill as Michael Myers himself, but I digress. After the first film in this recent series did well, they got greedy and forced out more, which became terrible cash grabs and awful releases. This one is already a failure, hopefully it might stunt the potentially disastrous horrors that DGG will unleash on The Exorcist legacy.

R114 Ellen told him no repeatedly she wanted to do it. She only agreed when DGG agreed to give money to the actors studio, which I believe she is still co chair. I hope Linda Blair puts in a cameo at least. I’m guessing Ellen’s performance is going to be small too.

R126 it was always planned as three films.

R128, actually that is NOT true, it became a trilogy because of the pandemic delays.

R129 you’re half right. Had to look it up, but the sequels were planned before the pandemic in 2019.

R126 = Barbara Thornedyke

I have no idea what the fuck this movie is. It’s like they wrote a movie and then decided after the fact that it should be a Halloween movie. So they retrofit accordingly.

I’m turning it off.

They did that with Hellraiser sequels. ^ Hellraiser: Inferno was a script they tossed cenobites into. But I really enjoyed it. It was a better Hellraiser sequel.

The dire reactions to this flop are industry wide, the box office implosion by next weekend will be brutal. What a hollow Halloween!

Was there a cut death scene for the Allens, the parents in the prologue? Unless I blinked, I didn'r notice them in the grand finale.

Halloween 2018 - B

Halloween Kills - C-

Halloween Ends - D, anti climactic. No build up to showdown and lacked any kind of gravitas for the third in a trilogy. Why did we not get a Kyle Richards death? I was cool with introducing a new “Michael” who had ties to the Strode clan but maybe in a future installment. Why create this new character and origin story and play it out like that? Didn’t make sense?! Lacked the fall / Halloween vibe that the first of the trilogy nailed. Michael not scary or even menacing.

H20 is starting to look like an underrated masterpiece in this horror series! I think it’s the best Laurie storyline and offers the most satisfying conclusion.

Since when did pure evil Michael pick and choose who he killed? Like his team up with Cory would prevent him from offing the kid made no sense and wasn’t the Michael we’ve been told.

It was not planned as a trilogy. 2018 was supposed to be a standalone film, but when it made a lot more money than expected, they announced 2 sequels in 2019.

It gets the approval of Stephen King

I bet Stephen King watched it on his son’s Peacock account…

Stephen King is probably eating Jello and grabbing at his in-home nurse's ass. He ain't screening Halloween Ends.

They clearly found a script that was not from this Franchise and hot rigged it to plug the Michael Myers story in. It was shit. Jamie Lee probably read ten pages, threw it into her roaring fireplace, called her agent and told him to add a $1 in front of whatever offer they had, wire it to her swiss bank account, and she was in - otherwise she walks.

She was originally in even less of the movie. Didn’t she originally film her scenes in just a few days?

R144 I really hope it is revealed that this film was a war zone behind the scenes, and I really want to know what was in the reshoots..

I suspect that the supermarket scene with Jamie Lee Will Patton and also the actual final scene (Cherry Blossoms) were added on during reshoots.

Michael Myers, Murderer Mentor

I thought OP's pic was David Spade wearing a wig.

Why do people always say Michael doesn’t kill kids? He killed the kid in 2018.

Which kid?

The kid with his father. They stop when they see the bus broken down with all the loons escaped

The gay dancer boy who was running around yelling, “Daddy! Daddy!”

Just finished watching it. What the fuck was that? No, really. What the fuck was everyone involved with this thinking? This was the first film in a long time I seriously considered walking out on because it was so bad.

For a planned trilogy, it was weird how so much of the final installment focused on some random guy we've never seen until now. Michael was just barely in the film. Why would Allyson be so enamored with a guy she barely knows and who has a questionable past? Why is Laurie suddenly sane?

In fairness, the last 20 or so minutes were good. But getting there was such a slog.

I hate Blumhouse productions. They take decent ideas and turn them into slick garbage. It's a shame how Jason Blum has hijacked the mainstream horror genre.

The uploader even made it a point to say MICHAEL MYERS KILLS A KID!

Because people love to claim he never has.

All, he killed a kid in Halloween Kills as well- off screen-

It took me 3 watches to actually notice this

It is when Lindsey runs from her car onto that playground and sees the 2 kids on the swing. They say they are waiting for their friend and some guy in a white mask keeps looking at them.

Michael arrives. He is holding onto a bloody skeleton mask- The kid says something like "Hey that's our friends mask!'

They run away, Michael then kills the 3 people waiting for Lindsay in the car. (Including Nurse Marion)

The black kid from 2018 was marching in this one at the end. Where the fuck are his parents?! Lol

Do we think Lindsay is a lesbian now? I got major dyke vibes

Yes- absolutely.

I heard Lindsey and Laurie were caught scissoring by Corey. That is what led him down a dark path.

[quote] Why would Allyson be so enamored with a guy she barely knows and who has a questionable past?

Because his anal hygiene WASN'T questionable. Any more dumb questions?

The actress who played Allyson was REALLY REALLY BAD in the first two. They gave her less to do here.

Judy Greer was terrible in the first one but improved in Kills. The granddaughter was awful in the first two and only mildly awful in Ends.

Wasn't the cop who liked Allyson named Mullaney? Is he the father of Chucky and the ugly girls who bullied Lonnie in Halloween Kills?

David Gordon Green and co. don't know how to write convincing women at all. It's no surprise they switched it up to make Corey the star. I felt this was their most relaxed and assured movie in the trilogy because of this. With a male character as the focus, they seemed more comfortable. It's just too bad that this change of pace makes it feel like anything but a Halloween movie. They might have been better off making this a stand alone movie without the Halloween tag. Although, I suppose you could say the same about Season of the Witch.

[quote]Wasn't the cop who liked Allyson named Mullaney? Is he the father of Chucky and the ugly girls who bullied Lonnie in Halloween Kills?

He must be a relation of the Mulaneys seen in HK, but he couldn't be their father. The actor would be the wrong age. He was older than the actress who plays Allyson, but not that much older.

The film plays homage to Halloween 3. Each movie plays homage to the film that came out 40 years prior.

They made Corey the main storyline over MM because Halloween 3 want about Michael, but that was when it was going to be an anthology movie series

Unfortunately, it sucked. I was so hoping for an epic conclusion after the disappointing middle chapter of this trilogy, but for me it failed on every level. I wanted a lot of Michael vs Laurie scattered throughout the film with a really tense and thrilling final showdown. Not what we got at all. I hated the storyline, the writing was really poor and some of the dialogue laughable, Michael was sidelined in favour of a new character for some unknown reason, and the final showdown was ok but nowhere near what it should have been.

No scares, no tension, edged us all film long and didn't even deliver a good cumshot. So so disappointed and I don't think I will ever watch it again.

Only $41M for the opening weekend. Nobody and nothing makes money anymore.

The trouble is they will blame it on it being released to streaming simultaneously with cinema release on why the box office is bad, rather than admitting it's just a straight up bad film. I'm still annoyed at what a missed opportunity this is. They could have done so much more with Laurie, dealing with PTSD and seeing Michael out of the corner of her eye and never knowing if she's hallucinating or it's actually him, playing a cat-and-mouse game building up the tension until the final showdown when she finally achieves catharsis by killing him, or dying together because she knows even if she kills him she will never be the same after her experience. So many other things they could have done but they gave us THIS!? I'm mad as fuck tbh.

RESURRECTION, all is forgiven.

[quote]They could have done so much more with Laurie, dealing with PTSD and seeing Michael out of the corner of her eye and never knowing if she's hallucinating or it's actually him, playing a cat-and-mouse game building up the tension until the final showdown when she finally achieves catharsis by killing him

That's essentially H20.

The nice part of me wants to give them a break because this formula has been flogged so hard (with and without Curtis's Laurie) that there aren't many unexplored avenues. But still...Corey Cunningham was the best they could do?

Michael manages to take on dozens of townsfolk beating him up and even shooting him in the previous movie, but he's suddenly so old in this one, he gets bossed around by some wimp in a sewage tunnel? He's either supernatural or he isn't, fucking make up your mind already. I can overlook most anything if the lore is solid and consistent, but they were clearly just making it up as they went along.

R167 That’s a lot for a movie like this. Lmao. This isn’t a fucking comic book movie. These movies are made for cheap.

This movie was a bore, a messy bore. Not a scare, no suspense. Poor JLC looked miserable in every scene, and NOT in a good way.

The blue titles were awful too. I know, I know, people are saying this piece of shit movie is a nod to H3 in more ways than one, but the blue was way too distracting.

I bet you the original shooting script more overtly played homage to Halloween III Season of the Witch (some kind of magic spell that possesses and kills) but there were clearly studio changes, and further re-shoots after screenings. The result is this film by committee that throws a lot of ideas up in the air with few of them landing and seems like 3 diff movies.

R175 I always felt that is what they were building with Kills. They kept going on and on about Michael being a supernatural entity. I was certain that was to pay homage to H3 in Ends, by including some sort of magic or other entities, like witches.

R176 That would have been horrific.

MM being supernatural is so fucking stupid. If that is where they want to go, fine, but it is not scary. It takes any realism right out of the picture. Scary is this insane, brutal killer out there. Also, adrenaline can give people temporary supernatural strength. Real life people have been shot multiple time, and worse, and were able to go on for sometimes hours before needing medical help.

H20 is so unfairly maligned. It had a great opening which realistically set up how MM finds LS, although a weak middle, it provided the best LS storyline, built tension for the finale, and provided an actual Halloween atmosphere. The ending was very satisfying. Yes the mask was ridiculous but most casual fans didn’t care.

Why TF would the writers want to pay homage to H3 and purposively not include much MM IN THE FINAL FUCKING FILM with LS? Aside from letting LS live, which is what was absolutely needed being the #1 final girl, the film got little right- the feeling of Halloween, a weak MM, less focus on LS. I wanted LS to call out MM for what he did to her and her friends as she was killing him. I wanted her to say their names. I wanted her to say the names of Tommy and Nurse Marion. I wanted her to say Dr. Loomis’ name (was he even fucking mentioned?)

I was also happy they didn’t kill Lindsay. She was one of the OGs. She should have been there at the end. Maybe Laurie saves her?

Swole

Sucked totally..Don't waste your time. Now its a tired trope. But I'm in deep resentment that I cannot get a refund for the time I wasted watching this complete piece of crap.

Supernatural villains are popular. See Candyman, Freddy Krueger, Pan’s Labyrinth, etc.

R181 Not really. Not in slasher movies especially. The “supernatural fanbois are the worst. They always want the villain to be supernatural but 90% of people think that is stupid and takes them completely out of being afraid.

R175 R176 I'm willing to bet that originally the all important radio tower (which DGG made such a point to mention in the Kills commentary) was the conduit or beacon for the transmission of the Myers' evil, in much the same way the Silver Shamrock masks and the TV ads were the delivery device in Halloween III.

R176 they already went the supernatural route with “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” and it wasn’t well-received. Not exactly “witches”, but supernatural in the sense that it posited that Myers was controlled by a Druid cult who drove him to kill off his bloodline. Despite its flaws, I have always liked that film and found it dark and creepy.

You gays watch CRAP! I don't even know why I bother! 🖕🤦‍♂️💩

Why does JLC look 80? I know plenty of 60 somethings who have better skin.

I thought Corey was ugly. They absolutely should have introduced him as a new character in H2018. Or he kills the kid in 2019 AFTER a run in with MM. It looks like an accident, but it turns out not to be which we find out in H2022.

Boy, did David Gordon Green lose it. But did he ever truly have "it" to begin with?

[quote] Jaime looks so old

Oh, dear!

They could've at least covered up Corey's acne on his shoulders. Yuck.

Yeah, that was the goriest thing in the movie.

I heard Jamie Lee does a “Crying Game Reveal”

No r188. Never.

His first couple of movies are lovely - All the Real Girls and George Washington.

I liked Undertow too but that might have just been my boner for Jamie Bell and Josh Lucas speaking

For the final showdown, it should have been a building, simmering caldron of white hot lava. MARY!

She should have had a convo with MM before the showdown as they stare at each other. She should mention how she is no longer afraid of him, how he took her teen years, killed her friends (naming them, showing a picture), mentioning Tommy and Lindsay, mentioning Dr. Loomis, saying she doesn’t care if she dies, she is ending him once and or all, whether it kills her or not. Telling him he no longer has power over her. Then go on to kill the MFer. THE END.

I am glad R195 isn't working in Hollywood.

R196 Why? That is what audiences wanted.

There’s a toxic kind of fanboi who wants every slasher to be supernatural. That’s all swell, but the average audience who wants to see slasher movies hate that angle. They laughed at Jason coming back from the dead. Those movies became a joke. They definitely had their niche market which made them marginally successful, but the franchise was seen as a joke and Jason no longer scary. Now the franchise is dead.

When the villain starts out as supernatural, like Freddy, that’s completely different.

Well the Friday the 13th franchise is only dead right now because of those behind-the-scenes lawsuits. The second those get sorted out there will be a new one. And it will be the 13th one, so I do hope it happens, and I do hope they make it good. I don't know why these filmmakers can't just be simple about it and do what worked originally - make a tense, scary, fun movie! We don't need intense ruminations on grief and the human condition every fucking time, this isn't Bergman for Christ's sake. Leave it to the critics to make meaning out of the films later on.

Oh they will epically fuck up the new F13. Count on that. All kills will be so over the top and gory while the original F13 was not very gory at all.

Will they start over with Mrs. Voorhees and Alice? Will Alice live to fight Jason and be the final girl as was intended for the sequel until the actress bowed out due to a stalker? Whatever, it will be bad count on it. I wasn’t sure any one could fuck up having the final girl from TX chainsaw come back to only kill her with about 3 minutes of screen time to be killed so easily by LF THEN have H:Ends be so shitty.

Luved it. Great film from start to finish.

I was totally with the H2018 stan when it came out. I liked a lot of elements of Kills except for the excessive way they tried to kill MM and his over the top strength. Had it not been for that, it would have been a solid film though I wanted more JLC.

This film is just a dud all around. It is just a let down. I am still shocked and angry about how lame it ended.

They'll bring back Mrs. V in Friday the 13th and make it an over the top study on grief and trauma and what it does to a person. Not that the original wasn't about that in some way, but they did it in a way that wasn't heavy handed.

This movie sucked so bad.

This movie sucked so bad.

r204 r205

For me, overall it was ok. Was it a pure Halloween movie? Not really. I liked the movie exploring the Corey character more deeply which isn't something you'd associate with the Halloween franchise. And I don't mind the New Age approach of ending Lauri's trauma for good with the rah-rah girl power empowerment trope.

What I thought was bad was that none of the victims were really likable (except maybe Corey's dad and he gets shot by the bully). I felt like we were supposed to side with Corey and his killing spree, because he went after the ones who hurt him, or his girlfriend, most.

I thought the fight scene between Corey and Michael in the cave with the tunnel was silly. Almost like a set-up to be later revealed as Michael just being a figment of Corey's imagination.

I thought the movie should've ended with Corey pretending to be Michael, and it turns out Michael did die (of old age?) and Corey found his corpse and the mask and was taking over Michael's legacy and now keeping it ambiguous of Corey being dead for good. And Lauri finding peace in the knowledge that the Michael is dead now, but aware that the evil that fueled Michael is still out there and has taken over Corey.

R207 Hold up? You think it would be a good idea to have fans thinking this was the final showdown b/w two of the most iconic foes in horror history end with MM actually being dead and no showdown? WHHHAAAAAAT?

Also, this was not the film to have a new character exploration taking up 80% of the movie. This was the LAST ONE WITH JLC as LS! JFC

Laurie getting over her trauma and spending time on that was absolutely appropriate.

I thought they were going to explain the reason MM hasn’t come back is Covid shut down Halloween in 2020 & 2021 so 2022 was the first year Haddonfield was celebrating it where Laurie lured him back to kill him. I thought Corey killing the boy in 2019 would have stopped MM from coming back that Halloween due to police and the public being everywhere thinking it was MM, but it was actually Corey.

If I pretend this wasn’t the last Halloween with JLC’s Laurie then this was an ok film if you erase the ending.

[quote] [R207] Hold up? You think it would be a good idea to have fans thinking this was the final showdown b/w two of the most iconic foes in horror history end with MM actually being dead and no showdown? WHHHAAAAAAT?

Uh, yeah. It would've driven the point home that the real evil is the mask Michael hid behind while committing the murders (as in, only capable to do what he wanted when hiding his true self / face).

R209 That would have been about as popular as diarrhea soup.

