To say I’m pissed about Halloween Ends is an understatement. One of the most consequential franchises in the horror and slasher genres, the release of Ends is the culmination of a story that began 45 years ago.

Ends is the thirteenth movie in the Halloween franchise and the final installment of the David Gordon Green-helmed reboot trilogy of sequels that commenced with the highly regarded Halloween in 2018.

Sadly, though, for a movie that was supposed to be the final curtain call for the story of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, their story was treated as a mere afterthought for all but the last 15 minutes of the picture — a fatal error on the part of the filmmakers, and one that casts a permanent pall over what could’ve been a spectacular concluding chapter.

On Halloween 2019, teenager Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) is babysitting a young boy named Jeremy in his parents’ Haddonfield, Illinois mansion. The child decides to prank Corey by pretending to leave the house and then lock him inside the attic.

Right as Jeremy’s parents return, Corey kicks the door open and accidentally knocks Jeremy over the family’s grand spiral staircase railing to his death. Corey is subsequently accused of murdering Jeremy, but the death is ruled an accident. Nevertheless, Corey becomes a pariah because everyone believes he really did murder Jeremy.

Three years later, the town is still reeling from the aftermath of Michael Myers’ (James Jude Courtney) latest killing spree, while the legendary killer has seemingly vanished. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is hard at work on a memoir about her survival. She has also purchased a new home and lives with granddaughter Allyson Nelson (Andi Matichak).

Meanwhile, Corey works at his step-father’s salvage yard. One day, he is taunted by high school kid and injures his hand in the process. Laurie happens by and brings him to the doctor’s office where Allyson works.

Sparks fly and Allyson and Corey develop a relationship, later attending a Halloween party, where Corey is confronted by Jeremy’s mother. After leaving the party in anger, he runs into the high schoolers again and they throw Corey off a bridge.

Dragged into the sewers by an unknown person, he wakes up and is confronted by Michael (who finally makes his first appearance 40 minutes into the movie). After sensing the same darkness in Corey’s eyes that Michael sees in himself, he lets Corey go. Calamity ensues.

In addition to Michael and Laurie’s characters being shafted, they also seriously underutilized legacy character Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards). One of the children who survived Michael’s rampage in the original film, Wallace was brought back for the trilogy and appeared to be primed for a major part in the finale. However, she was mostly relegated to a few scenes interacting with Laurie and serving drinks at the establishment where she tends bar.

Problems aside, there are some nice throwbacks sprinkled in for the fans like a cameo appearance from Nick Castle (who originally portrayed Michael Myers) and the inclusion of Blue Oyster Cult’s classic (Don’t Fear) The Reaper (which played in the original), as well as other aesthetic elements. Campbell also gave a very notable performance, playing “Evil” quite well.

As a stand-alone horror film like Halloween III: Season of the Witch (which got a got a nice little shoutout in both the opening and ending credits), this would’ve been okay. But as the swan song for both the Laurie and Michael characters? Absolutely unacceptable. Introducing a new character who eats up all the screen time just seems dumb this late in the game.

They should have just gone the traditional slasher route and had Michael stalk Laurie while slaughtering half the town, finish everything off with a grand final showdown, and then come back with the Corey Cunningham character in a film a few years down the line if they’re wanting to go the anthology series route John Carpenter and Debra Hill originally envisioned.

Instead, they made Michael‘s role on this film effectively a cameo appearance and wrote Laurie Strode as a completely unrecognizable character for the vast majority of the time. The movie should be re-released as Halloween: The Corey Cunningham Story.

I give Halloween Ends zero stars.