Movie Info
Movie Name: Halloween: Resurrection
Studio: Dimension Films
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): July 12, 2002
MPAA Rating: R
Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has been institutionalized due her to showdown with Michael Myers and a horrible mistake. Michael must deal with Laurie and the plans for a live streaming event called Dangertainment coming from the Myers home on Halloween night produced by Freddie Harris (Busta Rhymes) and Nora Winston (Tyra Banks). Students Bill Woodlake (Thomas Ian Nicholes), Donna Chang (Daisy McCrackin), Jen Danzig (Katee Sackhoff), Jim Morgan (Luke Kirby), Rudy Grimes (Sean Patrick Thomas), and Sara Moyer (Bianca Kajlich) are entering the Myers’ home wired for broadcast…but soon discover that Michael is back!
Directed by Rick Rosenthal, Halloween: Resurrection is a horror slasher thriller. Following Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998, the movie was released to largely negative reviews an a much smaller box office return.
Halloween H20 was a pleasant surprise. It returned Halloween to a level that it hadn’t been at in years and really felt like a nice conclusion to a franchise that had run on too long. Halloween: Resurrection felt like a money grab…and it largely is.
The story has a bit of a Psycho opening in that the first part of the film has Laurie Strode, the hero of Halloween, Halloween II, and Halloween H20 quickly dispatched unceremoniously by Michael Myers. The poignant ending of Halloween H20 is erased, and Halloween: Resurrection begins with Michael just hacking and slashing in a rather uninspired horror entry that tries to capitalize on technology like Scream used cellphones…it doesn’t work.
The real tragedy of Halloween: Resurrection is Jamie Lee Curtis quick dispatch. I didn’t like her in the asylum, but Michael hunting her through an asylum might have worked better than this entry as the plot of the entire movie. The second cast of Halloween: Resurrection with Tyra Banks, Busta Rhymes, and Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff just doesn’t hack it…as Michael hacks them to pieces.
The movie also doesn’t do well with the scares. I found one moment kind of inspiring. Michael kills one of the victims on camera with a tripod. It felt like a bit of an homage to Peeping Tom…but it also made me just want to watch Peeping Tom again instead of this.
Halloween: Resurrection is a bad slasher movie and an even worse Halloween movie. The movie feels like it is trying to cash in on the popular horror franchises at the time instead of recognizing Halloween’s own virtues. The film is uninspired and dull. Halloween: Resurrection was followed by the Rob Zombie’s Halloween relaunch in 2007, but Rob Zombie’s Halloween world was once again relaunched again in 2018 which featured the return of Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween (which negated all the sequels to the original 1978 film).
Related Links:
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)