R209 He killed his sister without the Shatner mask. He killed several in H2018 without his mask. That makes no sense.

Damn, this makes Jamie Lee look like a cunt.

R212- I posted the podcast in its own thread and in the JLC thread to make sure people see it and hear it straight from their mouths. I'm glad you posted it here too.

These are two very cool girls and JLC's behavior was utterly nasty.

I can see now that JLC is a fucking fake. Who would behave like that on an occasion like that when she cries in every video about how important and meaningful this all is to her. She was not having a bad night (which Danielle Harris was kind enough to try to use as an excuse)

I have been a JLC fan since I was a little kid and for some reason this is really pissing me off. Their entire podcast was a great listen too.

Is JLC medicated? She seems manic and mentally unstable.

Someone here called it when the photo of them was released. JLC looked pissy. What a fucking shame. This really does make her look like a bitch and a fake. She always came across as a bit stuck up and above it all. She really didn’t want to do H20 and was glad they killed LS off in H2002 which is pissing on the fans who love LS.

DH has really been shit on during this reboot. She’s a fan favorite and wasn’t even given a cameo. Kyle Richards is an OG and was treated like an extra in the final film.

And by the way- JLC being a cunt is clearly well known.

In the podcast Danielle mentioned that she had heard JLC had this reputation, and JLC's photographer gave the girls the same exact vibe.

Thats why you should listen to the last 1/2 of the podcast. Its worth it.

I hate growing older because illusions are kind of shattered one by one! Fuckers!

And Scout was clearly SO disappointed and heartbroken.

And mind you, this bitch treated them both like shit at 2 different times!!!

Fuck her and Edna or whatever her troll daughter's name is with the dead eyes.

JLC is probably just one of those actors that doesn't even like horror movies and sees herself as above them but just hides her disdain for the most part for the big paychecks. After all, she isn't getting calls for anything else high profile anymore.

A lot of other actors that trashed the horror movies they appeared in sure change their tune when they see how much money they can make at conventions.

R218 is probably right. And Kyle Richards is loaded—probably richer than Jamie Lee—so any involvement in these movies was likely done purely for fun. Given her "Real Housewives" life, I sort of expected Kyle to be the elitist cunt of this new "Halloween" shitshow, but Jamie Lee has proven my assumptions wrong. Kyle doesn't seem half-bad.

I didn’t know she was known as a cunt, just stuck up. Wow, she’s a cunt. Now I know she really doesn’t give a shit about the movie just her part and paycheck. Sad.

The way the film was marketed in the trailers was with Jamie Lee Curtis saying, "Maybe the only way he can die is if I die too."

In this respect, the film did not pay off; Laurie Strode lives. To me, that means one thing: that 'Halloween Ends' is a lie. There will be more sequels.

She’s done with them. I’m convinced.

JLC is a tremendous cunt, always has been. She’s also a complete bore as an actress. Her stagnant take on Laurie Strode in this horrid trilogy reveals how hollow she is, there was no connection between films because she was playing twenty different Lauries, she’s mediocre to the core.

"Twenty different Lauries" is the result of multiple screenwriters and directors, R223, not of an actor.

r187, same here. The actor playing Corey was just too off putting to me; halfway through the movie, I just started fast-forwarding through a lot of the scenes with him. It's bad enough that they focused the movie on that character, but they had to make it worse by casting such an ugly actor. They didn't even go 'Soft Ugly' by choosing someone like Jo Quinn, they decided to go with 'Distractingly Ugly'. A shame...

IMO, the whole 'Michael Myers' thing should have ended with Halloween II (1981), when he was incinerated. Any Michael-Myers-based story beyond that point was unreasonable.

I remember Howard Stern going off on Jamie Lee Curtis back in the day.

[quote]She really didn’t want to do H20 and was glad they killed LS off in H2002 which is pissing on the fans who love LS.

She really did want to do H20. But the original plan was for Carpenter to come back as director, but he demanded a $10 million fee for this low-budget movie. Steve Miner probably got a tenth of that...with results to match. I think her enthusiasm for the project diminished without Carpenter. And maybe as it went on and she saw how it was going to turn out, it diminished even more. I do like H20 well enough, but it really should be better. It should be THE sequel, instead of just pretty good.

She's been pretty frank about Resurrection being a contractual obligation.

Her behavior toward Danielle Harris and Scout Taylor-Compton is shitty and reflects poorly on her, but doesn't surprise me.

[quote]JLC is probably just one of those actors that doesn't even like horror movies

Yeah, she hates them and never watches them. She has even talked about seeing the prestigious "horror-adjacent" Silence of the Lambs and covering her eyes so much that she wasn't seeing the movie.

R228 When Silence of the Lambs was up for Best Picture at the oscars, I remember an interview with her where she stated she had voted for Beauty and the Beast as Best Picture!

That line about showing fate your tits made me cringe and Feel bad for JLC.

The movie felt dated to me. Especially the stuff with the bullies. Maybe intentional?

I'm pretty sure the Corey Cunningham character is a nod to Arnie Cunningham from Christine (1983).

R231 That’s exactly what it is.

I've not listened to the podcast R213 but I don't think JLC should be demonised for what she said - she doesn't watch horror films and she often has a very abrupt, dead-pan delivery so I am not convinced from that that she's a bitch.

Why would they want the Elm Street gals at a Halloween premier?

i believe that story about JLC. She can be insensitive and aloof.

I think Jamie Lee is a wonderful actress and she's a big reason as to why many of these films are successful. H20 was apparently her idea. Dimension was going to put the series alongside Hellraiser and Children of the Corn and go the straight to video route, but she's the one who stepped in and proposed an anniversary movie with her, John Carpenter, and Debra Hill. John and Debra pulled out eventually and Steve Miner came in who, all things considered, did a good job with the film. With a little more atmosphere, a better music score, a few more kills, and a consistent mask for Michael, H20 would be considered the best of the series. All the Laurie scenes are really great and it's easily Jamie Lee's best performance in the series.

With this last trilogy, I've come to sort of sour on Jamie Lee. She seems phony and money grubby, promoting these movies as if they're some sort of Oscar bait and have these important things to say about society when, in reality, they do a little lip service and barely skim the surface of the issues she says they're trying to cover. I believe she called Halloween Kills a masterpiece. How can you trust someone who says something that ridiculous? At least she's beaten around the bush a bit when asked if she'd ever return again and hasn't given a definite answer. We all know she'll be back fighting Michael in 15/20 years if she's still alive.

[quote]I believe she called Halloween Kills a masterpiece. How can you trust someone who says something that ridiculous?

She's always been all-in when it comes to promotion, I'll say that for her. Very much of the old school, the kind of actor producers and studio executives like to have on the team. I remember her hyping H20 in the summer of 1998. It was a love letter to fans of the franchise; we were all going to adore it; she had been thrilled to be back playing one of the two best roles she had ever had (the other was the wife in True Lies). By the time 2018 rolled around and she was in a new Halloween film, she was telling us what she had really thought. ("H20 started out with best intentions, but it ended up being a money gig. The film had some good things in it. It talked about alcoholism and trauma, but I ended up really doing it for the paycheck.")

[quote]With a little more atmosphere, a better music score, a few more kills, and a consistent mask for Michael, H20 would be considered the best of the series. All the Laurie scenes are really great and it's easily Jamie Lee's best performance in the series.

Agreed on JLC's performance, and H20 has one of the series' best casts. It's just strangely unfinished and underwritten, with no middle act. This isn't strictly about run time; there are 85-minute movies that feel like a full meal. This one doesn't.

R212, those girls are obnoxious. Call me whatever but there is nothing more off-putting than women who use the F-bomb every other sentence. JLC may be a bitch but maybe she heard these potty-mouthed dipshits spewing filth at the party.

JLC goes back and forth on whether or not she hates the horror moves she has done. I guess it depends on what she's promoting at the time. In a few years, she'll probably talk about how she did the DGG trilogy for the money, just like she does with H20 and Resurrection.

Well, JLC can be a dick, but there's a reason why Danielle and Scout are C-list.

Danielle Harris is nice, but she also looks and acts like an edgy college chick and she's 45.

R240, that's because she has a dick.

The most consequential Halloween movies have been in years ending in 8 or 2.

1978- Original

1988- a cult fan favorite

1998- return of Laurie and Jamie Lee

2018- Return return of Laurie and Jamie Lee

2022- the last one with Laurie, Jamie Lee and this version of MM.

