Halloween: Resurrection (dir. Rick Rosenthal, 2002)
For one, it’s pointless, and undoes the cool finale feeling of the last film. In this version of things, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) accidentally decapitated a paramedic that Michael (Brad Loree) had dressed in his own mask. Halloween 8 begins with Laurie’s death, as Michael finally makes it to the asylum where she has been staying ever since the last film. That’s another common conceit in slashers: A character has been traumatized by the events of the previous film, and now lives in a hospital, or is on drugs. Realistic, perhaps, but overused. But yes, Laurie is finally killed by Michael after 24 years. I’m guessing this was done less to put a cap on the character, and more a plea by Curtis to get the heck out of this series once and for all.
The premise of Halloween 8 is really dumb, and has been used in other horror films before and since. An internet TV producer named Freddie (Busta Rhymes) has enlisted a group of random college students to wear cameras on their heads, and stalk through the Myers house at night. Katee Sackoff is one of the students. Thomas Ian Nicholas is another. None of the others are really worth remembering, not even the protagonist girl, whose only distinguishing characteristic is that she’s mildly sensible.
The bulk of the film is seen through their head-mounted cams. A chatroom friend of the protagonist watches from afar, sending advice by text message, which was still not a very common tool in 2002. Michael returns to his home and begins killing the teens for no good reason. Is it part of the show, or is it real?
The one smart part of the flick: You may notice that the Myers house is dusty and full of Michael’s old family accoutrements. This stands counter to the events of Halloween 6, which had the Strodes living there just seven years prior. But then it is established that Busta Rhymes planted all that stuff there to scare the students. Okay, we’re on track. Indeed, the next film – the remake – will cover the home life of the young Michael, so it all ties in.
An observation about race in the Halloween movies: Most slashers are almost strictly about white kids. It wasn’t until relatively late in the genre that black characters began to appear in earnest. Filmmakers began to include token blacks in most of their slasher movies, until something like Halloween 8, which now feels remarkably different because of its hip-talking black cast. Yes, someone actually says “Trick or treat, motherf*cker.” I’m sure this wasn’t intentional, but slasher films became more and more about their black characters as time passed.
And that’s all that can be said about Halloween 8. It just sort of peters out on its dumb high concept and dumb, usual, rote slasher beats. I don’t hate it. I don’t love it. It’s just sort of blah.
Be sure to come back next week for the fourth and final installation of The Series Project: Halloween, wherein I will be talking about Rob Zombie’s remake, and his sequel to his remake. I will also be giving an assessment of the series as a whole. Happy Halloween kids. Eat lots of candy.
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
