[Critique de Sonia Sarfati] “Halloween is over”: squeezing out the last drop (of blood)

For 40 years, Laurie Strode prepared for the possible return of Michael Myers, the masked killer who, on Halloween night in 1978, turned her life into a bloody nightmare that accompanied her from adolescence to childhood. mature age. Prisoner of her memories, she locked herself in a house which she transformed into a bunker, learned to handle weapons and to develop deadly traps. It cost him his marriage, his bond with his daughter. Only those with her granddaughter, Allyson, held on.

For his part, during these four decades, Michael Myers was locked up in a psychiatric institute. Giving reason to the fears of his victim, he escaped from it in 2018. The story of this return was made in Halloweenthe rather well-received first part of a trilogy by David Gordon Green (Our Brand is Crisis) announced as the one that would set the record straight (events that occurred in several films were thus “cancelled”) and would plant the final nail in the franchise born in the mind and under the camera of the legendary John Carpenter.

Launched three years later, Halloween Kills disappointed. For several (valid) reasons and, in particular, because of the virtual absence on screen of the one who has always embodied this franchise: Jamie Lee Curtis, original, unique – and final – interpreter of Laurie Strode.

happens to us Halloween is coming to an end (VF d’Halloween Ends), 13e opus of this series which counts among the first slashers or subgenre. Four years have passed since the last carnage signed Michael Myers. Since then, the killer, badly battered by Laurie, has disappeared. Not dead, not locked up. Faded away. One can therefore imagine the anguish of the latter. Mistake. Now assisted by three co-writers (instead of two), David Gordon Green has thought of something else.

To transmit

Laurie still lives in Haddonfield, Illinois. She’s settled into a pretty house, with her granddaughter, Allyson (Andi Matichak, whose interpretation contains the seed of fury, psychopathy and scream queen that successive dramas have germinated in the character). There, she writes her memoirs and puts on paper reflections that the follower of personal growth would not deny. But everything goes wrong on October 31, when young Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) causes drama.

This is the opening scene of Halloween ends and we say to ourselves, while applauding this devilishly well-orchestrated horror, that we are on our way to a crackling finale of horror and cathartic laughter. Unfortunately, the fireworks turn out to be (a little) wet. The bursts are predictable. The victims and their ordeal, remote-controlled. The realization of David Gordon Green is correct, nothing more. The characters that we know derive from what we know of them and the new ones remain imprecise.

Except that there is Jamie Lee Curtis, whom we prefer as a badass but whose mere presence is gratifying; a story superior to that of Halloween Kills (well, doing better wasn’t hard); nods to key moments in the franchise; some gruesome and horrifying scenes that will undeniably be part of the franchise’s anthology; the “impeccablissime” use of the theme composed by John Carpenter. And, in conclusion, a phrase from Laurie Strode: “Evil does not disappear, it changes. This is the subtext and the theme, social and political, of the film.

So, Halloween is coming to an end… here ? Really ? Ask the question…

Halloween ends (VF d’Halloween Ends)

★★ 1/2

Horror drama by David Gordon Green. With Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell. United States. 111 minutes. Indoors.

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