Halloween: Resurrection

Halloween: Resurrection
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Rick Rosenthal
Produced by
  • Paul Freeman
Screenplay by
Story by Larry Brand
Based on characters created
by Debra Hill
John Carpenter
Starring
Music by Danny Lux
Cinematography David Geddes
Edited by Robert A. Ferretti
Production
company
Distributed by Dimension Films
Release date
  • July 12, 2002 (2002-07-12)
Running time
 90 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $13 million
Box office $37.6 million

Halloween: Resurrection is a 2002 American slasher film and the eighth installment in the Halloween series. Directed by Rick Rosenthal, who had also directed Halloween II in 1981, the film builds upon the continuity of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. Larry Brand and Sean Hood devised the screenplay. It continues with the masked serial killer Michael Myers continuing his murderous rampage in his hometown of Haddonfield. Yet, this time, the killer's old, derelict childhood home is being used for a live internet horror show. It stars Busta Rhymes, Bianca Kajlich, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Ryan Merriman, Sean Patrick Thomas, Katee Sackhoff, Daisy McCrackin, Luke Kirby and Tyra Banks, with Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role as Laurie Strode.

Halloween: Resurrection was released on July 12, 2002, to widely negative critical reviews, having just a 12% score on Rotten Tomatoes,[1] with many claiming it was an unnecessary sequel to the H20 film. Despite the heavy criticism, Resurrection was somewhat of a box office success, with over $30 million made in the box office. Although more sequels were planned to follow Resurrection, the series was eventually rebooted with Rob Zombie's Halloween. This was the last film with an "original" plot until Rob Zombie's Halloween II.

Plot

On October 31, 1998, Laurie Strode accidentally kills a paramedic with whom her brother Michael Myers had swapped clothes. The guilt-ridden Laurie is now an inmate at the Grace Andersen Sanitarium, where the nurses believe her to be catatonic. Instead, she is preparing for Michael's return. On October 31, 2001, Laurie, pretending to be heavily medicated, prepares herself for the inevitable confrontation with her brother. Michael breaches the facility and kills two security guards, decapitating one and slitting the throat of the other as he makes his way to Laurie. After a chase, Laurie lures Michael on to the institution's rooftop. Although he falls into her trap, Laurie's fears of again killing the wrong person get the better of her; when she tries to remove his mask, Michael stabs her and throws her off the roof, to her death. His life mission finally complete after more than twenty years of tracking Laurie down, Michael returns home to his abandoned childhood house.

The following year, college students Bill Woodlake, Donna Chang, Jen Danzig, Jim Morgan, Rudy Grimes, and Sara Moyer win a competition to appear on an Internet reality show Dangertainment, directed by Freddie Harris and his friend, Nora Winston, in which they have to spend a night in Michael's home in order to figure out what led him to kill. On Halloween, equipped with head-cameras as well as the cameras throughout the house, they search the house and separate into three groups. Sara's messaging friend Deckard watches the broadcast during a Halloween party. Meanwhile, Michael suddenly appears and stabs Bill in the head, and kills cameraman Charlie.

Donna and Jim begin getting intimate in the basement and a wall filled with corpses falls on them. Jim realizes the corpses are fake and the show is a setup. Jim leaves, but Donna notices a tunnel behind the fallen wall. Myers chases her through the tunnels before impaling her on a spike on the wall. At the party, Deckard and other partygoers witness the murder. Deckard realizes that the murder was real, but the others believe it is an act. Freddie goes through the house dressed as Michael, but is secretly followed by the real Myers. Freddie, mistaking Michael for Charlie, tells him to go to the garage and help Nora out; he goes to the garage and promptly kills Nora.

When Rudy, Sara, and Jim find Freddie in the Myers costume, he reveals the scheme to them and begs them to cooperate, telling them that he's set up a nice payday for all of them. When he leaves, the trio decides to gather up the other three and leave. But before they can, Jen discovers the body of Bill and is decapitated by Myers right in front of Rudy, Sara, and Jim. Rudy and Sara flee, but Jim stays to fend off Myers only to have his head crushed. Michael kills Rudy by pinning him to the door with kitchen knives before chasing Sara upstairs.

