Universal Pictures, out now

The saga of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode comes to its conclusion.

After 2021’s disappointing Halloween Kills, it was hoped that director and co-writer David Gordon Green could pull something out of the bag to finish his new trilogy on a high. Sadly, it looks like his 2018 Halloween was a fluke.

Written by Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride and Green, we flash back to new character Corey (Rohan Campbell) who is babysitting for young Jeremy on Halloween night. They’re watching John Carpenter’s The Thing on TV (ho ho) but tragedy follows and Corey kills Jeremy in a freak accident.

It’s a ballsy move introducing a major new character to the series at this late point, but sadly this is a misstep. Instead of focusing on Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, too much time is spent on Corey becoming the town’s outcast, picked on by bullies and turning bad. The transformation is completed when he’s left for dead in a drain, where Michael takes him under his wing and the two become a serial killing tag team. At the same time, Laurie’s granddaughter gets involved with Corey because she clearly loves a bad boy.

Thus follows a series of gory but not that inventive murders as Michael and Cory pick off the locals, reliably scored by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies. Laurie spends most of the movie cooking, knitting or writing her memoir – Stalkers, Saviors (sic) and Samhain – getting abuse from townsfolk or flirting with Officer Hawkins. When Michael and Laurie finally meet up, there’s under 20 minutes to go, and that includes the closing credits.

Universal’s home entertainment release arrives with seven unremarkable minutes of extended and deleted scenes, and there’s about 40 minutes of behind-the-scenes content, including interviews with the main cast and creatives. What’s a shame is that they clearly have a passion to make the best movie, and frequently mention die-hard fans of the franchise, but then fail to deliver what was expected on the most rudimentary level.

There’s also a feature commentary with co-writer/director David Gordon Green, actors Andi Matichak and Rohan Campbell, and crew Atilla Salih Yucer and Hugo Garza. Again, there’s enthusiasm here that hasn’t translated to the final movie.

Verdict: As bad as any Halloween knock-off, instead of focusing on what the fans really wanted, Green and co have tried something different, but it’s a fatal flaw. 4/10

Nick Joy