Oh and 2002- the most hated

[quote]Oh and 2002- the most hated

And 1982...the bomb that scuttled the anthology concept. (I realize some people nowadays call it an unfairly maligned classic. The truth lies somewhere in between.)

Acceptable though I only consider those with MM as true Halloween movies BUT on a technicality it counts.

Halloween, the first one, that’s it. All of these sequels are utter SHIT. Halloween Ends is rancid, mediocre and a bore. That’s all…

^^ Sorry Halloween 2 rules^^^

R247 Consequential doesn’t mean good.

I liked the brother/sister angle. A lot.

Yeah, Halloween II is highly regarded. There are several people who prefer it over the first.

H2 is a very good film. There is no doubt about that.

If you want to do the Druid BS storyline, H6 is the best film of 4, 5, 6. By far. It is so tedious dealing with kids in a horror film. That’s why I like H20. Laurie sent her ADULT kid off to deal with MM herself.

R252 I love Halloween 6, but I know I'm in the minority on that one. It has the darkest and creepiest atmosphere IMO of pretty much all of the sequels—everything about it feels evil to the core. I also like Halloween 5 for similar reasons; it too has a really dark, gothic feel, and it's mean-spirited in the sense that it kills off both Rachel and Tina, the two primary characters (aside from Dr. Loomis) who are there to protect Jamie. Both Halloween 5 and Halloween 6 have a much harder edge than Halloween 4. Of all the sequels, Halloween 4 used to be one of my favorites, but with repeat viewings over the years, I find it less and less engaging. I also never cared for the Rachel character and was frankly glad she got butchered in H5. She was a humorless cunt.

H6 I agree. If you want to go with the stupid Druid storyline, it was the most effective. H5 was awful. H4 was for what it was. H6 did all the elements right if you wan to go with the Druid stupidity. None of the others did it as well.

R251- Halloween 2 is my far and away favorite with Halloween 2018 by 2nd (I thought it was excellent, many disagree)

The last 2 sucked, so why wouldn't this one?

80% drop- Which is massive, even for a horror film. Word of mouth is real.

I watched H6 last night. I didn’t like how easily they killed off Jamie. She didn’t put up much of a fight. It is way better than I remember. If they are going for supernatural/cult controlling Michael, this movie was great. And it had Paul Rudd!

H5- too much kid. I also do not enjoy kids in horror movies. It is also why I don’t enjoy F4. Jamie shrieking and “seeing” MM doesn’t appeal to me.

H4- watched it also last night. It was better than I remember. The problems? Shrieking kid. It doesn’t appeal to me but it is a solid Halloween film.

H2- always have liked it.

R257 I’m not surprised. There was no early buzz at all for this and has been no buzz since its opening. I should have known. I want to know what they reshot. I can’t imagine how much worse it was before that audiences hated even that.

While the original Halloween stands alone as a classic horror/thriller, Halloween 2 has charm and a campier spin from Donald Pleasence. It certainly rises above all the sequels that followed, especially the most recent “trilogy” that completely imploded with just the worst screenplays and mediocre direction. The massive box office drop is a clear sign of the film’s overall failure as a franchise finale, which of course we know it won’t be, unfortunately.

R259- I have my theories. It was basically to add more Laurie Strode, and I am sure the ending.. Believe it or not, I think there was even more Corey in the script and less Laurie (I ended up actually enjoying Ends- despite it being completely flawed)

I suspect the supermarket scene as well as the final- spoiler (I guess) Cherry Blossoms scenes were both reshoots.

I cannot wait until a story comes out someday about this film and what went down. A cool channel I like on Youtube claims that the film was a warzone.

Based on clues- Malek Akkad was at war with DGG, and Blumhouse was kind of chill and in the middle..

R261 At war over?

The film is completely fine without the expectations. Kills is wonderful without the expectations aside from the overkill of bodily harm to Michael and he survives it (yet gets knocked out by a knitting pin and clothes hanger to the eye). H2021 is infinitely more watchable than H2018 or H2022 especially without the expectations.

R262, it fascinates me how everyone has different opinions on movies, I applaud each person’s enjoyment, regardless if I liked, or disliked the film. I absolutely hated Halloween Kills, but I am just not a fan of what DGG and team did with the franchise, extremely disappointing for me as someone who enjoys the MM mythology.

R262- I am a huge Kills fan. More than most.

And Halloween 2018 and I place as 2nd behind Halloween 2 as he best of the franchise.

I really did not hate Ends the way I expected. And I saw most of the script before.

Corey could have worked out if he was in the entire trilogy. The film needed 20 more minutes of Laurie, a few more good kills, and it could have been a contender.

I did read online that Akkad isn’t happy with the current trilogy and is now looking for someone to “reboot” everything.

I am almost positive that the final scene was a reshoot--

From Wiki

Post-production[edit] In June 2022, Blum confirmed that the film had test screened internally the month prior and that it would be the last Halloween film from Blumhouse.[58] The following month, Carpenter described the film as a "departure" from the previous entries in Green's trilogy.[59] In August, Castle had finished ADR for Michael Myers.[60] By the end of the month, Green told in an interview that the film was still being tweaked despite the film being picture locked.[61] According to cinematographer Michael Simmonds, a practical version of the opening titles sequence, where jack-o'-lanterns continue to emerge from within each other, was initially created by production designer Richard Wright, but later replaced by a digital version.[62] After several test screenings, the original final confrontation between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers as well as the ending sequence were discarded, and re-shoots for new scenes took place in August 2022, two months before the film's premiere. It was decided that the film's conclusion should be more "modest" and "intimate" as opposed to the "super noisy and aggressive" ending of Kills, with Green wishing to return the series to its "simple dramatic roots".[14]

If DGG had done a separate standalone movie about Corey Cunningham, that would've been good. The actor is cute and did the best he could with the material.

As the final Halloween movie, which we know it won't be, because the Akkads will never let their cash cow die, it's a pile of missed opportunities. Made even worse by the incredibly misleading marketing and publicity. Rohan Campbell (Corey) just did an interview with Variety saying that DGG didn't want him doing any press. Setting people up to expect a Laurie and Michael showdown and delivering something very different was very stupid.

2018 would've been a good ending for JLC and DGG could've done something different with the later installments.

They films they delivered and what they thought they delivered were very different things. What exactly was the point of bringing back Kyle Richards, except that she's a friend of JLC? She had that one good chase scene in Kills and then in Ends...she pours a drink. "Oooh, original character Lindsey Wallace returns...to tend bar! How exciting!"

I agree with R8 that this trilogy reminds me of the Star Wars sequels. But the Star Wars sequels are completely disjointed because they had different creative teams. It is absurd that a trilogy would be this messy with the same writers and directors in charge all the way through.

The H6 tea: She was 17 at the time so the producers asked her to emancipate herself to work adult hours.

She did, which cost her about 5K. They didn't even want to pay her 5K for the role. They refused to budge, so she walked. She's said she's friends with the H6 Jamie.

Random H6 tea: Gay writer Daniel Farrands is a huge asshole with a massive ego. He acts like he's John Carpenter or Wes Craven.

A lot of the issues with the franchise are at the feet of Moustapha Akkad, IMO. He was more concerned with $$ than good movies. After H4 was a hit, they rushed H5 into production without a completed script or even complete ideas. The thought for "The Man in Black" was...we'll figure it out in 6.

R267- Agree with every word.

I just watched this interview with Judy Greer on Bar Stool Sports's "Out and About" show, and the hosts at one point brought up Halloween (the holiday, not the films) and she initially thought they were talking about the movie—she responded that she couldn't talk about it, but her tone was quite cunty and she seemed like she had a lot of thoughts. I'm curious now. Maybe she was mad her character got killed off in the last sequel? I'm not sure. The moment happens around the 30-minute mark.

I like the brutality of Kills, but the Evil Dies Tonight and the "we think this 5'5 fat guy is Michael Myers" went on WAY too long. And Karen's death was stupid. I'm fine if they wanted to kill her off, but "Oh I'm randomly going back in the house to wait to die". Bullshit.

And in 2018 and Kills, Michael can take out basically anyone he comes across, including a team of firefighters and a mob, but in Ends he's basically a regular old man.

