This current guise of the Halloween franchise has been ok on the whole. The first chapter from 2018 was probably the best Halloween film since the original. Then it's 2021 sequel had some interesting ideas. But the execution did not match that.
For this supposed final FINAL chapter, I was hoping for some sort of satisfaction for a film series that has seen 13 films be made of it in total.
It's opening prologue actually caught my interest. It has an effective first scene with dramatically effective results.
The majority of the story goes down some unexpected routes that had me interested in the themes it was going for like how monsters are made and generally trying to give meaning and layers to the mythology of sadistic criminals that are of a Michael Myers level.
But I didn't think the strength in the writing and its imagery made it ideas fully fledged. However, I would still praise for concentrating on characters that would naturally expect them to be supporting ones.
Then in the final act, it was as if the filmmakers were given a reminder that we need to finish this and then suddenly the main characters are suddenly involved to give the finale we were all waiting for. It does give us some honestly memorable sequences that are truly gruesome, and one that became genuinely funny.
The performances weren't outstanding. But were perfectly functional on the whole. Jamie Lee Curtis was as good as you would expect. Curtis knows this character off by heart and gave it a solid final showing. I think Rohan Campbell was a solid standout. He made great use of his screen-time and I hope this is his big breakthrough for bigger projects to come. Andi Matichak gave solid chemistry with Campbell. It is always nice to see Will Patton as it always makes me want to see Remember The Titans.
The general look of the film was solid and the gory make-up in certain scenes was very effective and the films biggest strength.
Whilst I did admire its ideas and ambitions and concentrating on other characters. The quality we ended up with just didn't feel good enough. Even though it did keep my interest, it remained half-hearted in its final product. Then it was almost an insult that they just totally side-lined all of that to give the audience what we've actually been expecting.
I feel the plot we had for most of the film should have been done in Halloween Kills. Doing that I feel would have seen the filmmakers give full commitment to this storyline and we could see develop and conclude in a way that could have even branched the franchise into a new era rather then "ending" it.
So in the end, I cannot quite give it a pass. It's got some interesting things happening. But the end result is not good enough to recommend. But films like this don't really need recommendations as we pretty much know what we're going to get.
I hope this really is the end as horror is a genre that can branch out many new ideas. But in reality, we know that's not going to happen and there's going to be some sort of rebranding or requel.
Director David Gordon Green gave us a decent trilogy even with issues. It was certainly more held together than most horror franchises. It seems that he has not going away from horror anytime soon as he is making a requel to The Exorcist and is looking to make a trilogy from that as well. Expecting more of the same. But like with everything, I'll be going in with an open mind.
Rating: 6/10
No comments:
Post a Comment