Halloween Ends' gives the knife one last turn in the latest Michael Myers trilogy

Halloween Ends gives the knife one final twist in Michael Myers' latest trilogy.

 Review by Brian Lowry,

 Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode is in danger again in 'Halloween Ends'.

 Ryan Green/Universal Pictures

 Forty-eight years, 13 movies and countless corpses later, it seems preposterous to think that "Halloween Ends" will truly mark the end of anything but, like the holiday for which it's named, pretense. 

 It's fun to do.  Producers try to finalize this latest trilogy starring Jamie Lee Curtis, even though it's the same original idea that they turn out to be a weird, tedious film.

 

In fact, film number 13 turns out not to be so lucky, creatively, as director/co-writer David Gordon Green takes his third consecutive turn in the chair.

  Part of this has to do with the slasher franchise's attempt to infuse it with a deeper consideration of the nature of evil, which simply produces odd moments of hilarity in the wrong places.

 That's not to say that those who go to theaters (or tune in via Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service) are treated to scares, twists, homages to director John Carpenter's "The Thing" and  Extreme over-the-top moments will not be treated.  - Top Gore. 

It's just that the rudiments of the main event are carried forward, and the underlying desire to do something different falls flat on the beat.

 Curtis's Laurie Strode has certainly paid dearly for her decades-long dance with killer Michael Myers, aka The Sheep, but a few years after his disappearance, she finds herself living with her orphaned granddaughter Alison (Andy). 

Trying to maintain a sense of normalcy.  Matechuk).  In fact, Lori takes the initiative and introduces Alison to Corey (Rohan Campbell), a shy boy who carries emotional scars from his Halloween-time tragedy, which threatens to make them the strangest soul mates ever. 

Is.Laurie also has an endearingly uncomfortable encounter with the local cop (Will Patton), so the film's attempts at romance are on the tracks of two generations. 

Still, no one comes to "Halloween" expecting "The Notebook," so those intervals have a tedious sense of killing time until it's time to get down to the kill.  , which comes out at best with efficient but unimpressive forecasting.

 It's been four years since "Halloween" delivered a huge opening weekend — rebooting the franchise — with an extra-long hiatus before sequel "Halloween Kills" because of Covid.  Yet if the wait was shorter this time, the rewards are again smaller.

 As noted, this long-running horror franchise has been an attraction reliable enough for Universal and its partners to remain dormant forever, though an extended rest seems prudent. 

The promise of putting "Halloween" in the rearview mirror is obviously partly a marketing ploy, but the studio should use the opportunity to take stock of what's been and what's to come.  I have meaning.