40 years after the original Halloween became a hit, the series rebooted – sort of, as 2018’s Halloween also acted as a sequel to the first flick. 2022’s Halloween Ends completes the modern trilogy.

On Halloween 2019, college student Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) babysits young Jeremy (Jaxon Goldenberg). When the child ends up dead under suspicious circumstances, the parents blame Corey but he doesn’t get convicted.

In the present day, Corey remains ostracized and gets injured when locals taunt him. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) takes him to the hospital where her daughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) works.

Allyson and Corey connect and start to date. As Halloween approaches, a renewed spate of violence occurs, and Corey may be involved.

You’ll note no mention of Michael Myers, the Halloween franchise’s eternal maniac. I left Michael out of the synopsis because he plays a surprisingly small role in the proceedings.

Back in 1982, Halloween III: Season of the Witch attempted to further the franchise without the inclusion of Michael. This didn’t go well, as fans didn’t like the change of pace.

This led Halloween to sit idle until 1988’s Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, a film that – obviously – went back to the well. Michael remained at the fore of subsequent offerings.

Until Ends, where Michael takes a backseat to a potential new psycho via Corey. Oh, the concept and threat of Michael remain pervasive in Ends, but he doesn’t play as much of a role as one might anticipate.

As occurred in 1982, this didn’t sit well with fans. Actually, after 2018’s Halloween became a pretty sizable hit, 2021’s Halloween Kills showed a large box office decline.

While the 2018 flick brought in about $260 million worldwide, an enormous return off a $10 million budget. Because it came with a modest $20 investment, Kills also made money, but its $133 million delivered an enormous drop from its predecessor’s take.

In this context, Ends seems less of a disappointment, as the movie’s $104 million doesn’t feel like a huge decline from what Kills grossed. However, it cost a significantly higher $33 million, so it barely turned a profit, a major contrast to the nice returns of the other two movies.

I must admit I can’t figure out why Ends required a much higher budget than the prior flicks. I suspect returning participants like Curtis and director David Gordon Green just enjoyed bigger paydays off the success of the earlier films, as nothing else about Ends shows more “money on the screen”.

As implied earlier, though, Ends does offer a significant departure from the first two movies given its lesser emphasis on Michael – and Laurie, for that matter. Much of the movie focuses on the Corey/Allyson match, so this leaves the traditional leads out of the picture a lot of the time.

I understand why this emphasis bothered fans. It seemed reasonable to expect Ends to deliver the Big Finale to the series, so the semi-absence of our usual characters inevitably disappointed.

I kind of like the curveball, though. The prior flicks worked reasonably well but didn’t provide any real surprises, so the shift in focus here becomes appealing to me.

Does this mean the end product satisfies? Yeah, to some degree, though at times, Ends feels different just for its own sake.

Not all the plot changes make a ton of sense in their own right, especially via the way Ends pursues them. To avoid spoilers, I won’t get into details, but I think the film expends a lot of energy on narrative beats that ultimately feel unnecessary.

We also get plenty of plot holes along the way. Dig into Ehds and a lot of it doesn’t make a ton of sense.

Nonetheless, I like its off-beat focus and its willingness not to pander to the audience. The aforementioned Big Finale in which we concentrate solely on the Michael/Laurie confrontation would seem like the easy path, so I appreciate the attempts to change up the tale.

This doesn’t mean Ends truly satisfies, as its various problems make it an inconsistent journey. Still, I think it creates an interesting exploration of its genre and works more often than it flops.

Halloween Ends appears in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie boasted a pleasing image.

Overall sharpness worked well. Nary a sliver of real softness emerged, to this became an accurate presentation.

I saw no shimmering or jaggies, and edge haloes remained absent. Print flaws also failed to become an issue.

In terms of palette, Ends went with a highly stylized palette that focused on the usual amber and teal, with some strong reds at times as well. The disc reproduced these as intended.

Blacks looked dark and deep, while shadows seemed smooth and concise. I felt happy with this high-quality presentation.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack added involvement to the proceedings. The channels used music in an involving manner, and various effects also broadened the soundscape in a winning way.

While not a film packed with action, Ends came to life enough to work the speakers well. Various horror elements related to the thrills moved around the room in a convincing pattern to contribute life to the tale.

Audio quality worked well. Speech seemed concise and distinctive, while effects appeared accurate and natural. Louder moments boasted fine punch.

Music was warm and full, with a good level of punch from percussive elements. All of this left us with a satisfactory “B+” soundtrack.

A mix of extras appear and we launch with an audio commentary from co-writer/director David Gordon Green, 1st AD Atilla Salih Yucer, production assistant Hugo Garza and actors Andi Matichak and Rohan Campbell. All five sit together for a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, music, editing, the opening credit sequence, alternate/deleted scenes, stunts/action, effects and related domains.

That means the commentary covers a nice array of topics, but I can’t claim it does so in an especially involving manner. Though we learn a reasonable amount about the shoot, the end result feels a bit underwhelming, so it never becomes better than “kind of good”.

Six Deleted and Extended Scenes occupy a total of seven minutes, six seconds. In these, we get more of Corey and his family as well as a few additional shots of Michael.

Some extra graphic violence appears as well. None of these moments seem significant, though fans will appreciate the added gore and more from Michael.

A Gag Reel goes for two minutes, 45 seconds and provides a standard mix of silly moments. Nothing especially interesting results.

Some featurettes follow, and Final Girl runs four minutes, 40 seconds. It brings notes from Green, Yucer, Matichak, Campbell, special makeup effects designer Christopher Nelson, co-writer Paul Brad Logan, executive producer Ryan Turek, production designer Richard A. Wright, and actors Jamie Lee Curtis and Kyle Richards.

“Final” examines the Laurie character and Curtis’s performance. A few minor insights appear but most of this acts as praise for Curtis. It does seem touching to see how emotional Curtis gets about her theoretical last performance as Laurie, though.

No Place Like Haddonfield fills seven minutes, 49 seconds with info from Green, Logan, Turek, Curtis, Matichak, Richards, Campbell, Yucer, Nelson, director of photography Michael Simmonds, and actor Nick Castle.

Here we look at supporting characters as well as Green’s impact on the shoot. Don’t expect much substance.

Next comes Ending Halloween, an eight-minute, 26-second show that features Green, Campbell, Curtis, Matichak, Turek, Castle, Logan, stunt coordinators Cory Demeyers and Kevin Scott and actor James Jude Courtney.

“Ending” discusses story elements and the movie’s violence. This turns into another fairly superficial reel.

A Different Threat lasts five minutes, 43 seconds and involves Green, Turek, Campbell, Logan, Curtis, Matichak, and Courtney.

In this one, we get more thoughts about the Corey character and Campbell’s performance. It becomes pretty fluffy.

With The Visions of Terror, we get a five-minute, 47-second program with comments from Green, Turek, Logan, Curtis, Nelson, Wright, Simmonds, and costume designer Emily Gunshor.

“Visions” discusses costumes, masks, sets, and cinematography. It becomes one of the disc’s more informative reels.

Twisted Deaths goes for five minutes, two seconds and features Green, Nelson, Campbell, Turek, and actors Keraun Harris and Diana Prince.

As implied, this one looks at the movie’s kill sequences. It delivers a decent look at these scenes.

The disc opens with an ad for The Black Phone. No trailer for Ends appears here.

With Halloween Ends, a modern trilogy concludes on a moderately satisfying note. While it fails to completely connect, I appreciate that it attempts something different. The Blu-ray comes with very good picture and audio but bonus materials feel generally superficial. Though not great, the movie does enough right to succeed.