I count myself among the few that actually liked Halloween: H20 the precursor to Halloween Resurrection. Like good typical horror slasher films it kept its length to a minimum but it’s body count high. And, besides the fact that somehow Mike Myers who supposedly has the brain of a six year old knows how to drive a car – he’s remained the same masked knife-wielding killer.

But Dimension Films just had to go along and ruin it by releasing Halloween Resurrection. Not just because they killed Mike Myers in the last film and now bring him to life (that’s happened each time in Halloween’s almost 25 year history) but because they destroy the ending of H20 in order to get a quick thrill and setup the Resurrection.

I doubt I’ll spoil anything here worth enjoying, but apparently at the end of Halloween H20 Laurie Strobe/Jamie Lee Curtis killed the wrong guy. Her brother, Mike Myers switched places with a paramedic, crushed his vocal cords so he couldn’t speak, and then dumped him in the body bag which is placed in the ambulance that Laurie Strobe steals in the H20’s final moments. Now, somehow, unexplained, this guy who is not Mike Myers attacks Laurie Strobe and almost succeeds in killing her until she rams the stolen ambulance into him and pins him to a tree where she proceeds to behead him. But, Resurrection states that the guy was in fact not her brother – and so in the beginning moments of Resurrection we see Laurie Strobe in an insane asylum staring out the window waiting for her real brother to eventually come and get her.

Still with me?

I’m not done. Mike Myers eventually does come after his sister and kills her. Yes, you heard me. Laurie Strobe is dead. Her send off comes at the expense of a stupid mistake, her brothers knife, and a kiss broken by the words “I’ll see you in hell, Michael!” A part of me thinks that Laurie, like her brother could come back from the dead in another movie – but I hope that at least Jamie Lee Curtis is smarter than that.

Okay – now for what Halloween Resurrection is really about. Six college students have won a contest hosted by Freddie Harris/Busta Rhymes and Nora Winston/Tara Banks to enter into the childhood house of Mike Myers wearing portable video cameras (and a few other cameras setup around the house by the producers) to investigate the house and potentially discover what drove Mike Myers mad. The catch, is that the video will be a live feed on the Internet allowing anyone in the world (with an extremely high speed, higher than broadband, internet connection – aka, young people) to see the exploration and horror unfold.

Like the first Halloween movie each character represents a different deviance in society, except one. That one, of course, like Laurie Strobe until this movie, survives. The others, die in glorious ways. See if you can match them up.

1. Bill Woodlake/Thomas Ian Nicholas a sweet talking ladies man who’s one thought is to get into women’s pants.
2. Rudy Grimes/Sean Patrick Thomas a guy who likes to cook and spends most of the movie exploring the kitchen and talking about spices and how Mike Myers must have been malnourish.
3. Jim Morgan/Luke Kirby third guy, much more edgier than the other two. He appears to be dark both in his physical appearance and the words he chooses.
4. Sara Moyer/Bianca Kajlich strong educated female who lets out a few screams but uses her portable PDA to receive messages from outside viewers to get an upper hand on Mike Myers.
5. Daisy McCrackin/Donna Chang female who likes to wear tight shirts, use her middle finger, and strip naked and have sex.
6. Jenna ‘Jen’ Danzig/Katee Sachoff pot smoking female.

A. Beheaded.
B. Knifes used to tack body to a door.
C. Survives – clearly a virgin.
D. Head is crushed by Myers own two hands.
E. Pushed into a fence with a spike extruding from it.
F. Knife forcibly shoved into the top most part of the skull.

We know that characters are going to die. So the only thing that can make these movies enjoyable is how many thrills it can deliver – and it can only deliver those thrills by killing characters one by one. And that’s how it happens in Halloween Resurrection. But, these deaths have no thrills. It’s not enough anymore to just have the killer slowly lurk around dark corners. There needs to a setup.

There is however one interesting aspect of Halloween Resurrection – although it is unexplored even on a digital technological advanced format like DVD. Director Rick Rosenthal (director of Halloween 2 and 8) mentioned in one of the documentaries that he filmed Halloween Resurrection from countless view points (and tied those view points into the story – that being that it was being broadcast over the Internet) in hopes that a viewer could in theory choose to watch the entire movie from one characters viewpoint. Again, in theory, he thought that a DVD owner could use the Angle button on their remote control and choose how they watched the movie. An very interesting prospect and one that I would have liked to have at least seen tested in Halloween Resurrection. But, for reasons unknown (lack of money!) that plan was set aside (at least for now).

In the end, Mike Myers has done it again and finally done it. He’s killed and he’s finally killed his sister. And we know, that he’ll be back. And I’ll probably be too. At least whenever I feel like watching a horror film on Friday the 13th.




Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening