Review: ‘HALLOWEEN ENDS’- thoughtful conclusion to horror saga may leave fans feeling stabbed in the back.

HALLOWEEN ENDS

Here we are. The purported end of Michael Myer’s murderous saga. Jamie Lee Curtis’ very last ride as Laurie Strode (although that’s what they said after Halloween Resurrection in 2002…) Certainly, this will be the last entry of the Blumhouse rebooted trilogy, which re-invigorated the franchise by ignoring all entries other than John Carpenter’s 1978 classic. I found 2018’s Halloween to be wildly successful – it skillfully brought Laurie and her bogeyman into the modern era by hitting the right mix of screams and smarts. 2021’s Halloween Kills? If they gave out Oscars in the “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed” category, it would have run away with it.

I’m happy to say I enjoyed Halloween Ends quite a bit more than Halloween Kills. I also fully admit this movie won’t be everyone’s cup of tea (or, in Michael Myer’s terms, everyone’s kitchen knife.) Director David Gordon Green and co-writer Danny McBride are grappling with big ideas, and take some bold narrative swings in this film. This is a movie that is less concerned with slices and screams. Instead, it reflects on the nature of evil, as well as the long-lasting effects of trauma and pain on both survivors and bystanders.

It’s a big switch, and it makes for a bumpy cinematic experience.  This shift is embodied most clearly in the new character of Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell). It is Halloween Night in 2019 when we are first introduced to Corey (1 year after the events of the rebooted Halloween and Halloween Kills.) He is shy but bright and has the unfortunate luck to be a babysitter in Haddonfield, Illinois. An awful incident occurs, and Corey is much changed when we flash forward to Ends’ present day. A potential romance with Laurie Strode’s granddaughter, Allyson (an underused Andi Matichak) offers a hopeful future. But Corey is vulnerable, touched by darkness, and shamed by nearly everyone else in town. The core battle of Halloween Ends is in many aspects focused on this tug-of-war for Corey’s soul. Let’s be clear: if the above turns you off, then you will not like this movie.

Ultimately, what drew me to this film was the inevitable confrontation between Laurie and The Shape, and there Halloween Ends does deliver. It is exciting and exhilarating and left me wanting more. So much of this is due to Jamie Lee Curtis’ performance. In 2018’s Halloween, Laurie Strode was a type of haunted doomsday prepper – her every moment and movement was dominated by a fear of Michael Myers returning. In this final iteration, Laurie is looser and more free. She bakes pies and makes jokes. But she is not naïve.  After 44 years and 6 prior appearances. Curtis still brings such fire to this character. All of the film’s best moments belong to her, and they are worth the price of admission.

It’s impossible to really evaluate Halloween Ends on its own. There is simply too much history at play (both between Laurie and Michael Myers, and across horror film history in general.) I appreciated that Ends tried to wrestle with this legacy. I also hope they let Myers and Laurie rest now. Those seeking a final slice, a final scream, and return to the many films that have come before. Nobody needs to see Halloween Ends, Again. 

In theaters and streaming only on Peacock October 14

Music composed by: John CarpenterCody CarpenterDaniel Davies


Review: ‘Halloween Kills’ is all slice and no soul.

HALLOWEEN KILLS

Minutes after Laurie Strode (Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning in Laurie’s basement, Laurie is rushed to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, believing she finally killed her lifelong tormentor. But when Michael manages to free himself from Laurie’s trap, his ritual bloodbath resumes. As Laurie fights her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against their unstoppable monster. The Strode women join a group of other survivors of Michael’s first rampage who decide to take matters into their own hands, forming a vigilante mob that sets out to hunt Michael down, once and for all. Evil dies tonight.


*Warning – this review contains light spoilers*

 

Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees are foundational to the horror genre – when it comes to recipes for other killer movies, they are basically salt, pepper, and butter. It’s interesting that in this age of reboots and resets, there hasn’t been a new Freddy movie since 2010, or a Jason one since 2009. But while Freddy and Jason have stayed home sharpening their weapons, Michael’s kept slashing right through the decade.

In 2018, David Gordon Green’s quasi-reboot Halloween executed a welcome return to form for the series. 2018’s Halloween represented a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s original classic – it cut out bloated plot details and re-framed the film around the core battle between Myers and Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). It brilliantly merged classic slasher tropes with new twists and underscored it all with a thoughtful feminist attitude anchored by Curtis’ full-throttle performance. The final images of the film were nearly perfect: Myers is cleverly caged within a burning house and the 3 generations of Strode women who disarmed and defeated him ride into the sunrise united and triumphant. They’ve literally taken away his knife, and figuratively taken back their lives.

Woof. That finale would have been tough for any sequel to top, but I was comforted by the fact that many of the same players that made 2018’s entry so successful had returned for 2021’s Halloween Kills (the 2nd entry in a planned trilogy, with Halloween Ends already penciled in for next year.) And, for the first 15 minutes, Halloween Kills is up to the challenge. It doesn’t take us back to Michael in that burning building but instead flashes back to the original night of carnage back in 1978. Here, Green mirrors much of the visual norms of Carpenter’s original film to great effect. It’s a shot of nostalgic adrenaline.

