Bringing the Halloween franchise into the new millennium is not an easy task. The film series exploded in the 80s and took some stumbles in the 90’s so it is interesting to see where they take the franchise into the 2000’s. The ending of the last film, Halloween H20 (1998), has Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) decapitating Michael Myers, leaving us to believe that the series had come to a conclusion but four years later Dimension Films gave us Halloween: Resurrection. How could they possibly write their way out of a headless Michael Myers?
Halloween: Resurrection begins by completely undoing the ending of H2O. Apparently, Laurie did not chop the head of Michael Myers off because they wanted to milk this franchise for every penny they can get instead of giving us a satisfactory ending to the story. The direction the writers decided to go with instead for this film to be possible was that Michael managed to switch bodies with someone else, tricking Laurie into chop the head off of an innocent victim. Once this reveal has been made by the two nurses walking towards Laurie’s room who seems to somehow know exactly what happened that night, we then see that Michael has also entered the psychiatric unit and is in pursuit of his sister. Laurie was ready for him however and they get into an intense scuffle which concludes in Michael stabbing Laurie and her falling to her presumed death. After this sequence is complete, this is when the bullshit escalates.
In the midst of this events one would think that people know that Michael Myers is not only alive but he also killed Laurie Strode and is still at large, yet this team of television producers believes it is a fantastic idea to film a reality TV show at Michael Myers childhood home where he killed his older sister as a child. The team of Freddie Harris (Busta Rhymes) and Nora (Tyra Banks) select six individuals to wear head-cams and explore the house live for internet viewers. Nora, AKA the worst lookout in the history of film, decides to make a coffee while the guy setting up the camera around the house becomes Michaels first victim. Once nobody looks for the guy who just got killed or even asks about him, Freddie sends the team of six into the house to begin the show.
Once the live stream does start Michael starts picking them off one by one and we cut to a costume party that’s is happening and they start watching the event on their monitor. None of them believe what they are really seeing is real except for one individual who actually starts texting one of the girls on the show to help her survive. Michael, throughout his films, has kept a menacing mystique about him which drove fear into his victims just by looking at him but in this movie, Busta Rhymes comes toe to toe with ‘The Shape’ and seems to be an equal match for Michael. I do not think the producers realized how weak and less scary this made Michael seem.
I think this movie was the lowest point for the Halloween franchise and was a huge step back going into the new millennium for Michael Myers. The fact that they concluded the Laurie and Michael story in the beginning sequence of the movie seemed a little anti-climatic and the rest of the world seems to dismiss the revelation that Michael is still alive really brought this movie down. Also remember, if you have a horror icon in your film, don’t have him get his ass whooped by a character on not one but two occasions in the same movie. Although, with that all said, should you watch Halloween: Resurrection this Halloween season? I say yes. As cheesy and nonsensical as this is, I would imagine watching this with a group of friends in the middle of the night would turn this horrible horror movie into a knee-slapping comedy. So grab you extra large kitchen knife and cut up some cheeses and cold cuts, sit back and enjoy.
