Halloween: Resurrection (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Oct 07, 2014
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Rick RosenthalRelease Date(s)
2002 (September 23, 2014)Studio(s)
Miramax/Dimension (Anchor Bay/Scream Factory)- Film/Program Grade: F
- Video Grade: C
- Audio Grade: B+
- Extras Grade: B-
Review
The last movie in a long-running horror franchise is almost never one of the better entries. Hell, nine times out of ten, the filmmakers themselves don’t even know they’re making the last entry until the box office receipts are tallied. Which helps explain the optimistic title of Halloween: Resurrection, the final at-bat for John Carpenter’s original creation, although it does little to justify the rest of this train wreck.
The movie opens with what is essentially an unrelated short film, finally bringing an end to the long relationship between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis in a performance that essentially defines the term “contractual obligation”) has been institutionalized since discovering (surprise!) she killed some other guy in a Michael Myers mask instead of her brother at the end of H20. Michael comes back and does Jamie Lee Curtis the greatest kindness he’s performed since launching her career back in ’78: guarantees that she’ll never have to do this again.
With that out of the way, Michael is free to return home to Haddonfield. But something truly terrifying has moved into his old house: a film crew. The producers of an allegedly popular internet reality show called Dangertainment (played by noted Shakespearean thespians Busta Rhymes and Tyra Banks) have tapped half a dozen kids to spend Halloween night in the Myers house. There are cameras everywhere, including strapped to the stars’ heads, broadcasting their every move to a worldwide audience. This is helpful when Michael shows up, since potential victim Sara (Bianca Kajlich) can text her cyberpal “Deckard” (Ryan Merriman) for help.
Throughout the movie, you can practically see the filmmakers gathered around a conference table, jotting down then-new-and-novel fads on a whiteboard and desperately trying to cram them all in. Blair Witch was a hit? We’ll do found footage TO THE EXTREME! People love reality shows and something called “chat rooms”? Let’s do a reality show on the internet with a chat room! Hip-hop is still a thing? Get LL Cool J on the phone! What do you mean he won’t return our calls? OK, fine. Who else have you got? Busta Rhymes? Even better! Even the multi-camera set-up feels like they were planning to use that multi-angle feature on DVDs that nobody ever exploited much.
Say what you will about the previous Halloween movies, as bad as they could get (and, as we’ve seen, they could get plenty bad) they always felt like Halloween movies. This one doesn’t. Halloween III: Season Of The Witch feels more like it’s a part of this franchise and it doesn’t have jack to do with anything. This is Generic Horror Movie Set-Up #9 with Michael Myers shoehorned in. With only minor changes, this same script could just as easily be an Amityville movie or a Jason movie or a Leprechaun movie. And if you only did minor changes, this same script would be just as bad in any of those other scenarios.
The movie’s visual appearance on Blu-ray is similarly underwhelming with quite a few edge-halos and too-bright digital noise. I don’t know if this is the same transfer as the previous Echo Bridge release or not but either way, this looks subpar. The audio mix, on the other hand, is pretty good, lively and directional when it needs to be. It won’t knock your socks off but it’s perfectly fine.
For such a terrible film, the disc includes a copious amount of extras, most of which seem to be resurrected from the previous release (see what I did there?). That’s actually a shame because that means the extras come from the rah-rah didn’t-we-make-an-awesome-movie phase of the picture’s release. Time and distance could have made some more candid, newly produced extras most welcome. Oh, well.
You do get a not-terribly interesting audio commentary by director Rick Rosenthal and editor Robert A. Ferretti and several alternate endings and deleted scenes with optional commentary by Rosenthal. Rosenthal also provides optional commentary for the Web Cam Special, 40 minutes of footage edited strictly from the mini-cams. Rosenthal does mention wanting to do that multi-angle gimmick I mentioned earlier for a DVD release in this.
Featurettes include a brief look at the actors’ head cams, a set tour with production designer Troy Hansen and an on-set interview with Jamie Lee Curtis. You also get a storyboard analysis feature, a selection of vintage interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, the theatrical trailer, a handful of home video spots and an extensive still gallery.
I can’t think of any horror franchise that didn’t wear out its welcome after awhile but few squandered as many second chances as Halloween. John Carpenter’s original set the gold standard and while none of the sequels could quite measure up, most of them had enough good points that you still rooted for them. With Halloween: Resurrection, all of that accumulated good will got tossed aside. It was time for Michael Myers to hang up his mask.
- Adam Jahnke
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