R238 JLC is a queen potty mouth. I was at the premiere of Kills. Her intro was 12 minutes of F Bombs. It was awesome

Haddonfield had become so charmless and mean-spirited in these recent films, especially Kills and Ends. It spoiled the triumphant note they were trying to strike in that procession to the dump, with the surviving townspeople watching Michael go into the shredder. Thinking back over all three films, there haven't been many townspeople I liked, outside of the ones played by name actors like Curtis and Patton. The Virginia Gardner character, the little boy's babysitter in the 2018 movie, is one exception, but most of the characters they introduced to flesh out the town were either assholes (the DJ, the marching-band bullies, the doctor and nurse, etc.) or idiots ("Big John and Little John").

[quote]What exactly was the point of bringing back Kyle Richards, except that she's a friend of JLC? She had that one good chase scene in Kills and then in Ends...she pours a drink. "Oooh, original character Lindsey Wallace returns...to tend bar! How exciting!"

Kyle Richards got a standalone credit in the main title sequence, too. I was surprised by that.

JLC should resign from the franchise and allow her son Ruby to be cast instead.

THAT would be terrifying.

R272, absolutely agreed! Manipulating the narrative of the town in so many negative ways was such inept writing. The whole point, originally anyway, was a small, simple little suburb was terrorized by sudden horror, you cared that this carnage unleashed itself upon those characters. DDG and Danny McBride are stunted creatives, mediocre in all their skills and crass when it comes to their ideas. Everything about Haddonfield was ugly in this trilogy. The disaster decline of Ends this weekend proves how much they fucked it all up. Hacks!

It can't be overstated. I don't like that Haddonfield is now a Castle Rock or Derry cesspool of awfulness.

R253, Halloween 5 is the gay one. Every series has a gay one. It looks at the bland, wooden lead of the last one who boring straight guys and uninteresting girls related to, says EW, shoves a knife in her chest, and replaces her with a campy over the top supporting friend who is super annoyed that she’s being saddled with childcare duties.

I like 5 because it has as much contempt for 4 as I have.

I rewatched H20 this past week when they released a 4K transfer. It does feel like a first draft rewrite that Williamson knocked out in a weekend before shooting started, but even then, even in a tight 65 minute running time, they’re able to establish the exact same arc that JLC had in three DGG films and do it in a way that was more effective.

It is a shame it’s a little unfinished but I still think it’s the best sequel. A rush job from the director of Friday the 13th 2 and the writer of Scream is still a better Halloween movie than three from the director of Pineapple Express.

R276 it kind of tracks for me. Between 2018 and Kills, Michael killed about 50 townspeople in a single night. For a small town, that's a big fucking deal.

What I thought was ridiculous was Tommy's bar speech about Michael. In a small town, the original murder sprees would be a local legend.

5 is an absolute mess. There was no completed script and no plan for the cliffhanger.

[quote]I like 5 because it has as much contempt for 4 as I have.

And it gave us "Cookie Woman!"

I watched the theatrical cut of 6 via AMC on Demand last night. It only firmed up my preference for Producer's. There are big problems with the film no matter which way you go, but theatrical is a mess.

R281, I don’t think I’ll ever truly like Halloween 6, but I prefer the Producer’s Cut because it’s weird and commits to how weird it is. The theatrical cut just got remastered in 4K too so I watched that and it’s not as bad as I remembered but I’ll probably stick to my 1080p copy of the producer’s cut in the future.

Laurie Strode in H20 is also a way more realistic outcome for from Laurie in ‘78. You could expect that the good, high-achieving girl would stay on the right path, even as she’s breaking inside. She would have a decently successful job and an attempt at a real family but the real trauma would leak out through something like alcoholism and paranoia towards her son. JLC also hadn’t gotten sober yet and there’s that detachment there that really sells the character.

Jamie in the DGG is basically what you would expect to happen if you asked Danny McBride to write a sixty year old woman.

R281 thank you!

R284, taking a break from writing fan fiction about real life murders?

The ending was reshot in late June, not August as stated upthread. It was over 5 days, not two weeks that was initially reported. The rest of the movie was shot in January-March. If it weren't for all the night scenes, it should be obvious what scenes were part of the reshoots.

So was the radio tower originally something more important that got nixed by reshoots?

I also like that Laurie has JLC hair in H20. The long hair, especially in the original, makes her look like a tranny.

When I rewatched the original in prep for Ends, I remembered why I usually quit at one point. The mid section of the movie is dull as dirt. Lots of bullshit about Laurie and her friends.

JLC was "sober" in 1998. She demanded all of those "functioning alcoholic" lines and scenes be added to the script in order to push her fake "Recovery" message.

Holiday 2003 Gap model, Jamie Lee Curtis?

I thought Daniel Farrands was straight? He's made some pervy straight-guy-esque comments about actresses in the past. Unless he was being tongue-in-cheek. I know Peter Bracke (one of his collaborators) is gay.

I almost expected there would be a spin-off with the younger guy. Kill off the old franchise and introduce a new one for the younger generations.

DGG and Danny McBride are more crass in their comedies from years back. Their Halloween movies are classy compared to the Rob Zombie ones (especially 2007).

R286- As the scenes shot in a studio were pretty obvious (Laurie's house) I would think any reshoots were exterior or on location. (But the Wiki article says the entire fight was reshot?) How do they get a set together 6 months after all sets were struck? Do they leave them in a warehouse? There must be some studio in the Carolinas that they use for interiors? I need to go check the credits out.

I think the "romantic" things with Laurie- the supermarket, the last scene on the porch- were all reshoots...

I think most of the people behind those big 3 horror franchise documentaries/books are gay - even though a couple of them talk like pervy straight guys at times. Lito Velasco is legit straight, though.

The interior of the supermarket I think was a reshoot. You could see trees with leaves on them through the checkout window. Outside with the now mute cemetery caretaker looks like winter based on some trees and the sunlight.

As far as Horror Famous Gay Guys Go: Kevin Williamson, Don Mancini, Bryan Fuller, Jeffrey Reddick (sweetheart), Dan Farrands (cunt), Chris Landon, Adam Robitel.

I'm sure there's others but thats off the top of my head

Just learned that Michael and the shredder- Reshoot! Not surprised... I am now wondering if the entire procession was a reshoot.

Who was running quality control on this recent Halloween trilogy? What a fucking disaster.

[quote]Lito Velasco is legit straight, though.

Pity. He is cute as fuck.

I thought I heard that the original ending was the town burning Michael’s body at the stake. Every thing else lined up with the spoilers except for this. Was the crusher part of the reshoots?

I think Rohan did the best he could with the script. I'd like to see him in more things. And nude roles.

But it baffles the mind they that they knew the film would be divisive when he was cast and they a) went ahead with that script and b) marketed it as a Michael x Laurie showdown

Green is an idiot.

The thing is Green didn't make a trilogy. He made 3 random, loosely connected movies.

DGG is a bigger idiot than I thought. WTF he made a movie but essentially just used established character from Halloween?

Every word he said just dug a huge hole. I despise this asshole. He is a clear narcissist.

[quote]b) marketed it as a Michael x Laurie showdown

Now, this part doesn't surprise me. It might have been possible to cut a truly representative trailer of Halloween Kills, Corey and all, that still made it look like a better film than it is, but the trailer wizards were going to play their strongest hand. They would promise a Michael/Laurie showdown to eclipse all previous ones, because that would give the film its best chance of a big opening weekend. As far as that goes, they did their job well and effectively.

It's similar to the prominence of Jamie Lee Curtis on the Resurrection poster art 20 years ago, although that was an even worse case.

^ Oops. Ends, rather than Kills. It was right there in the thread title!

Everything after the showdown at Laurie's house was part of the reshoots.

R309- Agree- That is pretty much confirmed..

I wonder about the procession though.. They could have still had the procession to take him to burn him at the stake, or throw him in the shredder.

The shredder is confirmed as a reshoot- I found an interview on Reddit with an extra who was a part of it

R307 I understand it from that point, but I have to wonder if the 88% box office drop have them thinking...maybe that was a mistake. I can't imagine an accurate and non-spoilery trailer but...then this movie wasn't in my hands.

Shitty as it was, at least Resurrection was a Halloween movie.

Granted, it's still early, but Ends has made 1/3 the Box office of 2018. YIKES.

