HALLOWEEN RESURRECTON

SYNOPSIS:
Despite reports of his decapitation three years ago, serial killer Michael Myers remains at large. After stalking his sister Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), Myers returns to his derelict home in Illinois which has been chosen as the site for a live "Dangertainment" web broadcast. Six college students have been recruited by entrepreneur Freddie Harris (Busta Rhymes) and his assistant Nora (Tyra Banks) to spend Halloween night in the Myers home. Their search for clues to the legacy of evil takes a terrifying turn when Myers returns to the scene of his original crimes and wields his carving knife once more. 

Review by Richard Kuipers:
With Freddy Kreuger on a long sabbatical and Jason Voorhees rendered impotent by atrocities like Jason X, Michael Myers is the last of the 70s and 80s bogeymen left standing. Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998) marked a return to form for the series (thanks largely to Jamie Lee Curtis’ involvment and influence) but this eighth instalment is a disappointment. Executive-produced by Syrian-born Moustapha Akkad, who bought the Halloween cash cow in 1981 and has been milking it ever since, Resurrection has some bright ideas and a handful of decent scares but not enough to satisfy. John Carpenter's killer theme ensures a good start to proceedings as we're shown how a Silence Of The Lambs-inspired switcheroo by Myers landed his sister Laurie (Curtis) in a lunatic asylum and facilitated Akkad's further exploitation of the franchise. Unfortunately Curtis doesn't hang around long enough and after a suspenseful sequence in the basement of the looney bin the film turns into a straightforward slice and dice affair with half a dozen college kids wired up with lipstick cameras while trapped in Myers' old stomping ground. Anyone who knows the conventions of the genre will be able to pick the order in which the bright young things are disposed of and there are too few creepy moments as the well worn formula is trotted out. Attempts to satirise and critique Reality TV shows like Big Brother and Survivor don't work - how can you mock a genre that's already a parody? And the horror movie in-jokes have already been done to death in the Scary Movie and Scream films. Director Rick Rosenthal (who also made Part 2) stages a few juicy moments, including an 'homage' to Peeping Tom, though he never goes for the jugular and lets his audience off too lightly. This isn't the worst pumpkin in the Halloween patch and there may well be life in old pasty-face Michael Myers yet, but they'll have to improve on this. 

Review by David Edwards:
Good evening and welcome to the 6 o’clock news. We begin tonight with reports of an horrific event unfolding. Alerted by cinemagoers, police are investigating a series of brutal and bizarre murders at the old Michael Myers house. Early reports suggest this could be the work of Myers himself. Myers (who Hollywood agents have been quick to point out is not related to Mike Myers, the comedian) is a psychotic serial killer, but he remains an elusive figure. He has left a similar trail of destruction at least seven times before this latest incident. A police spokesman was quoted as saying “Yes, we’ve seen this type of thing many times before. It’s all becoming rather old hat really. I mean, who couldn’t have guessed what would happen if you messed with Michael Myers?” Some early reports suggested that the actress Jamie Lee Curtis was seen nearby, but others who arrived on the scene only 10 minutes later, said there was no sign of her. Police are also looking for a film director, Rick Rosenthal, who was seen fleeing the scene. Informed sources suggest that a group of actors who really should have known better were somehow convinced to take part in the ill-fated venture, which ended so disastrously. Apparently, none of them had any real chance. Reports however indicate that Busta Rhymes may have at least put up some sort of struggle; although hamstrung by a monumentally banal script. Police speculate that while this sad and sorry episode is the latest in Michael Myers’ catalogue of evil, it may not be the last. And now, here’s Bruce with the weather…