Customer Reviews

Halloween - Resurrection [VHS]

5 star:		(112)
4 star:		(88)
3 star:		(75)
2 star:		(75)
1 star:		(112)

 

 

The premise seems promising at first. A group of college students is selected to act out an internet play at the home of killer Michael Myers...This Michael Myers is the deadly character who haunted previous HALLOWEEN movies and is presumed dead by the beginning of this one. The premise is not bad. And there comes a time in the movie when, hardly surprisingly, the notorius villian turns out to be alive after all. When the students discover that Myers is still alive and not only kicking but still wreaking deadly terror in the house where he grew up, things pick up a little. From there through the decently entertaining climax, the movie has the makings of a not-so-bad thriller. But the problem is in the middle, between the set-up and the climax. There it wallows in typical teen-movie cliches -- virile wisecracking males, and females who resist them in equally cliched wisecracking manner...the only memorable thing about the move is was pretty boring.

I absolutely love the original Halloween, and I love all of the sequals.. Except for this on, it's pure trash.

What is going on with some of these horror series, why are they getting so horribly butchered, it is a direct slap in the face to actual fans of the series. Kind of like the latest Child's Play, what a joke!

I decided to sit and watch the entire DVD, and it did not get any better, as I watched this, this... well what should I call it, this embarrasment addition to the series I ended up feeling steady incrimates of sheer boredom.

This one is just a money grab, and they are bound to attract more people to watch it that would not otherwise due to the rapper in this film. I think it was Rhymes or something like that but I don't care to check because it is not worth it and I don't care.

I refuse to truly associate this with the rest of the Halloween series, avoid this if you have not seen it, it is not worth your time, and you may just get offended by how terrible it is and at the same time harbors the Halloween name. I am lucky I rented it because if I bought it I would have just burned it, like the producers must have been thinking when they made this, "Hey, lets burn the series, why not? We will get new fans anyway because of the new 'actors'.." *Actors? more like hacks..*

I'm a big Michael Myers fan from way back when, and I have to admit I was rather disappointed with this eighth entry in the hallowed Halloween series. The whole concept of having six young people spend a night in Michael Myers' old house on Halloween night is brilliant albeit not quite original, but even this "reality" aspect of the film could have been improved upon. Then you have a number of plot elements that exist for no apparent reason whatsoever, as the issues these raised initially are left blowing in the wind. Worst of all is the beginning of the film, as it did much to ruin whatever good might follow in its wake once the filmmakers got to the new and refreshing presentation of everyone's favorite masked killer doing his thing. It is hard to say what I mean without giving important plot elements away, so all I will say is that the opening scenes in this movie insult the intelligence of Halloween's core audience and then quickly proceed to spit upon and kick the very essence of what Halloween used to be about. I think the opening climax is borne of a very bad decision, and the scene itself is almost laughably pathetic. I daresay many loyal Halloween fans will share my dissatisfaction in this regard.

Once we finally get to the live Internet broadcast of the six young people inside Michael Myers' old house, the movie succeeds fairly well. The webcam aspect of the cinematography gives this film a special look and feel, and the sudden appearances of Michael take on added effectiveness. There is one particularly good moment wherein the sudden appearance of the white mask from out of the shadows has a vintage Frankenstein feel to it. The killings are nothing special, and this Michael Myers really doesn't carry himself well or have an inkling of the presence he had in earlier movies, but at least the man is still taking care of business. The characters in this film are a problem, though. Most of them are nothing more than characters put there to be killed. I never got any sense of what makes any of them tick. Michael's knife can cut through anything, but this film never manages to even penetrate the surface of any major character. Bianca Kajlich turns in a pretty good performance as Sara Moyer, and I thought Busta Rhymes was great and certainly entertaining as Freddie Harris, the man behind the web broadcast. The other cast members aren't bad actors and actresses; they just had little to work with from the script. Sara's character seemed to have some type of special sensitivity or psychic link of sorts to Michael early on, but that subplot goes nowhere. Then there is Sara's Internet friend Decker. The movie did need some outside person viewing the Internet broadcast and reacting to what he sees take place in the house, but Decker ends up becoming one of the most needless characters of all time.