From Forbes:

Universal and Blumhouse’s Halloween Ends took a near-record 89% drop on its second Friday, earning just $2.74 million for a likely $8 million (-80%) weekend and $54.177 million ten-day total. The poor review, divisive word-of-mouth and concurrent Peacock availability killed this one quick. I’m old enough to remember when the biggest Halloween movies earned $47 million (Halloween in 1978), $55 million (Halloween: H20 in 1998) and $58 million (Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake in 2007) in total. Paramount’sPARA -1.4% Smile remains the scary movie of the scary season, earning $2.57 million (-32%) while adding 142 theaters in weekend four. We can expect an $8.5 million (-32%) weekend and $84.5 million 24-day total, putting it above the $81 million cume of Scream. It’ll pass Halloween Kills ($92 million) next weekend as it races past the $100 million milestone.

Smile, which I liked but didn't LOVE, is still kicking ass in theaters.

Anyone have a breakdown on the reshoots?

I read a bit of an article earlier with David Gordon Green addressing the backlash about this failure of a movie and he was unrepentant, basically saying what people wanted was an epic showdown between Laurie and Michael (well, duh!) but he wanted to tell a different story, he wanted it to be a love story between the granddaughter and that other guy whose name I've already forgotten, for some reason.

I get that not every film maker wants to give the audience exactly what they want and expect - but if ever there was a situation where that is exactly what they should do, it was this. Even if you want to do something different/unexpected - at least make it good. This movie was badly written, badly edited - just overall bad. What a hack.

DGG is the perfect definition of a industry hack, absolutely full of himself with relentlessly mediocre skills, and a couple lucky breaks under his belt. I understand the need for any filmmaker, good, or bad, to follow their vision, but this was the wrong franchise for him and his merry band of creative misfits, especially the bloated and insufferable Danny McBride, the king of the low rent narrative. Everything about this “trilogy” was deficient, they simply didn’t earn the turn HE took, if maybe CC was introduced in H2018, then maaaaaaybe they could have worked to the HE shitfest unleashed up the audience. The editing and camerawork was especially stale in these films, unfortunately he’s going to ruin The Exorcist legacy with the same turgid group of non talents, that’s the real horror story!

Apparently Heather Langenkamp is pushing for a new Nightmare film to see where her character would be years later.

I thought they killed her off so maybe something based off New Nightmare.

I know Englund has "retired" from the make-up but if the script is good enough he won't refuse it.

It's been fascinating seeing people who enjoyed the first two losing their minds over Ends. I really think they thought there must have been some elaborate plan where all the flaws of the first two would be building to something in Ends, but now that they've seen that it was all for nothing and these filmmakers were the worst possible choices for this series, these same people are starting to turn on the first two films as well and recognize them as the heaps of shit they are.

Green knows nothing about building tension. The only remotely tense moments in this trilogy were the babysitting scene in the 2018 one and the opening of Ends. The 2018 lost a lot of steam, because they showed the pay off in all the trailers of the girl opening the closet and Michael attacking her and also by adding that horrible humor with the little kid screaming "oh shit!" after his babysitter is stabbed, ruining the moment.

Green can approximate the look of some of the Halloween movies, but he doesn't know why the effective ones were so effective in the first place. He loads these movies up with annoying bit characters who say a handful of poorly timed comic lines and then brutally kills them with no buildup whatsoever. That's not scary. We don't know these people, they don't seem like people who exist in the real world, therefore we don't care when they're thrown in front of Michael's blade. The original film isn't exactly a character study, but all the characters seem like people who live next door to, work with, or go to school with. They have average, everyday dreams and desires that the audience can relate to.

I can't even imagine how badly he's going to fuck up The Exorcist. The man simply doesn't have horror in his bones. Let this be his last chance to redeem himself and, if it's as bad as his Halloween movies, keep him away from the genre forever.

Very well said R317! I think one of my main problems with everything DGG did with this trilogy was the way they were hyping up Halloween 2018 as some masterpiece of the genre, and a return of the classic slasher film at a new creative level, then I saw it and it was the normal modern piece of shit “horror” film. There was NOTHING these filmmakers did that was better than even the worst of the preceding entries in this franchise, it was a d-level presentation of a Michael Myers movie, completely free of any scares or artistic inspiration. They showed their extreme ineptitude with the series when they cooked up the awful story for Halloween Ends having nearly nothing to do with the last two films, and even less with Michael Myers himself. Haughty DGG will double down and blame “the hardcore fans” the same way the failing stewards of the Star Wars sequels did, another case of the wrong people for the job.

I did like H2018 because it was the best Halloween since H20- 20 years of H:2002 and the Zombie abortions made it seem like Citizen Kane.

That interview with DGG really shows a lot of pure, unadulterated arrogance. *I* made the movie *I* wanted to make. *I* wanted a love story (and the hack didn’t succeed there either. This almost *almost* felt like a big F U to the fans. Seriously. It seems like after H:2021 he was like F U I’m going to ruin the final movie to spite you fuckers. Mission accomplished.

The Thorn > Corey Cunningham

I watched H4 & H6 over the weekend. I hate the Thorn shit BUT if I put my prejudices aside I really enjoyed both. H6 being the best. I loathe children in horror and Jamie screaming every 5 seconds is incredibly annoying which is why I didn’t watch H5.

My favorites in order:

1978

1998

2018

1981

1995

2021

2022

1989

Not on the list: 2002- no thank you

Next stop Georgetown bitches!

I thought the 2018 one was pretty good to be honest. I didn't much like Kills and I hated Ends. I didn't realise until seeing it on this thread that he's attached to the Exorcist reboot - really doesn't bode well. It needs a subtlety that he clearly doesn't have.

The 2018 movie would've actually been a great ending to this mess. That masterpiece of a trap they set for Myers was BEYOND. It doesn't get better than that. I watched that shit a couple of times because it was really the Super Bowl of endings.

And of course, somebody got greedy and completely ruined it by literally having Myers walk out of it like a goddamn closet.

Halloween (1978) > Halloween II (1981) > H20 (1998) > Halloween (2018) > Halloween IV: Return (1988) > Halloween: Curse [P-Cut] (1995) > Halloween Kills (2021) > Halloween Ends (2022) > Halloween II (2009) > Halloween 5: Revenge (1989) - Halloween (2007) > Halloween: Resurrection (2002).

The drop from my favorite to my second-favorite is enormous. Carpenter et al. made it look simple, and clearly it wasn't.

Yes, I do like Zombie's second film more than his first. I found all that clinical explanation of Myers and his family background at the start of '07 tedious and overly drawn out. Then, the later part is just a retread of the original film with more gore, a higher body count, a less appealing cast. At least in his second film, Zombie could be as weird as he wanted to be. So If I wanna ride, I ride the white horse.

III (1982) is its own thing, so I don't know where to put it. Ninth place, maybe, between Ends and the second Zombie film. I've never been a fan, and not because it's different. It's not that special in its own right, except for a good score.

R325 hates micks.

What's fun about this franchise is that you can totally ignore several of the entires and create your own preferred timeline. Technically, Laurie Strode was dead in 4-6, but she reveals she just faked her death in H20 (and the film ignores 4-6 completely), then she dies in Resurrection, but comes back in 2018 (and pretends nothing besides the original ever happened).

1, II, and H20 are the definitive trilogy for me. The others have moments of fun, but I don't find myself going back to them very often.

I tried watching Jamie Lee Curtis in Everything, Everywhere... that is not award-worthy at all. It's kinda grotesque. And her accent goes in and out.

H20 doesn't wipe out 4-6, just sidesteps them.

r329 I like the movie a lot but think it's ridiculous to think JLC's performance deserves any acting nominations - it's fun! But a goofy role that asks very little of her. And if the white lady got in and none of the Asian people did - especially Michelle Yeoh, who is genuinely incredible in the film - that'd be a deserving shit storm

I’m R321 I missed 1988.

My Favorites in order of best to worst:

1978- goes without saying

1998- I just love this movie in many ways. Beginning/ending, LS storyline

2018- great comeback. Hated LS storyline but everything else was good. Should have ended here.

1981- solid sequel.

1995- If we’re going with supernatural shit, this one was really great and had Paul Rudd.

2021- over done the supernatural/MM can take 99,000 AR-15s rounds and still walk, but had a lot of the OGs, a lot of action. Had JLC.

2022- At least it had JLC finally killing him and there’s no doubt.

1988- solid film but No JLC. Screaming kid. No thanks.

1989- same as above except kid screaming more.

2002- I don’t rate this and ignore it altogether. Same with 1982 and the Zombie abortions.

[quote]H20 doesn't wipe out 4-6, just sidesteps them.

