Review of Halloween: Resurrection (2002) by Sleez B — 19 Oct 2011

Halloween Resurrection.

I like to take this time to say "I told you so!" A lot of people cockily said Michael Myers was finished off for good in Halloween H2O. Now, Michael is back and ready to finish what he started and believers of H2O. Halloween Resurrection has been cited as one of the worst Halloween films, above Halloween- the Curse of Michael Myers. The film's plot is very simple and not very complex.

If you remember correctly from watching the previous film, Halloween 4-6 were erased from the saga, Loomis passed away, and Curtis had a son who was in danger. With Loomis gone, there is nothing stopping Michael from doing what he wants to do and that is kill Laurie Strode. He tried to lure her into a death trap, but Laurie managed to defeat the monster and decapitate him or so she thought. Her irrational decision from the previous effort did not destroy Michael, but instead sealed her own fate.

Halloween Resurrection, Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode, Michael's sister, and she has been locked up in Smith's Groves Asylum after the incident. The decapitated man was wearing Michael Myers's mask after Michael ingeniously attacked him and crushed his vocals to prevent him from speaking. We all watch this unfold and manage to sneak past everybody because Laurie caused a scene by hijacking an ambulance. Locked up, we see that Laurie's has been a complete mess and behaves like a heavily sedated patient, so she could be ready when the time comes to confront Michael. Like she and everyone in the audience predicted, Michael arrives to the hospital by appearing out of nowhere and dispatches the guards by using his new stealth skills from the previous film. Michael goes after Laurie, but she resists him ending the scene in a climatic closure for the series. Now that Michael has erased his entire past, what is there for him? Well, he doesn't go after Laurie's son because writers removed his existence along with other elements in the Halloween series, so Michael decides to go back home. He drives back to Haddonfield where upon entering his house... he finds out that a few inhabitants have trespassed into his holy ground. You know what that means...

The new inhabitants are a mix group of college students with three of them as friends. They are all participating in a reality Internet event to give them the opportunity to become stars brought to you by Dangertainment. The idea is to go into the house of the most notorious serial killer in the United States, Michael Myers. The project was design by Fred Harris (Busta Rhymes) and his assistant Nora Winston (Tyra Banks) with some fake props to scare the heck out of stupid people. The Internet show starts on Halloween night and it is broadcast live on the Internet. The groups of students wonder around the house each with a thing on their mind making some interesting conversation. Rudy (Sean Patrick Thomas) goes on to talk about the consequences of poor nutrition while Jenna (Kate Sackhoff) obsessing to become a star just as the nerdy guy tries to have his way with her. Sara (Bianca Kajlich) has the role of the typical final girl that's always doubting, but not too much of a bore and has friendship with a high school Myles (Ryan Merriman) on the side. These are all interesting and dull people, but not to worry because Michael has managed to return in time. He hilariously kills a simpleminded cameraman in style similar to Michael Powell's Peeping Tom and goes on to dispatch the other students one by one. When Michael is compromised, some of the people left alive runs upstairs or stay at the bottom and try to open a door without using energy. The film then turns into a cat and mouse game with viewers watching while Bust Fred starts using his kung Fu moves he learned from watching the movies.

Yes, I know what you are all saying and I agree this is a bad, half-baked and lackluster idea for a film. Halloween Resurrection doesn't even resurrect anything other than Busta Rhymes being on the screen again. I had an issue with the title just like I did with Halloween 5- the Revenge of Michael Myers because it did not explain what the idea or express Michael's revenge. Michael was never killed nor resurrected to the audience at least, so the title is bad. The original title of the film was Halloween Homecoming and that was a better title because it gives a little chill in one's spine because evil is coming and there's nothing to stop it. Another huge problem is the film's purpose after the first ten minutes because the film feels pretty useless and pointless. The idea and the plot of the film has MTV written all over it and not to mention the film ignores the previous installments like its predecessors. Funny how it does that meanwhile everyone talks about how evil and notorious Michael Myers is. Heck, Myers has a celebrity status where people know his name and history even within the people that have been locked up from the rest of the world. It is hard for me to believe a killer like Myers can have notoriety even though he murdered less than dozen people and not to mention the huge time gap. This is one of many errors the film has. Everybody in the film meanwhile dull and un-interesting, but the acting is very blah and average. Most of them are dumb, but there's one guy manages to have his light bulb lit while another guy starts to question over the whole shtick and that leaves us with Busta Rhymes. He receives a lot of special treatment in this film because he would have been killed in one amusing scene where Michael has the chance, but no the writers kept him alive. Things do not improve especially when his whole kung Fu prop is put to the test. Rhyme becomes the center of the film, amusing at times even though cocky in other parts. His character is centered so much that we forget about Michael. How could this be?

