Halloween Ends makes you wish the Jamie Lee Curtis era came to an end two films ago. A step up in quality from its horrendous predecessor Halloween Kills—that’s not saying much—Halloween Ends is a bland, oddly contemplative slow limp splattered with a few clever murders but not much else.

A failed attempt to be something more than your standard franchise horror fare, Laurie Strode (Curtis) has somehow recovered from her lifelong trauma that turned her into a paranoid hermit and is now living a blissful life, despite the fact Michael Myers is alive and in hiding—and not so long ago murdered her only daughter. Her change of demeanor here makes no fucking sense, but who cares right?

Meanwhile, Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson, despite her mother getting murdered by the psychopath her grandma spent her entire life preparing for, has turned into a young woman who prefers to date a suspected killer than trust her grandma’s instincts. Really?

There are some compelling pieces and ideas at play, but none of them coalesce in a meaningful way. Halloween Ends has an endgame in mind, but the endgame isn’t nearly as biting as the filmmakers think it is. Michael kills some more people, he gets an unlikely sidekick, but it all feels like old hat even though it desperately doesn’t want to be.

All other issues aside, Halloween Ends just isn’t a good horror movie. Aside from a few decent kill scenes, the movie lacks suspense, excitement, and forward momentum. It may not be the sloppy disaster Halloween Kills was (same director), but it’s still not much fun to sit through.

Review by Erik Samdahl unless otherwise indicated.