I'd say it does wipe them out. Some fans try to make H20 fit into continuity with the Jamie/Thorn trilogy, but there are too many problems. H4 tells us Laurie and a husband had died in an accident the previous year, 1987. If this is the faked death H20's Laurie/Keri talks about, then she took her 6-year-old son John with her to California and left her 7-year-old daughter behind.

Dialogue doesn't reference anything more recent than Halloween II. The Illinois cops at the beginning (Nurse Marion's house) talk only about what Michael did in 1963 and 1978. John reminds Laurie that "you watched him burn," so there's no reason to be afraid now. Laurie's recap to Will, the Adam Arkin character, is all about 1978. If Michael has committed approximately 40 additional murders in Haddonfield between 1988 and 1995, the conversations don't work. He'd be a much bigger deal.

The original plan was for a sequel that incorporated H4-6. But the makers decided their film worked better if all of that history was streamlined out, and I have to agree.

In H20 she doesn’t mention a daughter. H20’s timeline doesn’t include 4-6. It’s crystal clear.

[quote]And if the white lady got in and none of the Asian people did - especially Michelle Yeoh, who is genuinely incredible in the film - that'd be a deserving shit storm

Probably. There was a halfhearted attempt at starting a shitstorm when Adam Driver got the only acting nomination for BlacKkKlansman, but it didn't really go anywhere. I think this was because no one wanted to make a passionate case that John David Washington had done something Oscar-worthy.

In the faked death news clipping during the opening of H20, it says Laurie Strode drove fast and erratically before slamming into a tree. She was alone.

Also in H20, the news clipping says 1968 instead of 1978. Ooops.

[quote]In the faked death news clipping during the opening of H20, it says Laurie Strode drove fast and erratically before slamming into a tree. She was alone.

Also, that clipping identifies her as "Miss Strode," rather than "Mrs. Lloyd," and has nothing about survivors. The article we saw in 4 is clearly about a Laurie with a very different history.

On the subject of newspaper clippings in the Halloween series, the ones on Tommy Doyle's bulletin board in H6 are pretty funny. "Local Tot Kills Sister" is one. Another is "Tommy Doyle Survives Babysitter Bloodbath."

In H20, it also incorrectly shows Laurie as Class of ‘78, but she was Class of 1979.

We rewatched HK last night, it’s a terrible as remembered, but it becomes even more ludicrous when you know what HE had in store. DGG is so inept, his arrogance in declaring he was never going to produce a Laurie versus Michael Myers finale is betrayed by him having filmed Strode defiantly march towards that battle at the end of HK. Instead he unleashes another shitfest, this time basically unrelated to his earlier stumbles. HK also has the most unacceptable supporting cast, horrible acting and grotesque in appearance. Are they all z list comics that Danny McBride wanted to help out? The old couple with the drone are so awful, the acting is at the level of a family home movie from a late 80’s vhs camera. Really just the worst, not a scare to be had as well.

"Big John?" "Little John?" - repeat 600 times

That ending of Halloween Kills with Laurie hearing Michael breathing on the phone and walking out of the hospital wasn't the one that was released theatrically. It was added to the extended version. Apparently, it was discarded because they changed their minds about what they wanted to do with Ends.

How this would have originally played out is beyond me since Laurie was only a few hours out of surgery. Would they have had Laurie coming after Michael, killing them within the first 10 minutes, and then starting the Corey storyline or would it have been something else entirely? I really don't know what their original intent was.

R342 And have everyone walk out after those 10 minutes.

I have a friend who is huge into horror movies. She likes even the ridiculous ones. She was very disappointed in H2022.

I've rewatched some of the series highs and lows on AMC this month, besides seeing Kills and Ends over the last year. I still feel that the 1978 original is the one really good movie in 13 tries, but a lot of the entries, even if you've seen them before, can be enjoyable with the right expectations. The series is at once foundational and derivative of whatever is going on around it.

The 1981 sequel tries to outdo Halloween's imitators with its higher kill count and elaborate methods of execution. The series gets a second wind in the late '80s with the success of the Elm Street movies, but except for the fashions and hair, there's not much obviously "late '80s" about 1988 and 1989.

However, the 1995 film has so many references to then-current pop culture: grunge, shock jocks, Beavis and Butthead. So does the 1998 film, with its Creed song and its closeness in tone and look (and score) to the Scream series. The unimposing Michael of H20 actually had played Ghostface in Scream 2. A hip young TV star doesn't make it past the pretitle sequence. LL Cool J's comic-relief security guard, whose apparent death gets walked back unconvincingly at the end, is H20's Dewey.

The 2002 couldn't be more 2002: Internet streaming broadcast! "Found footage"! Zombie's two movies are in line with the grisly exploitation of the '00s, including Zombie's other work. And in the late '10s and early '20s, a time of numbing self-seriousness, diverse representation, and eating your vegetables because horror is really about trauma, toxic behavior and destructive cycles, we had a trilogy to match.

They're all interesting time capsules.

R344, fantastic summary. I think for these most recent films, to their detriment, is they lack the energy of a Dr. Loomis, a series threat to Michael. Jamie Lee Curtis was never enough on her own, she’s a very subdued actor, the manic pursuit of Myers by a foe who had seemingly defeated him before gave the films an added mania these DGG entries sorely lack.

Paul Rudd needs to return as Tommy Doyle, weaving all of the best parts of the timelines together (but eliminating anything to do with 2018-2022.

Tommy could be the new Dr. Loomis-type character. Have Jamie survive the Producer’s Cut of 1995, with Danielle Harris back in the role. Even weave Josh Hartnett into that continuity!

Jamie survived the 1995 producer’s cut?

She didn’t die in the thresher in the Producer’s Cut, and she’s in the hospital later.

She’s shot dead in the hospital later though.

Totally agree R345 Dr Loomis is sorely missed. That's why I hated the DDG 2018 version where the new doctor stabs the sheriff and steals Michael's mask. It was the biggest WTF moment in the film and didn't make any damn sense. But then again the actor playing the part seemed to be trying to mimic Donald Pleasence from his mannerisms and even the way he talked. It was off putting and I'm glad he was killed off. There can only be one Loomis.

At this point I’m ready for an actual reboot, bring in Patrick Stewart as Loomis, pay Carpenter whatever it takes to direct it and introduce new teenagers that we will care about. Freshen it up just enough to be a worthy continuation and something that will deliver the suspense AND scares.

Jamie could be shown to have survived the bullet.

Jeff goldblum would make an awesome Dr Loomis in a future reboot. Somebody should get on that before jeff dies.

Yeah, Jeff would be something else as Loomis. "I..uhh...MET HIM...15 years ago. I was told that there was...uh...nothing...NOTHING LEFT..."

[quote] HK also has the most unacceptable supporting cast, horrible acting and grotesque in appearance.

You're telling me you wouldn't have wanted to be gangbanged by the Haddonfield Police Department? Especially the ones that get shot in the neck?

FUCK FUCK FUCK!!

I got my sequels mixed up. That dope-ass fire trap is in Halloween (2018) NOT Halloween Kills (2021). Halloween (2018 ) would've been the PERFECT end to it all. UGH, "Kills" is where they all gather to cathartically beat his ass for like...5 minutes, and then Myers kills them all in less than 5 seconds. THAT was funny.

I'm so embarrassed.

Rewatching Halloween 4 through 6 really reveals how batshit crazy this franchise truly is, maybe that’s why we love it? As bad as these films get, they still outclass the DGG trio as far as narrative. My biggest head scratching regarding all of these films is the inconsistency with the Myers mask, there were some real duds!

“The little kid who killed his sistuh?”

Why did JLC say that line so weirdly in 1981?

The 1981 II is my favorite of all the sequels, but there's a lot of sloppiness about it. Michael has barely got up off the ground after being shot, Loomis is still running around the immediate vicinity with his "I shot him six times!" histrionics, but already the news has surprisingly detailed reports on three dead teenagers for Alice and her friend to listen to.

Haddonfield already seems like a bigger place than it did in the first film. "The streets between Chestnut and 10th are jammed with people and cars. Repeating that these streets are Chestnut and 10th. They're just JAMMED with both people and cars." Then all those outraged citizens are having their spontaneous demonstration outside the Myers house.

But the hospital's patient load for the night consists of babies in the maternity ward for Karen to neglect, the boy with the razor blade in his mouth, and Laurie. Michael goes to the trouble of disabling all the cars in the lot to keep anyone from leaving, but he's not worried about anyone ARRIVING.

