Corey: Portrait of a Serial Killer or: How Green Failed Laurie and Michael. 
Halloween Ends. 
Directed by David Gordon Green. 
By Blake Patterson. 

  As Roger Rabbit would stutter, “Puh. Puh. Puh. Puh. Please.” A movie made by the man who said Kevin Smith was a member of the Special Olympics for filmmaking. Admittedly, Smith's films do not age as well as David Gordon Green's best work--like George Washington -, yet Green's final entry for the latest Halloween saga offers little to recommend. Halloween Ends--a much-debated movie--is not as terrible as its detractors suggest, but the sequel suffers from some of the same issues as its predecessors. Like Halloween Kills, Green subverts genre tropes for sociopolitical messaging, but poor writing choices contradict his tone.
  Addressing the plot, Halloween Ends is less about Laurie Strode confronting her predator, Michael Myers, but about how an accidental death evolves into a series of murders. With the facade of Michael Rooker, Rohan Campbell is Green's way of creating another Henry, but Green intends to develop a commentary on a community's self-righteous and toxic behavior. The theme is an important one and speaks for how controversies and scandals can bring out hatred and violence. Joanne Baron's Joan Cunningham expresses one of the film's few truths about a community's addiction to contempt. Some people look for a boogeyman--or pariah--because they have nothing better to do. Unfortunately, Green shoots himself in the foot when he decides to transform Campbell's Corey into a serial killer due to Myers' supernatural powers. In other words, Green unintentionally justifies groupthink and fascism, so there is a bit of disgust to extract from the experience.
  To incorporate the birth of a serial killer thread, Corey becomes the object of affection by Andi Matichak's Allyson Nelson. The relationship is a perfunctory conception of a romance between two broken souls. The motorcycle rides bizarrely recall Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels, but Green lacks Wong's care and transcendence. Aiming for the romantic, Green inadvertently forgets the complexity and passion of his 2003 romantic drama, All the Real Girls. Green is at his worst when he derives from Freeform kitsch--such as the music and photo booth cliches--to pander to Zoomers. Once trouble erupts in the relationship, Green's incorporation of Matichak's wrists over her tearful eyes lacks pathos but builds onto another scenario. By disengaging catharsis, Green's romantic tragedy unearths itself as disingenuous. 
  Halloween Ends improves when Laurie Strode is the focus of Green's attention. The notion of Jamie Lee Curtis' Strode finally defeating her enemy is nostalgic and sentimental. Curtis is also a tremendous performer whose amiability is endearing when the material serves her well. Strode's contemplation of Myers and how he embodies her past is Green's method for tugging the heartstrings. Curtis does not enact a false note in her final performance as Strode, and her strength elevates Halloween Ends from being one of the tasteless products of the year. While her last battle with Myers is brief, it is satisfying to watch the narrative conclude. It is only a shame since Green devotes a quarter of the film to Strode.
  As John Carpenter's music plays in the background, Halloween Ends reminds fans of the original classic, but Green misses why the Carpenter movie works as a single movie. Carpenter never intended Halloween as a statement because he viewed it as a genre piece. In theory, it is noble for Green to transform these sequels into social commentaries, but the seriousness of his tone weighs down on the work. Horror movies can be mature about real ideas concerning society, but Green's offerings do not convey someone in the league of George Romero, David Cronenberg, or Carpenter. Eleven years ago, Roger Ebert expressed sadness in Green for directing The Sitter because he thought the filmmaker could be the next Terrence Malick. One can only wonder how much displeasure Ebert would have in Green now.