Halloween - Resurrection [DVD] [2002]

Why, when the Halloween series had reached such a successfully satisfying conclusion in 'Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later' did the money grabbing Akkads feel the need to undermine all that H20 had achieved, by completely rewriting the ending?

For those who havn't already seen Resurrection, it won't be giving much away to say that unstoppable killing machine Michael Myers wasn't really killed by his sister Laurie (Jamie-Lee Curtis) at the end of the previous film, and is back to wreak more havoc on a group of unsuspecting Haddonfield teens. However, the rather flimsy and implausable reason given for Myers' 'resurrection' is by no means the most offensive flaw in the film. No, that would be the casting of rapper Busta Rhymes. Playing a cunning internet entrepeuner who plans to show a live webcast of a group of students exploring the house where Michael lived as a child, Rhymes displays a complete lack of talent and ability to act. The inclusion of a rap icon proved successful with LLCoolJ in H20 - who brought humour to the role and provided the script with a carefully limited dose of comedic value. However, Rhymes is annoying, loud and very rarely talks in comprehensible sentences. He gurns his way through the film, performs an embarrassing display of martial arts against Myers, and generally smacks of the producers attempting to include as many aspects into the film that they deem popular with the audience - thus gaining maximum box-office returns.

It has been clear that producer Moustapha Akkad sees the series as nothing more than a sure-fire way to pay the mortgage, but never has it been so evident as in 'Resurrection'. Without giving anything away, the first ten minutes of the film are completely unnecessary and poorly executed, leaving what should be the series' most poignant sequence looking like the most amateurish and embarrassing; in what is supposed to be a steady tracking shot down a corridor, the camera actually wobbles.

Rick Rosenthal (who more than competently handled 'Halloween 2') however, can not be entirely blamed for the film's downfall. The script is uningaging and often embarrassing and sorely missing any of the psycho-babble that Donald Pleasance used to spout in the previous films. That - the only adult or intelligent aspect of the previous films which set the Halloween series apart from its evil cousin 'Friday the 13th'- has now completely disappeared, replaced with a focus on a bland, indistinguishable group of teenagers being methodically buthchered in 'inventive' ways.

However, the film does manage to create a few moments of well crafted suspense. Although the whole intenet aspect is a naff attempt to bring the series into the 21st century (previously failing in 'My Little Eye'), the sequence where one of the characters must follow instuctions from an internet user who can watch Michael's every move is genuinely tense. For a moment. The final scenes are also well carried out - were it not for the presence of Busta Rhymes. The setting of the house proves to be quite spooky at times, although when it is realised that all the scary artifacts from Michael's childhood have merely been set up, any potential for an exploration of Michael's evil is immediately lost.

Of course , for general horror fans, 'Resurrection' will still prove entertaining, though not at all on the same levels as the first two outings or H20, but for die-hard fans of the series, the half-hearted execution of (practically every aspect of) the film (even the music is dire) and undoing of the perfect conclusion to the series in H20, will cause serious frustration.

Okay, I'll try to be balanced here. This movie was terrible. I know a lot of people were disappointed in H20 because it is far too similar stylistically to the post-Scream slasher movies, and some because it abandons the storyline of Halloweens 4-6. However, I think that was the correct thing to do seeing as the wider audience is far more familiar with the Jamie Lee Curtis story, which showed in the box office for H2O.
So, three years later, plus an extra one because of production problems, we have Resurrection. And was it worth the wait? Far from it.

The Jamie Lee Curtis cameo was the most ill-conceived idea since they killed off James T. Kirk in a cameo in Star Trek: Generations. We had 20 years and three movies of build-up to the event that was motivating this serial killer, and they deliver the most insulting anti-climax since the aforementioned demise of one starship captain. And what's worse, it's the best 10 minutes of this movie. I don't lay this blame entirely with one party, because what was an ill-conceived idea was then filmed very badly by Rick Rosenthal, and then edited even more slopily in post production. Jamie Lee Curtis should have used her contracted obligatory appearance for something much more useful, like having Myers searching for her the whole movie and then she appears at the end. That would have worked much better. Besides which, Laurie's 'death' is highly ambiguous, given that she is stabbed once and falls from the roof, landing softly on the tree tops. I must admit, that is perhaps the best shot of the movie, but it doesn't totally convince you of anything really. After all, look at dear old Dr Loomis. He burned, he was thrown through a window, he was stabbed, he had an apparently fatal heart attack, and then something incoherent happens to him at the end of H6(!). And you KNOW he would have been in H2O if Donald Pleasance were still alive.

Anyway, moving along... to the score, or rather, to a mediocre version of John Carpenter's classic theme (although how many more 'variations' on that I can take, I don't know). I struggled to pick out any decent new cues throughout the entire film, or to be more accurate, any cues at all! Not a good sign. They might as well have just replaced it with some of Marco Beltrami's score from Scream, as they did in H20.

Basically, there is just no point to this story. The reality TV/internet broadcast thing was already two years past its sell by date, besides which it was done much better in My Little Eye that year. It completely undermines the whole story behind the Halloween movies, whether you prefer the H1, H2, H4, H5, H6 or the H1, H2, H2O, H8 path. After finally dispensing with his sister (until H40!) all he seems to do is a spot of housework, cleaning away an unsympathetic bunch of reality TV partygoers.

And cutting past the chase to the denouement, Resurrection also has perhaps the most impotent and predictable final scene in the whole series. At least the incoherent mess at the end of H6 left you wondering what the hell had happened. Not Resurrection.

If you ever wonder why they stopped making the Halloween sequels and went for the remake, then this movie is all the answer you need.

Lame.

'Halloween' is fantastic. It is a creative, beautiful and just tremendous 'Slasher Film' that John Carpenter crafted with excellence.
'Halloween: Resurrection' however, is just rubbish.
It's just a general waste of time.
Busta Rhymes? No thanks.
Jamie Lee Curtis? Yes please but lay off these diabolical sequals for your career's sake.

'Halloween: Resurrection' tells the tale of a group of teens who decide to stay over night at the Myer's family home, where the horrific murders of the original film take place, as part of a reality television sitcom about notorious murderers.
You can probably already tell it's going to be bad by the fact it's about a reality television show which lets face it, are the most pointless, mind-numbingly boring and just worthless television shows ever to be thought up of. Why in God's name would you want to sit and watch people doing exactly the same as you? It's just stupid.

This film has cursed the 'Halloween' franchise and I seriously do not recommend this film to anyone.