Locking herself in a bedroom, Sara begs for Deckard to help her. The other party goers realize that the deaths have not been staged. With Deckard messaging her Myers' location, Sara escapes and is found by Freddie. Myers finds and attacks them. Freddie is injured and Sara makes her way to the tunnels. She finds an exit near Donna's body and emerges in the garage, where Myers finds her and starts an electrical fire in the garage. Freddie returns and begins fighting Michael hand-to-hand. When he is overpowered, Freddie instead electrocutes Myers, tangling him up in electrical wiring before carrying Sara out of the burning garage. The Myers house burns to the ground, as Sara thanks Deckard for saving her life.

Michael's body and the bodies of his victims are then taken to the morgue. As the medical examiner begins to examine Michael's body, he awakens.

Cast

Production

The writers of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later were left with a dilemma when Jamie Lee Curtis wanted to end the series, but Moustapha Akkad had a clause that legally wouldn't allow the writers to kill Michael Myers off. According to the Blu-ray released by Scream Factory, Curtis almost left the project just weeks before filming, until Kevin Williamson came up with the paramedic storyline and presented it to Akkad. Curtis finally agreed to be a part of the film under the condition that no footage hinting toward a sequel would be presented by the film, and that the audience would believe that Michael was dead until the inevitable sequel was announced. Resurrection's first shot of Michael in the paramedic uniform was filmed the day after H20's principal photography ended, according to H20's editor, Patrick Lussier.

Both Whitney Ransick and Dwight H. Little were approached to direct the film but turned it down. Later Rick Rosenthal, the director of Halloween II, was chosen to direct. During the casting period of the film, producers considered Danielle Harris (who played Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers) for a role in the film. In post-production, Bianca Kajlich's screams had to be dubbed because of her inability to scream. The film's trailer was delivered on April 26, 2002, with the release of Jason X. Principal photography began in Vancouver, British Columbia on May 14, 2001 with the opening scene filmed at Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, BC.[2]

Music

For this eighth installment of the series, Danny Lux created a genuine score relying upon the original instead of generating something new. He approaches the score with an electro-acoustic feel that dates back to the synthesizer scores of the '80s.[3] The film also features several rap and hip-hop songs.[4]

In direct contrast to general critical reviews of the film, some assessments of its sound and theme music have been praising. For example, critic Steve Newton complimented the film's "creepy" and "unsettling" revival of the original iconic theme, while criticising the film itself, as well as the rap tracks included.[4]

Reception

Box office

Halloween: Resurrection was released on July 12, 2002 in the US to moderate reception which did not change in its later international release. The film peaked at #4 on its opening weekend on US screens raking in $12,292,121 behind Reign of Fire, Road to Perdition and Men in Black II. It grossed $30,354,442 domestically and a further $7,310,413 for a moderate $37,664,855 worldwide gross.[5]

Critical response

The film received highly unfavorable reviews from several critics. It has garnered a score of 12% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 60 reviews, with the site's consensus being: "The only thing this tired slasher flick may resurrect is nostalgia for when the genre was still fresh and scary."[1] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 19 out of 100, based on 17 reviews, indicating “overwhelming dislike”.[6] Lou Lumenick of the New York Post said, "It's so devoid of joy and energy it makes even Jason X look positively Shakespearian by comparison." Dave Kehr of The New York Times said, "Spectators will indeed sit open-mouthed before the screen, not screaming but yawning."[7] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, "Every sequel you skip will be two hours gained. Consider this review life-affirming." Joe Leydon of Variety said, "[Seems] even more uselessly redundant and shamelessly money-grubbing than most third-rate horror sequels." Glenn Lovell of the San Jose Mercury News was slightly more positive: "No, it's not as single-minded as John Carpenter's original, but it's sure a lot smarter and more unnerving than the sequels."

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Halloween: Resurrection". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  2. ↑ Halloween: Resurrection Behind The Scenes at HalloweenMovies.com Archived 2013-01-24 at Archive.is.
  3. ↑ Halloween: Resurrection Music Review at Music from the Movies Archived 2008-10-29 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. 1 2 Newton, Steve (February 8, 2014). "Horror Review: Halloween - Resurrection". earofnewt.com. Retrieved February 4, 2015. External link in |publisher= (help)
  5. ↑ Halloween: at Box Office Mojo
  6. ↑ Halloween: Resurrection, retrieved 2018-02-12
  7. ↑ Halloween: Resurrection Movie Review at New York Times
  8. ↑ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com.
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