On a more positive note, the DVD is loaded with extra goodies. Besides the obligatory filmmaker commentary, you get several deleted scenes and three alternate endings (all of them as unimpressive as the actual ending), looks behind the scenes with Jamie Lee Curtis and the production designer, and a featurette on the head cam worn by the six young people in the house. Best of all, you can view the webcam footage on its own with or without commentary. This forty or so minutes of material, which includes a few moments not included in the film, actually plays better than the movie itself. If the filmmakers would have gone even farther in the webcam direction, I think this movie could have been more enjoyable, although nothing could heal the wounds inflicted on Halloween loyalists in the opening moments of the film.

Okay, the biggest problem with this film is that it was actually made. To have any Halloween fan actually believe that the "human" man that Michael swapped his clothes with could survive being rammed by a van, thrown down a hill, and then CRUSHED against a tree by the same van is obviously out to lunch. Why did he NOT remove the mask while he was still inside the van? If it wasn't supposed to be Michael, then why when he (the supposed human ambulance attendant) crashed thru the windshield did he sit up in the road like Michael? That's because in H20 it WAS Michael. Talk about doing anything to make a fast buck. I was absolutely disgusted by the first 15 minutes of this movie and ended up getting a refund. I did not buy this dvd because, in my opinion, it is the biggest waste of money. And then to insult the fans (myself included), they kill off Laurie and make her character so ignorant. As far as I'm concerned, Halloween, Halloween II, and H20 is the complete story. No man in black, thorn cult crap, no babies in jars, etc... H4 was actually good back in 1988, but since then even that movie has been so tarnished by H5 and especially H6 that it's not even worth watching anymore. Michael was beheaded by Laurie. End of story.

Ya know ... I know that saying about "20/20 in hindsight," but this whole franchise really could have been awesome. It frustrates me to no end that ever since Michael Myers returned from his hiatus in Halloween III, every single movie has been plagued by wildly glaring problems of continuity. The production team at Dimension has seemingly NEVER managed to conquer the simple task of making one movie lead into another ... until H2O.

When Jamie Lee returned to the franchise, I FINALLY thought "OK, now we're getting somewhere." The character of Laurie Strode's son was introduced and played with a great deal of poise by Josh Hartnett (in one of his earlier roles). Past problems aside, we FINALLY had some real substance to solidify the whole idea that Michael's motivation was to destroy his bloodline.

So what happens in the start of Resurrection? Jamie Lee gets killed off and her son's character isn't reintroduced. Right out the window, in the first fifteen minutes, was everything that H2O managed to accomplish. So what were we left with? I dunno, you tell me. At this stage, Halloween has turned, pretty much, into the same movie as every other mid-to-late-eighties slasher. After Resurrection, I'm absolutely convinced that this whole franchise, officially, has no creativity left and absolutely nothing new or interesting to offer.

I love Halloween movies, I love Jamie Lee, and I love reality TV. Yet I hate this movie, and the whole theater I was in booed! Jamie wanted out, and her character gets "killed" in a really lame, disrespectful way. Busta Rhymes wanted to be the "hero," and he is. He is also just terrible, even by the standards of this genre. Rick Rosenthal directed Halloween 2, which also blew, and shows that he still has no sense of suspense whatsoever, and is incapable of creating scares. His idea of horror is just to occasionally show some gore, that's it. This movie has a good concept, but couldn't be worse. Watch 1 again, watch 4 (it's real good!) watch 6. Those are the three good ones. H20 is ok. Part 3 is ok. Part 5 is bad, part 2 is bad, but they are all A+ in comparison to this.

I have been a total fan of all of the Halloween series for many years now, collecting the set on VHS, before the advent of DVD and now have the set also on DVD. Because of this, I'm very familiar with the plot lines and although I have my favourites (I won't mention them here, after all, we all have different tastes right?) I would have to say that all movies in the series have their own particular merits. I and II in the series are special (in particular I) and I quite like the III episode in many ways. In addition, the following IV, V and VI episodes are interesting, along with the latest H2O feature. All are good and (sometimes) bad in various places, but we love them just the same.

However, I have to say that I cannot find ANYTHING good to say about Halloween Resurrection. It is so bad that it is embarassing! I am in the UK where it had only a nominal cinema release (which I didn't get to see) and also no formal DVD release. Upon getting hold of a region 1 copy I was all ready and excited to live the next chapter in the Halloween series. All the thoughts were going through my head....how can they continue when Michael was killed in H2O...is Laurie Strodes life back on track again now.....etc. What did I get? I pressed play and waited.....

