“Halloween Ends” marks the final confrontation between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers.
The trailer teases that battle royale, which franchise fans have been craving since The Shape first launched Halloween was back in 1978.
But there’s a twist that a lot of fans aren’t happy about.
SOME STORIES OF SPOILERS AHEAD
Director/co-writer David Gordon Green, who directed all three of the recent “Halloween” installments, focuses much of the film on a new character. Rohan Campbell plays Corey, a young man who accidentally kills a pre-teen child during a routine babysitting gig.
The town of Haddonfield, Ill., forever scarred by the wrath of Michael Myers, cannot forgive Cory’s actions. “Halloween Ends” focuses heavily on Cory’s struggle to keep the Shape from appearing for most of the film’s length.
When Michael Myers was finally caught, he was hardly the powerhouse we’ve seen in various sequels and reboots.
Fans weren’t too pleased with the film’s creative choice.
I wonder if the response to HALLOWEEN ENDS would have been more positive if the trailers and marketing campaigns were more honest and representative of the actual movie.
– Nathan Wardinski (@nathanwardinski) October 21, 2022
Unhappy with the film’s outcome, some fans are signing a new petition calling for Universal and Blumhouse to re-release Halloween Ends.https://t.co/1Dza9Z1DpA
– Movieweb (@movieweb) October 19, 2022
Nearly 13,000 signed franchise fans Change.org request to rerun the movieargued that Green’s version violated the promise made by the first two films.
Halloween Ends is NOT a movie fans want! This is an origin story! Corey Story! We Are A Michael Myers Deserving Movie & The Halloween Franchise! We absolutely love this Franchise and this version of the Halloween Movie has made us sad, mad, frustrated and angry.
Universal, the studio behind the franchise, can brush off outcry like this. The studio couldn’t refute the box office figure for the final chapter.
“Halloween Ends” made $40 million in its opening weekend, which is lower than the 2021 installment. “Halloween Kills” opened with $49 million, hitting theaters during the devastating pandemic days.
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“Ends” has no such box office burden. And, as the final chapter, it should have surpassed its predecessor. Word of mouth travels at the speed of a Tweet, and chances are the film’s disappointing structure has attracted enough people at home.
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“End” sink a giant 80 percent in the second week of release.
Green is defending her artistic choiceas well as his rights.
It’s funny, when someone says, “Build your dream home on this property using this title and these characters”, people find another little thing that has meaningful to them and they will make it their own. That’s what I did. For every backlash, you also get people thanking you for taking it to a new place and keeping it alive and full of love.
The crash, however, could put any attempt at restarting the franchise (as it’s inevitable) back a bit. Green is also rebooting the “The Exorcist” property, and he’s excluding the director of the first film, William Friedkin, from the creative process.
Horror fans can bring an extra layer of skepticism to that project.
The timing of the “Halloween Ends” event is curious. Another horror sequel, “Ministry of Terror 2, ” is bringing a polar opposite reaction from the audience. The micro-budget, fan-funded, shock movie is overdoing it at the box office.
The film opened small on September 29 with $800,000 from a modest number of theaters. Each week, the film’s theatrical availability increases, with more than 1,000 theaters slated for this weekend.
Writer/Director Damien Leone directly appealed to the story’s grounding, but he didn’t leave out important horror stories in the process.
It’s a delicate balance, no doubt. It was also one of the groups behind “Halloween Ends” that clearly failed to reach.
