Given the prolonged continuation of this franchise—and how surprisingly good “Halloween H20” was—my expectations for “Halloween: Resurrection” on re-watch were not good. Its premise is clichéd, its cast smacks of the talent of the era for more popular movies (see “American Pie” and “Save the Last Dance”), and its opening hurts as a “Halloween” fan and threatened to derail it. But somehow, “Resurrection” succeeds where it should not; it leaves behind a thriller that feels very 2000s, but injects enough thrill and tension to make it work.
We’ll leave the film’s opening with Jamie Lee Curtis alone. It’s a spoiler to talk about it, and really only adds to the “Halloween” mythos marginally. The real ‘meat’ of “Resurrection” is its plot. A seedy web-series host (Rapper Busta Rhymes playing a character named Freddie—nod nod) intends to live stream a bunch of teens in Michael Myers’ childhood home to gain traction for a show he’s producing. Each cast member wears a camera, showing viewers who log on to watch the stream exactly what they see. “Halloween: Resurrection” is tapping into the beginning of the internet frenzy with references to Reality TV here; however, what they don’t know is Myers is alive and living in the house they mean to inhabit.
If this premise feels like it shouldn’t have worked, we share that in common. But, by assuming that “Resurrection’s” audience knows the story of Myers well and needs little retread, it has the time to focus on its production value, which offers up scares a creep-factor not really duplicated since.
The whole thing is wrapped up in the human psyche; we have a house riddled with horror goodies, courtesy of Freddie and his co-host (Tyra Banks). Additionally, we have horny teens who act horny when they think the camera isn’t watching, and Myers stalking the house. “Resurrection” even adds a red herring scene where Freddie dresses up like Myers to scare the kids, while being followed by the real Myers, which just works. It adds a level of tension that the film lets wind up naturally; it also sets up Freddie’s personality when he faces off against Myers later on.
“Resurrection” isn’t perfect. The cast is hit or miss, mostly because the film makes the mistake of assuming some of their star status alone would make them engaging. The leads here are Sean Patrick Thomas as Rudy, Katee Sackhoff as Jen, Thomas Ian Nichols as Bill, Bianca Kajlich as Sara, Luke Kirby as Jim, and Daisy McCrackin as Donna. Of the cast, Kajlich and Sackhoff show the greatest potential. The others are mere cannon fodder, pretty faces, or playing characters from the films that got them famous. “Resurrection” doesn’t mean to build characters, but set up kills, and it shows.
That’s not to say the kills aren’t enticing for horror fans. Some are brutal and others are sinister; they’re also heightened by the fact we’re often not sure it’s Myers in the room and not a stage hand. There’s also tons of Easter Eggs here from other “Halloween” films.
The most notable examples are one youth’s unfortunate death stabbed to a door and one participant smashing his hand through a shuttered closet door akin to the way Myers does in the infamous Part 1. Some of these are enticing, and even the ones that aren’t aren’t terribly insulting to the audience. Underneath it all, “Resurrection” intends to be a fun horror movie, and it succeeds in setting up some unique scenes. It would have succeeded more if it focused less on its premise and more on the stalking M.O. of Myers; that aspect seems wasted here, and at times feels like the film bit off more than it could chew.
Some of its stronger parts are the acting and camaraderie between Sara and Freddie, and Busty Rhymes’ presence, which is funny and kitschy without turning into laughable. As both parties realize this is no longer a TV show, Rhymes fills a good presence as a well-meaning character. Additionally, “Resurrection” saves unnecessary drama by not having the spotlight of blame fall on him and taking away from Myers. Everyone’s a victim here, and director Rick Rosenthal handles what would be the franchise’s last official film well where there were so many chances for it to fall apart.
All-in-all, “Halloween: Resurrection” is not a terrible film. It plays well as an entertaining franchise finale (while several reboots would follow this film, this was the end of the line for many “Halloween” fans). It grossed $30M in U.S. and Canada, and is wholly better than “Part 6,” which I found clumsy. A little more time in the script department would have polished it a little better; however, it’s entertaining and scary, which is what we expect from a “Halloween” film after all.
“Halloween: Resurrection” is available to watch or rent on most streaming services.