What occurred over the next 90 or so minutes was probably one of the worst and least frightening horror movies I have ever seen in my life. It is so poor that it made me cringe at various points in the film. I understand that the people behind the scenes wanted to bring Michael Myers into the 21st century, but this made the movie lose all of the charm and atmosphere that made the original so creepy and spooky.

People are saying that you have to be a REAL fan of the Halloween series to enjoy this one...I would say that it is the COMPLETE OPPOSITE! Real fans of the series would realise immediately that this is a poorly scripted, storyless, badly acted piece. I think that to enjoy the movie in any way you would need to have no particular fondness of the original series whatsoever.

So what do filmakers do to keep the Halloween franchise going? They try new ways of exploring an all familiar theme. It can be very difficult to like this film considering there is a string of other ones (of much the sameness) to compare it to. However, if you look at this film for its own merits you will see it is actually a well directed, stylish and thrilling take on an ongoing saga.

Rick rosenthal from Halloween II is once again at the helm in this sequel. Much like H2 This film begins with some sequences that appear as a homage to H2. We are following the viewpoints of the villian as he chases Laurie strode down hospital corridors and onto the roof top for some suprising conflict resolution. In the first 12 minutes Rosenthal uses shadow, colour and sound as an affective way of building suspense. Curtis, despite giving a short performance, actaully makes the viewer wish that perhaps this sequence was a little longer as the integrity of the story owed much to the tension between the Strode character and that of Myers.
The rest of the film takes the story back to the myers house for a new take on halloween. Here are some crazy Blair witch video angles and some nasty frights to entertain the viewer, but, don't expect startling plot revelations like in the original or H2. What works here is Rosenthal juices up the Myers character by giving him much more scenes, newer ways of being viewed(points of perspective), and has the new actor playing myers develop a body gesture throughout the film that is both frightening and a little creepy, thusly, keeping with the established style of one and two. In fact Myers has been given so much personality in this film (despite being mute)it makes the(at times)bland acting of the other actors seem forgivable. Now its is interesting to note that if the deleted scenes were indeed included in the theatrical release the character developments would have been more interesting. Fortunately the DVD version has these scenes in the special features menu. If you can piece the deleted scenes back into the film you would find this a more convincing flick.
What also works in this sequel is there is clever homages to Halloween 1, 2, and H20 as Rosenthal manages to give us some action and suspense sequences remiscent of ones that seemed to work in the other Halloween films. This kind of self reflexivity is cool! Did I mention the music. It contains the familiar Carpenter music, mixed in with some violins that sound like screaming cats, still, its effective( But, I thought the orchestral version in H20 was better).Do buy this film for excellent direction and cinematography. Also buy if You want a more creepy portrayal of Myers. I would have given this film five stars if not for two reasons: 1. loses half a star for getting rid of the films most crucial character. and 2. loses half a star for not establishing the new heorines role thoroughly. Despite this see the film for a clever and stylish thrill. Bring on another sequel!

I have been an enormous fan of all the Halloween movies for a long time now. I first saw the original Halloween at a relatively young age, and it not only impacted me profoundly, but also scared the heck out of me. Following all the sequels, I went to see Halloween H20 in theaters on opening weekend, and although it wasn't what I wanted it to be (betraying the storyline really fried me) it gave closure and ended the series on a high-note. Needless to say, the moment I found out Halloween 8 was on the way, I was more than skeptical. My suspicions were even more aroused when the movie was not playing in any local theaters, which made me worry that this film was really going to be a stinker, but, I digress. Being the Myers' enthusiast I am and having not seen this movie, I grabbed this DVD the day it came out. It was a bittersweet moment sitting down and popping this in. On one hand, Mikey is back in action and has been sorely missed by yours truly, but on the other hand, this is a series that was supposed to end four years ago, and is now being dragged back into the never-ending sequel land. From the blatantly underwhelming opening credits, I could tell that this wasn't going to be a film of high standards, so I lowered my bar, turned my mind to Friday the 13th mode, and just swallowed it. Now, the movie gets off on the right foot. Laurie Strode is re-introduced and just as quickly dispatched ever so gracefully and dramatically. But wait, Michael Myers? Didn't he get his head lopped off in the last movie? Why yes he did, but this is a movie, and any script doctor could have filled this gap. I won't bother explaining how it happened, because if you haven't seen it yet, you probably already know what happens. Logic defies this explanation (paramedics never go onto a scene alone; why would 'the paramedic' attack Laurie in the van?). I guess they just had to find some way to bring him back, for sequel's sake, but really, I would have settled for writing Michael off as a copy-cat killer in H20. So, after you can get over this enormous plot-hole and after Laurie Strode is finished off, the real story begins. The plot: A group of college-students are chosen to spend a night in the old Myers' house as part of an internet event being held on Halloween night. Each student gets a wealthy scholarship and even a chance to be famous. Busta Rhymes plays Freddy, the man behind all of this. Busta Rhymes really saves this movie. I know a lot of people hated his part, but I thought he did great with it. His scenes with Michael Myers were some of the most memorable since the closet scene in the original (Busta Rhymes dressed as Michael Myers got more than a few chuckles out of me). Rick Rosenthal, director of Halloween II, returns to the helm and does a stellar job of directing it. Visually, this movie is one of the high-points of the series, even the web-cam stuff came out surprisingly great. But the part that severly drags this movie down is the script. There is really no story. I could have written better than this. Also, the whole subplot of the people at the Halloween party watching the event on WebTV was obviously just put in there to fill space. You will notice some relatively big names in this movie, but before you can recognize them, they are slaughtered. Really, everyone here is just morgue meat. The DVD itself is excellent, being one of the best Dimension has ever put out. We get Director's Commentary, an "On-The-Set" montage with Jamie Lee Curtis, two web-cam featurettes, a tour of the set, a wealth of deleted scenes and three (count 'em, three) alternate endings (and there's even more). Whew!

