Even though I could have easily watched HALLOWEEN ENDS at home on TV (cuz we got that Peacock channel), I ventured out into the rain to see it at my closest theater. I required the full experience. I wanted to walk through falling leaves past Halloween decorations on my way there and I wanted to absorb the film alongside fellow horror fans and possibly dangerous strangers. Hey, I’ve seen every single movie in the Halloween franchise in the theater on opening day since I was old enough to in 1982 (we’re talking HALLOWEEN 3: SOTW) and I wasn’t about to break with tradition now. The Halloween series is what kickstarted my obsessive horror fandom (when I viewed it on TV while babysitting no less). It holds a very special place in my heart and it has loyally offered me a place to escape and recharge whenever I’ve needed it over the years (which is often). Luck was not on my side this time though as halfway through the movie, the lights came on and there was an emergency evacuation of the theater. It turned out to be nothing (a bomb threat is nothing?) but of course, it felt like the last moments of my life anyway. I guess if I was going to kick the bucket it might as well be doing what I love.

So I walked home. I’d just have to watch the second half of the movie on television. Wait, did this mean I’d have to watch the first part again? Why did that concept exasperate me? Why did that idea produce an audible exhausted exhale? I had to admit it, I wasn’t loving HALLOWEEN ENDS. There was still a chance it could turn itself around and deliver a bang-up finale but the fact remained that I was a bit frustrated about what I’d seen and what the filmmakers were focusing on thus far. Worse still, I wasn’t buying a lot of what was going down. There was an air of hokey corniness wafting through the proceedings that I hadn’t smelt since CURSE or RESURRECTION. My inner Annie Wilkes was taking notes (Did they really expect me to swallow marching band bullies, evil-inducing eyeballs, and super conspicuous sewer hideouts?). I can’t say the counter-intuitive direction it was leaning wasn’t interesting, it just didn’t seem the right time for any of it. I felt like I was trying to read a recipe online but had to scroll through the author’s life story first (or that horrible feeling when you go see a concert for a nostalgia fix and the band says “Now, here’s a song from our new album”. Good ol’ Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) was present and accounted for so I didn’t feel completely abandoned but oh how the avalanche of missed opportunities hurt my head.

I ended up watching it three times hoping it would click with me but it never quite did (and I loved both previous installments from David Gordon Green and his cohorts). The new characters and actors did fine (Rohan Campbell particularly) but I’d much rather they were given their own film to play around in rather than this one. I’m getting the feeling I’m meant to decide definitively whether I love it or hate it but I don’t think I could ever really hate a HALLOWEEN film. I’m so grateful to get to hang out with my pal Laurie Strode again and listen to John Carpenter’s incredible score that I’ll quite honestly (and perhaps sadly) take whatever scraps I’m thrown. I enjoy simply being in Haddonfield and that will likely always be the case. There are fragments of this film that I’ll always appreciate (even if it’s just a chance encounter in a grocery store) but the catharsis I craved eluded me. I’m not mad, I’m too busy mourning what could so easily have been (the vision of Laurie, Lindsey, and Allyson taking turns pummeling Michael will just have to live on forever in my head). Oh, Haddonfield, so much to answer for; I admire your audacity but sometimes less is more.