Halloween Ends (2022) - Movie Review

I went into this with what I’d consider a reasonable amount of cautious optimism. Halloween Kills from last year still left me hankering to see how this trilogy was going to wrap up, but with the rather glaring flaws that showed up there, I was admittedly worried that it was the sign that things were going to properly bottom out. This would be the trilogy that first blazed its way into cinemas and created a fresh, clean slate that swept away the myriad of messy follow-ups to the 1978 original… only to do its own restocking of similarly wasteful material. I don’t even hate Kills as much as a lot of others seem to, but it still left me with a rather worrying impression, despite how much I got into its meatier subtext.

Thankfully, though, I am happy to report that this properly returns to what made the 2018 film work as well as it did. Although you’d be forgiven for being completely thrown off by what this finale has to offer.

Halloween (2018) - Movie Review

The plot: For the past 40 years since the massacre in Haddonfield, serial killer Michael Myers (Nick Castle) has been locked up in a mental hospital. However, when the bus meant to transfer him to another hospital crashes, it seems that Michael is now on the loose and coming back to finish what he started. As he slashes his way back home, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) prepares as she has for the last 40 years to take down this vicious monster once and for all.

Lead Me Astray (2015) - Movie Review

In another dual example of "Australian indie production" and "I didn’t know what I was getting myself into", we have today’s film. Now, between its one-night-only screening in my area and its local production, I knew that I had to check it out. What I didn’t realise was that it was an official red carpet premiere. Almost everyone is in black tie, and there I am in my green pocket-T, hoodie and jeans. I’ve always felt out of place in film circles, but this is the first time that I’ve had that fact hit me square in the face; this is the kind of situation that separates the hobbyists from the professionals (or, in my case, the fanatics). So, when faced with the crowd of people who came to see this movie, I just shuffled into the cinema as soon as the doors opened and found my seat, doing as best I could not to draw attention to myself. With how similar this situation has started out, was this going to result in another Quarantine Hauntings bout of shame, or am I in for another beast altogether?