John Carpenter’s Halloween is an all-time classic horror movie. Carpenter did an amazing job creating a relatable situation that was able to scare people for decades. This was a relatable situation because it felt like the events in the movie could happen in real life, with the suburban setting making places where people feel safe to feel scary. The villain was also pretty perfect, as almost everyone knows the image of Michael Myers’ blank mask, long knives, and heavy breathing. Thus, the original Halloween is an all-time classic film that isn’t just good for its time, but something that can still be enjoyed today.

The sequels to Halloween are not. 

Now, not all of the sequels are bad. About 2 of them are well-made movies. The problem is there are 12 sequels, so it’s kind of difficult to separate the good from the bad. However, the series seemed to be somewhat revived with David Gordan Green’s Halloween (2018), a series reset that was able to capture the simple, yet effective scares from the original. This was a good movie that was entertaining and interesting, and critics and fans agreed that it was a perfect movie to watch for the Halloween season. Then, David Gordan Green got the green light to make 2 more sequels, and when the first sequel Halloween Kills was released it became incredibly clear that the new sequel trilogy would be a rough series. Halloween Kills traded interesting characters and genuine scares for gratuitous violence and probably the dumbest characters in any film ever. It was disappointing, to say the least, however when I watched it the first thing I thought was “Wow, that was terrible, I can’t wait to see the sequel!” because even though Halloween Kills was bad, it was incredibly entertaining and hilarious to watch. So, when I went to see Halloween Ends over the weekend, I was so excited to just laugh at a horrible movie and move on with my day. However, I was genuinely surprised to be decently entertained. 

Don’t get me wrong, the movie isn’t great. The characters are still stupid, the story requires you to bend your suspension of belief a little too far, and it’s too long, but it still wasn’t that bad. The story moved quickly, it was fun enough to watch, and the story at least tried to do something new. This isn’t a bad movie, and it isn’t a good movie, but it is an entertaining movie. As stated, the story moves incredibly quickly, so it’s easy to stay invested in the story, even though the movie is way too long. The story tries to do something new, so it becomes more fun to try and guess where the story is going to go, and seeing that it goes in such a (good) stupid direction is incredibly funny. So while this film is by no means good, it is a fun time and something worth seeing if you want to celebrate the Halloween season.

5/10