But the film eventually has to come back to that burning building, and Michael, of course, has to somehow escape and get back to killing. So, what’s the problem? Like my high-school physics teacher always told me, the problem’s not what you did, but more the way you did it.

To begin with, this film is grotesquely violent. I’m no shrinking violet (and the 2018 film is far from clean), but Halloween Kills goes to such an extreme that it appears out of character for Myers. Across 10 films, Michael Myers sure has sliced and diced, but he’s never truly been sadistic. In Halloween Kills, Green seems newly obsessed with the trauma the human body can take before it expires. Heads are smashed relentlessly into walls, eyes are constantly gouged out, and blood flows like water.  If I had a quarter for every shot of glass or wood impaling a character’s throat in Halloween Kills, I could buy myself a nice sandwich.

What I don’t understand about this tone shift is why Green would abandon the core tenants of what made his previous film so successful. Maybe he was bored by the previous film’s pacing? Maybe he fell victim to studio pressures to continue to amp things up for a sequel. Whatever the rationale, it was a mistake.

The second, more critical issue, is the framing. Laurie is hospitalized for nearly this entire film, and she and Michael don’t even interact throughout this entry. I can’t help but feel that this film is just treading water until we get to Laurie and Michael’s final confrontation in next year’s Halloween Ends. With Laurie on the sidelines, her daughter Karen (the always magnificent Judy Greer) and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) have to do more of the plot’s heavy lifting. I’m always happy for Greer to get more screen-time, but this narrative choice splinters the power of that feminist trinity from the 2018 entry. You miss it, and I hope there’s a chance to get that back in 2022.

Halloween Kills has some good moments but ultimately fails to meaningfully advance the plot (or the stakes) of the franchise. Worse, it wastes the goodwill it so carefully built in 2018. I’ll still be first in line for Halloween Ends, but I’ll be scared sitting in that seat – and not for the right reasons.


 

Halloween Kills is now in theaters and on Paramount+

Universal Pictures, Miramax, Blumhouse Productions and Trancas International Films present Halloween Kills, co-starring Will Patton as Officer Frank Hawkins, Thomas Mann (Kong: Skull Island) and Anthony Michael Hall (The Dark Knight). From the returning filmmaking team responsible for the 2018 global phenomenon, Halloween Kills is written by Scott Teems (SundanceTV’s Rectify) and Danny McBride and David Gordon Green based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. The film is directed by David Gordon Green and produced by Malek Akkad, Jason Blum and Bill Block. The executive producers are John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, and Ryan Freimann.


Trailer for ‘Our Brand is Crisis’ Starring Sandra Bullock and Billy Bob Thornton Debuts

OurBrandIsCrisisBanner

Warner Bros. Pictures has revealed the first trailer and poster for the political dramedy Our Brand is Crisis from director from David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) and starring Oscar winners Sandra Bullock (Gravity) and Billy Bob Thornton (“Fargo”) and we have it for you below!

A Bolivian presidential candidate failing badly in the polls enlists the firepower of an elite American management team, led by the deeply damaged but still brilliant strategist “Calamity” Jane Bodine (Bullock). In self-imposed retirement following a scandal that earned her nickname and rocked her to her core, Jane is coaxed back into the game for the chance to beat her professional nemesis, the loathsome Pat Candy (Thornton), now coaching the opposition.

But as Candy zeroes in on every vulnerability – both on and off the campaign trail – Jane is plunged into a personal crisis as intense as the one her team exploits nationally to boost their numbers. Dramatic, rapid-fire and laced with satire, Our Brand is Crisis reveals the cynical machinations and private battles of world-class political consultants for whom nothing is sacred and winning is all that matters.

The drama also stars Anthony Mackie (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Joaquim de Almeida (Fast Five), Ann Dowd (Side Effects, HBO’s “The Leftovers”), Scoot McNairy (Gone Girl, Argo) and Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks).

Green directs from a screenplay by Oscar nominee Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), suggested by the documentary by Rachel Boynton, which outlined the American political campaign marketing tactics employed in the real-life 2002 Bolivian presidential election.

The film is produced by Oscar-winning Smokehouse Pictures’ principals Grant Heslov and George Clooney (Argo), with Bullock, Stuart Besser, and Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King serving as executive producers.

Green’s behind-the-scenes creative team includes frequent collaborators director of photography Tim Orr, editor Colin Patton, production designer Richard A. Wright and composer David Wingo (Manglehorn), as well as costume designer Jenny Eagan (Now You See Me).

Our Brand is Crisis is scheduled for release on Friday, October 30, 2015.

 

ourbrandiscrisis

Jeremy’s Review: Michael Johnson’s ‘All the Wilderness’ Reminiscent of David Gordon Green’s Early Work in All the Good Ways

all the wilderness posterWatching movies is a crap shoot most times, most of the time not knowing what to expect especially from a first time writer-director. So, I love it when a film sneaks up on you and catches you when you least expect it. All the Wilderness is one of those films.With a similar tone and feel as David Gordon Green‘s early good stuff like All the Real Girls and George Washington, this film takes on a post-coming of age story in a fresh and interesting way. Read More →