Weekend Watch: Halloween Ends, Rosaline
Slasher fan fic and a twist on Shakespeare
Image Credit: Universal Pictures
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, It’s the end of an era for Michael Myers and the end of a relationship in a sideways look at Romeo & Juliet. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite
In 2018, David Gordon Green brought a new sensibility to the Halloween franchise with a legacy sequel that wiped the slate clean of most of the sequels and picked up the story in the present day with a haunted Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) having turned herself into a stone-cold badass, ready to deal with Michael Myers, should he escape from the institution from which he’s being held.
Of course, he does (otherwise that film would’ve been just Laurie cleaning her guns and working on her triceps) and mayhem ensues, but the result is a lean, brutal slasher that pits the two nemeses against each other for one more time but reaches for (and can’t quite grasp) themes and nuance that blunts some of its impact.
Green followed that up with last year’s Halloween Kills (I wrote about it here), which explored mob mentality and modern mores through the looking glass of Michael Myers’ impact on his home turf of Haddonfield, Illinois, but again faltered when it tried to be a very different film, one that saw Myers almost take on the properties of a supervillain. He’s often had a touch of the supernatural about him, but this time it was pushed to ridiculous levels.
Now comes Halloween Ends, intended to wrap up the director’s trilogy and put a final bow on the series (you know, at least until Universal decides there is more money to squeeze from Myers and hires a new filmmaker). It narrows the focus back down to more about Laurie vs. Michael, but still stumbles like a horror heroine running through a forest when it tries to play with the mythology.
This time, the primary story is less about Laurie and more about her granddaughter Allyson, played by Andi Matichak. It’s four years since the chaos of Kills and the death of Laurie’s daughter, Karen (Judy Greer). Allyson is living with her grandmother, working at the local hospital and trying to deal with the psychological scars left by Michael’s last murderous rampage.
She connects with local lad Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell), who is grappling with his own tragedy: three years ago he accidentally kills a boy he’d been babysitting.
Scapegoated as a new bogeyman (since Myers has been missing in the years since Kills), he’s crushed by grief and slowly curdles into something darker…
To tell you more would spoil the shocks the film has in store, but suffice it to say. At the same time, I appreciated the movie dialling back down to the essentials of Halloween (albeit with lots of Laurie voice-over, since she’s writing a book about her experiences, reflecting on the nature of evil) and eschewing the overstretched mob metaphors.
Still, in looking to tinker with the narrative, it hits upon an idea that’s simply not as satisfying as the clear-cut (and stab) fashion of John Carpenter’s original film.
It’s all shot well, and of course, Carpenter himself returns to provide a suitably eerie score. The real problem lies in the plot turns, which demand that various characters act beyond logic and reason simply because the film demands that they do. “But it’s a horror movie,” I hear you say, “does logic really apply?” When Carpenter built a more robust, straightforward storyline back in the 1970s, it helps to expand on that, not wander off.
Curtis, of course, is great, given another side of Laurie to play – one who has decided to embrace the relative calm of the past few years and focus on family. Naturally, it won’t go so easily for her, but if this truly is her last ‘Halloween’, then she at least finishes on a high.
I certainly preferred ‘Ends’ to ‘Kills’, though I was sorry to see that David Gordon Green and his team couldn’t quite ever live up to their first ‘Halloween’.
Halloween Ends is in UK and US cinemas and day and date on Peacock.
Image Credit: 20th Century Studios
Finding a fresh way to present Shakespeare is tough in a world where the Bard’s work has been adapted many thousands of times on stage and screen.
Which is why Rosaline feels so fun and amusing.
Directed by Yes, God, Yes filmmaker Karen Maine and adapted by 500 Days Of Summer duo Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber from Rebecca Serle’s novel When You Were Mine, Rosaline follows the title character, a young woman only ever referred to in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, who was the former’s girlfriend before he falls for the latter.
Anchored by an utterly charming performance by Kaitlyn Dever (of whom I’ve been a fan at least since her Justified days), it’s the definition of a romp, a spirited romantic comedy that has a witty, smart setup and plenty of shaper angles.
Sick of being treated like a bargaining chip by her father (who needs her to marry) and frustrated at having to hide her relationship with Romeo (Kyle Allen, surely cast partly because he looks like Heath Ledger circa 10 Things I Hate About You), she’s outraged when, after Rosaline is waylaid by her latest suitor (Sean Teale’s handsome, charming Dario) and can’t attend a masquerade ball, her beau falls for her cousin, Juliet (Isabela Merced).
Rosaline swears that she’ll win Romeo back, but that quickly gets complicated since she’s related to (and friends with) Juliet. What follows is a comedy of cunning plans, errors, complications and pratfalls.
The rich supporting cast – with Minnie Driver as Rosaline’s nurse a particular, sarcastic delight – helps move it all along with a light touch and some clever needle drops (borrowing from the Bridgerton playbook there).
It’s post-modern and well worth watching if you’d rather see something with wacky comedy rather than stalking killers or scary thrills.
Rosaline is on Hulu in the States and Disney+ in the UK now.