So, overall, after this lengthy review, my summary is this: Halloween Resurrection is a very unnecessary addition to the Halloween series. With Donald Pleasance gone, and Laurie Strode's character dead, there is simply no story to tell anymore. I feel this movie sinking into Friday the 13th territory, where the movies are just vehicles for horny teenagers to be slaughtered (Nothing wrong with that, but Halloween was always ABOVE that). I think they would have been better off leaving H20 as the ending, and I also fear that when they actually decide to do a real finale, no one will care anymore.

Okay, I'll try to be balanced here. This movie was terrible. I know a lot of people were disappointed in H20 because it is far too similar stylistically to the post-Scream slasher movies, and some because it abandons the storyline of Halloweens 4-6. However, I think that was the correct thing to do seeing as the wider audience is far more familiar with the Jamie Lee Curtis story, which showed in the box office for H2O.

So, three years later, plus an extra one because of production problems, we have Resurrection. And was it worth the wait? Absolutely not. And here's why!

The Jamie Lee Curtis cameo was the most ill-conceived idea since they killed off James T. Kirk in a cameo in Star Trek: Generations. We had 20 years and three movies of build-up to the event that was motivating this killer, and they deliver the most insulting anti-climax since the aforementioned demise of one starship captain. And what's worse, it's the best 10 minutes of this movie. I don't lay this blame entirely with one party, because what was an ill-conceived idea was then filmed very badly by Rick Rosenthal, and then edited even more slopily in post production. Jamie Lee Curtis should have used her contracted obligatory appearance for something much more useful, like having Myers searching for her the whole movie and then she appears at the end. That would have worked much better. Besides which, Laurie's 'death' is highly ambiguous, given that she is stabbed once and falls from the roof, landing softly on the tree tops. I must admit, that is perhaps the best shot of the movie, but it doesn't totally convince you of anything really. After all, look at dear old Dr Loomis. He burned, he was thrown through a window, he was stabbed, he had a fatal heart attack, and then something incoherent happens to him at the end of H6. And you KNOW he would have been in H2O if Donald Pleasance were still alive.

Anyway, moving along... to the score, or rather, to an acceptable version of John Carpenter's classic theme (although how many more 'variations' on that I can take, I don't know). I struggled to pick out any decent new cues throughout the entire film, or to be more accurate, any cues at all! Not a good sign. They might as well have just replaced it with some of Marco Beltrami's score from Scream, as they did in H20.

Basically, there is just no point to this story. The reality TV/internet broadcast thing is two years past its sell by date, besides which it was done much better in My Little Eye this year. It completely undermines the whole story behind the Halloween movies, whether you prefer the H1,2,4,5,6 or H1,2,H2O,8 path. After finally dispensing with his sister (until H40!) all he seems to do is a spot of housework.

And cutting past the chase to the denouement, Resurrection also has perhaps the [worst] final scene in the whole series. At least the mess at the end of H6 left you wondering what...had happened. Not Resurrection. No, sir...