Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

Directed by: Rick Rosenthal
Written by: Larry Brand/Sean Hood
Based on characters created by: John Carpenter/Debra Hill

Let’s scare up some reviews.

FEARDOTCOM–Called that, of course, because they couldn’t make the website just fear.com. It had to be feardotcom.com.

This actually looks pretty interesting. Stephen Dorff plays a cop who’s on the trail of a killer who uses the internet to kill their victims. Or is it some kind of supernatural force that causes the deaths? All they know is that everyone who goes to the site dies. And the only way to catch the killer is to be a victim.

I’ve always liked Stephen Dorff even if he doesn’t quite know how to choose projects. (Anybody ever see City Of Industry? Didn’t think so.) He’s a pretty good actor and can be pretty creepy. Let’s hope he can carry a cool little horror flick like this.

And apparently his cast-mate from Blade, Udo Kier, is in this one. Wow. Can’t wait. (Can you hear the sarcasm? ‘Cause I’m layin’ it on pretty thick.) But the Re-Animator himself (Jeffery Combs) is in it, too, so that should be cool.

RED DRAGON–Ok, so I saw this before Reign Of Fire, but who cares? It’s still newsworthy.

Hannibal Lecter is back again, for the very first time. This is the prequel to Silence Of The Lambs and a re-make of Manhunter. But I bet they don’t want to call it a re-make, huh? So this is the (hopefully) final time that Hannibal The Cannibal will make a screen appearance. Funny that he looks older in this one than he did in Silence.

But that doesn’t really matter. Anthony Hopkins is always good to watch and now Edward Norton is along for the ride, so that should be really cool. He is, you guessed it, on the look out for a serial killer and goes to Hannibal for help.

Should be good if Brett Ratner (Rush Hour 1 & 2) can hold some suspense for us, which, up until now he hasn’t really dabbled in.

And now for the real resurrection.

Everybody knows the story of Michael Myers. (The killer, not the funny dude with all the accents.) But now it continues. Somehow. When I heard about this one I thought, “Wait a minute! Laurie Strode (Jamie Leigh Curtis) chopped Michael’s head off at the end of the last one! That was it! Kaput!! No more!”

But, of course, they had an answer for us. Laurie didn’t actually kill her brother. She killed some paramedic whose larynx had been crushed so he couldn’t say anything to her. Now she’s in an asylum and doesn’t speak.

Until Michael comes looking for her again.

But that’s not the main story here. The main story is Michael’s return to his childhood home.

Sara (Bianca Kajlich) and her friends, Jenna (Katee Sackhoff) and Rudy (Sean Patrick Thomas from Save The Last Dance and Cruel Intentions), have been chosen to spend the night in the Myers’ home for Dangertainment, an internet show run by Freddie and Nora (Busta Rhymes and Tyra Banks). They get cameras and three new “friends”: Jim (Luke Kirby), Donna (Daisy McCrackin) and Bill (Thomas Ian Nicholas from American Pie 1 & 2…and Rookie Of The Year (I bet he hates that)).

Luckily, Sara has a friend on the outside named Myles (Ryan Merriman from Deep End Of The Ocean) who is watching the netcast. Because, of course, Michael is there waiting for them and starts picking them off one by one. No surprise there.

In fact, there really aren’t any surprises at all. It’s just a fun sequel to one of the greatest horror films of all time. (And the one that started the whole slasher genre…for better or worse.) And, of course, they leave it wide open for yet another sequel. Couldn’t end it, could they. There’s money to be made!

Everyone seemed to be into it this time out and I think I’m beginning to like Busta more and more every time I see him. He’s got kind of a cheesy character, but he really goes after it.

Of course, all of the girls are hot, but I started getting annoyed with Donna and Jenna. It was almost a joy to see them get iced. (Sorry. Did I give something away?) Bianca Kajlich, on the other hand, was pretty cool as the girl who really didn’t want to be there in the first place. I have a feeling that the next installment is going to say that she’s somehow related to Michael. (He seemed to be really going after her AND she had a Raggedy Annie doll just like Laurie had in her room at the asylum.)

The only real problem I had with the movie (besides the formulaic nature of it, but that’s to be expected) is that Sara and her friends had EVERY opportunity to leave the fucking house, but they just kept running around the same damn rooms! At one point Sara actually runs down to the basement instead of out the front door. We’re supposed to believe that this is a pretty smart girl, but that doesn’t really do anything but show that she’s about as smart as the keyboard I’m typing on right now.

Overall, though, not a bad entry into the series. Not as good as H2O, but that one was pretty damn good. And maybe some of the kids from this one will go on to bigger and better things like some of the kids from the last one…um…almost did.

For trivia buffs (although this is pretty highly touted), director Rick Rosenthal also directed the second installment of the series where we actually find out that Laurie is Michael’s sister.