In Halloween Ends, the final entry in the Halloween reboot slasher flick horror movie trilogy, the real evil isn’t hulking serial killer bogeyman Michael Myers (Nick Castle). Instead, it’s the Lembaga Penapis Filem/Film Censorship Board of Malaysia.

Rusty Knife

The meat of the film’s second and third part, the kills that our runaway killer enacts (sort of) are all censored and cut off by Malaysia’s film board, removing all impact and results of what could be the trilogy’s redemption arc. The film even comes with a neat premise: what if one of the denizens of Haddonfield ends up being ostracized by their own to replace the missing bogeyman? What would this scapegoat’s life be and how far into evil would he or she fall? That’s pretty much the premise of Halloween Ends where we have new character Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) getting the shaft after a mishap in babysitting a shitty brat who saw it coming.

Fast forward to later, after the events of Halloween Kills, we get the trilogy’s survivor Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) now living her life semi-normally with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak), with the latter head over heels over Corey’s demeanour. But evil never dies, and we see the life of Corey intermingling with Laurie and Allyson, and The Shape not far behind through slasher film circumstances. The build-up works fine and the classic Halloween movie vibe of balancing atmosphere, scares, and dread is present still.

However, the pacing and execution of the storyline in the second half really falters and could have gone better. Fans deserve a bit more, especially when they have to invest in three of these movies hoping for a satisfying payoff.

Pumpkin Jacked

Still, the film does deliver on the tension, the setups, and the fact that the trilogy is put to a merciful end. It’s a shame horror fans in Malaysia get the butchered edition; add 1 more point to the final score if you’re watching this outside of the country where they’re lax with R-rated films that deliver on gore and kills.

Halloween Ends is leagues better than Halloween Kills, but just a few steps below the decent reboot even if it’s trying a different spin on things. It could have been worse: we could have had a nonsense cult or Busta Rhymes shoved in just for that nostalgia cash-in attempt.

Final Score: 50/100