Halloween: Ressurreição

Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is catatonic locked in an asylum after the last encounter with Michael Myers. She is faking it and he is still after her. He stabs her in the back and sends her off the roof. Sara Moyer (Bianca Kajlich), Rudy Grimes (Sean Patrick Thomas) and Jen Danzig (Katee Sackhoff) are friends studying in Haddonfield University. Jen signs them up for a reality show at the Myers house. They are joined by Bill Woodlake (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Donna Chang, and Jim Morgan in the show run by Freddie Harris (Busta Rhymes) and Nora Winston (Tyra Banks). Myles Barton is in a chatroom relationship with Sara. Unknown to them, the six reality TV guests are locked in the house with Michael Myers.

Despite any possible retcon, the first fifteen minutes are still the best part of this movie. Jamie Lee Curtis is Halloween every bit as much as Michael Myers. The rest is something else. Whatever it is, it's not Halloween. The reality TV idea is annoying and it gets worst with the intermittent reality TV camera work. I like a few of the actors, but Tyra Banks and Busta Rhymes really lower the likability factor. It's so bad that I am more interested in everybody getting killed. I don't care if any of them survive.

Halloween: Resurrection starts off on the wrong foot and it's all downhill from there. Sure they found a clever way to undo the closure of Halloween H2O and make it possible to bring Mike up to his old shenanigans, unfortunately that whole segment is hasty and the rest of the movie's garbage. The "what really happened" explanation is just a loophole for making a movie that's neither necessary nor any good, and so I present to you Halloween: Resurrection.

I'm not going to write any spoilers about what happens to Laurie, but I think anyone who loves the original Halloween and its characters will think what they did with her in this movie is crap and only put her in here for the sake of having Laurie in it.

The characters are plastic. Even by the end of the movie when you get to know all of them a little bit, you don't care enough about them to want to see them escape the wrath of Mike Myers. In fact, you'll probably look forward to their demise at his hands. That's how flat and/or despicable these characters are. Even the lead role doesn't have much personality. She's nice and smart and decent, just like Laurie was in fact, but somehow she doesn't have much personality. I don't think her character was developed enough, otherwise she could have made a good heroine. The rest of the characters are people you pretty much hope get killed off, especially the tech lady played by Tyra Banks and most of the kids that tour the haunted house. Obnoxious people, hastily made characters. And Busta Rhymes plays the typical black dude with a boisterous personality. Not a bad acting job, but what a typical cliché character.

The technology is another factor. Another case of fusing horror with the fancy gimmick of modern technology (or what was modern in 2002 anyways). Just because we have things like reality shows and phone-texting nowadays does not mean it will make a horror movie any scarier, or realistic, or better at all. Having people emailing and playing on their phones and all in the movie takes away from the good old-fashioned terror you get from something as simple as a lurking shadow or the gleam of a butcher knife.

There's a couple of notably cool things in the movie, like when Freddy dresses up like Mike Myers while Mike is there in the flesh and you see two Mikes walking one behind the other. Well that was more funny than anything. The scene with the bong was funny too. And the murder scenes are alright and in typical Mike Myers fashion, but otherwise Resurrection bombs as a horror film and leaves you yet again with no closure, except this time you wouldn't really want to see another sequel.

Okay, it was not that bad of a movie. But why did they have to make it? Halloween H20 had ended just perfectly. Laurie Strode had finally conquered her fears, and had put an end to that monstor. It was just like Frankenstein except she did not create him. But they just had to create another sequal. Again, it was not bad, but they should have left it alone.

Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is now in an asylum, where she awaits the inevitable return of Michael Myers. Myers, after visiting her, returns to his childhood home and makes a nightmare for a group of kids who have decided to film a reality show inside the house.

First of all, this film pretends that Halloween 4 through 6 never happened, creating the possibility that the Myers house has been abandoned for decades, rather than lived in by other families. This reboot is a result of the writing on H20, but it was still a bad idea no matter who started it.

Second, one would think that bringing in Rick Rosenthal would be a good idea. He made "Halloween 2", which was probably the last solid part of the franchise. But Rosenthal is clearly not the horror directing master we might have thought, as he approaches this film with a weak vision and sense of style, more emulating MTV than his own work. A quick glance at his credits will explain this: he has spent the last twenty years making teenager-based television rather than horror films.

Next, add Busta Rhymes. Like its previous installment with LL Cool J, this is the point in the series where a rapper is added to the mix. Much like how many horror franchises ultimately ended up in space, many started adding rappers to the cast. Why? I do not know. But it does nothing to help the credibility of the picture. Busta Rhymes and Tyra Banks do not have the appeal for horror fans that other actors would have.

The POV camera thing is a mess. It looks bad and is more or less a bad idea. Yes, it has worked in such films as "The Blair Witch Project" and more recent excursions. It does not work here. Had they cut that aspect out entirely, this film would have been a bit better instantly.

No horror franchise took as big of a nosedive as "Halloween", with this being the final crash landing. Reviews of this film were so poor, and viewer appreciation so weak, it's very unlikely they will ever make another one in the series. Yes, they made the two Rob Zombie films after this, but I just like to pretend that never happened.

There are just some times when a good movie franchise is abused and milked for all it's worth. The first of the series is great and sets the mark ,the 2 occasionally 3 sequels that follow are mediocre and anything after that is just trying to make money of an audience that has no other place to spend their money. I, unfortuantely was a member of that audience, as I paid money to watch HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION, the 8th installment of the once classic HALLOWEEN franchise.

I don't even no where to start; bad cast, bad acting, boring death scenes (not to sound wierd, but why else do you go see a movie like this), need I go on.

If you noticed that this movie is mostly made up of celebrities, it is no mistake. This is all the movie has going for it, and yet it fails in that department. The biggest mistake a horror movie can make is when it spends most of its time setting up the big death scenes and then knocks off its characters one right after another. That is exactly what happens in RESSURECTION. Every character w/the exception of 2 die in a consecutive chain that takes up about 20 minutes of the movie and the other hour is spent trying to gather of what little plot exists.

The horror doesn't stop there. This HALLOWEEN installment doesn't have the style that made the first two so good. With the exception of a somewhat unexpected opening, the movie is poorly put together.

Clearly an attempt to make some fast cash off a dying series, HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION hopefully is the last time Micheal Myers takes the screen. Yet, I am sure there will find some way to bring back the masked killer. There always is a chance that the executives in charge of this franchise will make a good decision and hang up the white mask and throw away the knife. HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION rates as just a 2/10.