Dean Cundey's cinematography is such a big plus.

Something I like is that the two iconic faces of the franchise, Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis (yeah, TWO, Danielle), share so little screen time. So it seems like a big event, both times. They're briefly together at the end of the first film and briefly again at the end of the second. They probably exchange about 24 words total. Most of those words are on the level of "Go!" and "Why won't he die?"

[quote] The 1981 II is my favorite of all the sequels, but there's a lot of sloppiness about it. Michael has barely got up off the ground after being shot, Loomis is still running around the immediate vicinity with his "I shot him six times!" histrionics, but already the news has surprisingly detailed reports on three dead teenagers for Alice and her friend to listen to.

There's some passage of time from "You don't know what death is!" When Loomis and Brackett are in the car, he asks Loomis how long it's been and he says a half hour.

[quote] But the hospital's patient load for the night consists of babies in the maternity ward for Karen to neglect, the boy with the razor blade in his mouth, and Laurie.

There's one other patient that Jill tends to when they ring their buzzer.

Loomis's time reference is "An hour ago I stood up and fired six shots into him," to the deputy. Quite a bit has gone on by then: Ben Tramer has been mistaken for Michael and incinerated; Brackett has seen Annie's body and has departed the movie to tell Mrs. Brackett. (We'll see you in a sequel in 30 years, Leigh!)

But the special bulletin the two girls are listening to about the murders comes really fast. It doesn't seem the police would even know that much yet, let alone the media.

[quote] (We'll see you in a sequel in 30 years, Leigh!)

40 years.

[quote] Loomis's time reference is "An hour ago I stood up and fired six shots into him," to the deputy. Quite a bit has gone on by then: Ben Tramer has been mistaken for Michael and incinerated.

When Brackett and Loomis are in the car shining the spotlight, Brackett asks how long it's been. And Loomis says about half an hour. It's two scenes after Alice is killed and just before he spots Ben Tramer. It could've been in real time when Alice was murdered so not unbelievable that news details have been reported.

Kyle Richards is amazing. She deserves an Oscar for this performance.

Basically, it's an unconvincing young love story for 75% of the movie and then a fight scene for the last 25%, set in a town where no-one owns or uses a cell phone.

The only interesting change in the Rob Zombie movies is making Loomis an opportunistic sleaze. Malcolm McDowell was also great in the role and with this approach.

I don’t think the Thorn storyline will ever be picked up again outside of a comic book. It’s time for Danielle Harris to move on from the role she played when she was 11 over thirty years ago. It’s embarrassing at this point. She was lucky to get a pity role as a middle aged cheerleader in Zombie’s remake. She is not entitled to continued employment in this franchise.

R365 OR leaves...

[quote]set in a town where no-one owns or uses a cell phone

And when they do, it gets dropped in the punch bowl.

The CHAOS comic books embraced all of the continuity through the early 2000s. Tommy Doyle continued his search for Michael and The Thorn, and ends up killed by Laurie, who finally succumbs to the family curse.

The comics did a great job of weaving in everything in a complete fanboy and totally HALLOWEEN way.

Malcolm McDowell was incredibly subdued as Loomis in the RZ films imo. It's just damn near impossible to capture that spark that Donald Plesenace had in the first 6 Halloween films. You got excited when Loomis came on the scene whether Michael was there or not. His dialogue, his boundless energy and determination to get Michael but at the same time he was a doctor so he had a very rational approach and wasn't impulsive and bloodthirsty like the idiot townspeople in the DDG films. Michael had so many opportunities throughout the original series to kill Loomis but always treated him with kid gloves, superficially stabbing him but really not trying to kill and he always would stand there and listen to Loomis dialogue even in the middle of chasing other victims. Loomis was the only one in the world who could get through to and defeat Michael not Laurie strode or anyone else that's why every Halloween film with the exception of maybe h20 has sucked no matter who's starring or directing because they don't have Plesenace/Loomis.

R364- Agreed. So much. So, so, much.

The problem with ALL the Halloween films, save for the first two and H20, is that they make Michael Myers into some sluggish zombie, which he is not, the filmmakers basically made him into a Jason Voorhees clone. I wish a creative team would reverse that impulse in the future, don’t make him a hulking 6’4” golem, return him to a highly intelligent, ethereal and lethal threat that understands exactly what he is doing.

Why not film where they filmed the original?

The exteriors for the original film were in South Pasadena and elsewhere in SoCal. It had a very low budget, and a lot of decisions were made with an eye toward economy and expediency. You can see mountains in the distance in some shots, such as when Loomis finds the abandoned car and calls Haddonfield on a pay phone, and palm trees in establishing shots.

It's the best film in the series, but it doesn't have the best "fake Illinois." Carpenter's atmospheric direction does a lot to mitigate this.

[quote]The exteriors for the original film were in South Pasadena

Linda's house was also Thelma Harper's house on Mama's Family!

They still could have filmed in the original locations.

Thanks for the groundbreaking revelations, R374. Did you also know they used a William Shatner Star Trek mask for the Michael Myers mask?

I must be an outlier with horrendous taste, because I thought it was the best of the three last Halloween films.

The best Halloween film remains Halloween 3 season of the bitch (surprisingly no Jamie Lee in it) . A celtic druid killing children with masks made using particles of stonehenge? Yes please. We need more wacked out Halloween movies like that and NO more of man face Laurie beating a dead horse. Start a new Halloween anthology the way it was supposed to be.

R379 completely different types of movies. Yes, H3 was good for what it was and we need more movies like that, but it doesn’t belong in this franchise. Laurie vs Michael Myers is what FANS want despite what YOU want.

I actually think the Laurie versus Michael became a more important element after Donald Pleasance passed away, Loomis was always the better opponent for Myers, and if better writers and filmmakers had continued beyond the first one with that narrative JLC would have eventually become a forgotten character from the first film. The truth is, Halloween II, while great fun, was a mess because Carpenter was forced into writing it, fueled by many late night beers, and the direction was done by a young helmer overwhelmed by the duty. JLC was sort of a bore in this recent trilogy, watch closely at her energy, it’s always under the beat, she, at her core, HATES these films and the entire horror genre. It always is apparent to my eye, at least in H20 she had some spark in her overall, I think she’s a bit of a depressive in real life and that cloud hovers over her performances.

At least Laurie did have a nice moment with MM in H:Ends when she had him pinned. She got in a few lines with him before slicing his throat and arms. He definitely knew that babysitter Laurie killed his ass in the end. Apparently Dr. Sartan spent decades taunting MM with how Laurie escaped him and was the only one. This apparently made MM super pissed off so he set up the confrontation in H:2018. Well, MM, she killed yo ass in the end.

R381 You only see it that way because Laurie Strode was comatose during much of H2 and she was not in the rest of the DP films. It would have absolutely been about Laurie/ Loomis vs MM. The films needed the Loomis energy, but everyone loves their final girls.

R382 is a DGG Stan making up backstory.

[quote]Loomis was always the better opponent for Myers

I disagree. Curtis's "depressiveness" and contempt for the material hang over her performances, but Pleasence's...decline doesn't hang over his in 4-6? I don't think DP had any particular love for the horror genre either. It's just that Halloween sequels and lesser Carpenter (Prince of Darkness) were the best of what he was being offered in the last part of his career, and he wanted to work. Curtis, after doing a few years in horror films and cementing her scream-queen legend, was getting Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, her own sitcom, True Lies.

Had Laurie been killed off early in the first sequel, as the girl from Friday the 13th was, it would have been a very different film series, but Curtis did have something special. I was reminded of it recently when I watched 1981's Road Games, one of her immediate post-Halloween thrillers that I'd never seen. It's not a very good movie, but she elevates it when she's on. Her characters in those movies seem interesting and complicated in a way I don't think just any pretty young woman would have made them.

R384 Except I can’t stand the hack

I loved Laurie Curtis in Best in Show.

Sorry folks, Jamie Lee Curtis is a terrible actress, she was horrible in the Halloween series.

R388 Why are you posting like that is some relevation? We know Mary! She is still loved for being the Halloween manfaced queen.

R388 Must be lonely being the only one who hates JLC in Halloween. Yes, I’m sure some asshole contrarian will come along and agree just because they want attention but you’re all pretty much alone.

Just like the contrarians pretending to love ENDS.

Meh

And the Oscar goes to MISS KYLE RICHARDS!