My proposition is within his character. Michael comes off as bored man with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Once the battle between him and Jamie Lee Curtis ends, he goes home to drink a beer and eat rats. I wanted to see more of Michael with his boring side. The scene that captures this is when he arrives at his house from a car that he stolen and stands outside his home knowing there are intruders in his house. Anyways, he kills most of the victim with little energy and walks around the house like a voodoo zombie. Heck, half of the deaths in this film are pretty much boring and lacks interest. At one point, I thought maybe Halloween II had a lot of boring kills until director John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) stepped in to reshoot the deaths. That's a huge problem because slasher films have drawn audience under maybe four possible theories: confronting death, method of seeing someone killed (special effects), violence against beautiful young girls, and t & a. I could tell nothing is really going on his mind other than duh, de-deh, dat duh, dum dee dat di do... I could go on forever. The only thing Michael's got going is his image which is average and looks fine to me, so that's all I have to say about negatives in this film. Oh, and director Rosenthal manages to steal certain scenes from Halloween I and II along with other films like Last House on the Left and Friday the 13th Part III and V.

Are the any positives in this film? I would say yes. I like the opening credits of the film and the confrontation between Michael and Laurie. Also, I love the some of the cast including the pretty Banks. She was fun. However, it is film's nostalgia of horror films that is very alluring to me. I also had a lot fun watching this. This film makes you have reminiscence of the old school horror film where the production, scripts, special effects, or something were lousy, but you still loved it anyways with the monster and the girl. I found it a little and interesting seeing Michael chase around Kajlich similar to Friday the 13th films and non-slasher films like Night of the Living Dead (+A), Creature from the Black Lagoon, and other films. The female character runs around while the monster chases her and hides and maneuvers her follow by a good jump. I manage to love that a lot because a good chase has to have a good thrill. The chase scene leads to an entertaining climax where Michael Myers and Fred battle it out even though it was silly. The theatrical trailer of the film has Busta saying come on, Motherf-, only for Michael to cut his sentence short. This development is what it is. Also, I was fond of Rosenthal adding an audience to the film when groups of people from a party start watching reality show live on the Internet. I was wondering if anybody in the film thought of the possibilities of error in the Internet. Anyways, the audience talks back at what they're watching by laughing, shouting, and screaming which made me think of the nostalgia of old school horror films and audience interaction. Another thing that made me love this film was the fact the characters don't come off as annoying as the slasher films have them. Yes, they are a little dull and a step down from the characterization in Halloween H2O, but I didn't mind them. Extra points goes to one of them by putting a theory on Michael's motivation by citing an impulse disorder which is plausible than most of the motives previous films had. This is all good, but the most striking part of Halloween Resurrection was a subject that is relevant as of today.

Fred says it all when he says about America's love for reality programming even though it is not. I began to think of all the shows that became popular in the US while boring the word "reality". It is anything but reality. The shows include Keeping Up with the Kardashians, The Bachelorette, Temptation Island, Survivor, The Real Housewives, Trading Spouses, The Hills, 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, John and Kate, and even the vilified and ridiculed Jersey Shore which all thrive, in my opinion at least, on human stupidity and misery. It made question what does that say about us in society. No, I don't think Halloween Resurrection comes off as a social comment, maybe if director George A. Romero tweaked the script, but I believe it unintentionally predicted the future to what was to come out of our TVs. Cleary, I was very fascinated by this quasi social commentary /premonition. Heck, it is not only the television shows that are huge on reality, but the Internet as well because the Internet is like this huge octopus that is sucking and grabbing everything in its reach. People cannot live without and people have become famous by showing themselves to the world. I mention this because of one of the character who sees an opportunity in starring in this reality show. Also helping, I found the technology in the film fascinating because the technology some of the characters possess would become obsolete. Eh, I went overboard, but you know what I mean despite my vagueness.

Anyways, Halloween Resurrection may not be very well written, but very half baked. Yes, this has a lot of bad ideas written all over the film, but I was fond of Halloween Resurrection a lot. I had a fun watching despite the films very deadly sins and the stupidity and errors that occur. This could have been a pretty good film if the script was passed around and tweaked to give it a stronger approach to suspense and social commentary. Maybe the film would not be scary, but it could have been an important slasher film. However, it is not and remains with the other crappy slasher films which include a couple of other Halloween films. I will say yes on Halloween Resurrection, however. Oh and another thing to add, the film's ending was pretty great with a heck of a spook.