Yes it does. But not without controversy.
This episode of David Gordon Green's Halloween trilogy has drawn a lot of ire on the web and from in print critics, and I feel it's undeserved on so many levels. I mean, does it really have to kill a person watching a "slasher" film to think?
Communities that have suffered, whether it be a mass shooting, a toxic accident, a natural disaster, it can come close to death, and even truly die. That's what Halloween Ends is presenting to its audience; an examination of trauma, and how it can be in some ways, weaponized. In this case the trauma is suffering at the hands of evil. Whether said community wilts and fails on all levels, engages in blame games, finding scapegoats, or utter self-destruction is up to its members.
Haddonfield, Illinois, home of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, is now at that point. It's a piece of artwork, watching the story unfold is most satisfying. This isn't an afterschool special, so don't get like some people, and act like it somehow became a Freddy Prinze Jr./Jessica Biel movie from the 90's.
Take that thinking to the toilet and flush it.
Despite the metaphor, despite the character development and examination, this is STILL a Halloween film, and David Gordon Green has not forgotten what got us here. He still honors the ENTIRE series, even if in micro-bytes. The Godfather John Carpenter is still there, providing us with a striking fucking score, along with his son Cody and godson Daniel Davies. Jamie Lee Curtis is still Laurie Strode, only less militantly obsessed with battling her nemesis, and more concerned with getting past it all, some four years after the last Halloween bloodbath at the hands of Myers.
And there are still kills. It hasn't suddenly turned into an episode of Grey's Anatomy.
This Halloween ends deeper. It's satisfying as hell. And all involved have given the series a viking funeral. Metacritic and Rotten tomatoes and butthurt internet victims be damned.
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