Halloween: Resurrection
Directed by Rick Rosenthal
Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Busta Rhymes, Tyra Banks, Bianca Kajlich and Thomas Ian Nicholas
Rated Rated R for strong violence, language, some sexuality and brief drug use.

Fortunately I have no reputation. So I won't need to put it on the line in order to say that I thought this film was kind of, well, intelligent. Now, don't get me wrong, if you look at the movie out of its context, you'd have plenty of material by which to present the case that it, like all of Halloween's sequels, is quite dumb. But, keeping in mind the somewhat limited resources (both financially and narratively) a film like this has at its disposal, I'd like to suggest this movie is reasonably well-conceived.

You'll notice the word "scary" didn't pop up in that first paragraph and that's for a reason. Other than a few loud-bang-thing-pops-out-of-the-darkness moments, there is really nothing all that frightening about this particular Halloween installment. The plot is pain-stakingly standard (except for an awkward opening cameo by Jamie Lee Curtis) and the kills are unexceptional in regards to both creativity and fear-inducement. There are a few moments that will make you jump but even the most gullible and excitable viewer will have a tough time getting involved enough with the characters to honestly fear for their safety.

With all that being the case, my charitable (perhaps very charitable) interpretation of the film is that it invites you to take a step back from it and think a little bit about the movies and media in general. The story centers around three college students who have been selected to participate in Busta Rhymes' Dangertainment internet reality show, in which they will each put on a camera hat and spend an evening in Michael Myers' childhood home. We begin with the film's Final Girl (I'm not giving anything away you won't figure out immediately for yourself) sitting in a college psychology course. The
lecture is on CG Jung, specifically his description of The Shadow, the portion of a person's personality in which his darker desires are housed and hidden. The scene itself isn't particularly enlightening, but it does betray a certain awareness on the part of the filmmakers. It not only sets up the searching-for-clues-in-the-darkness motif around which the rest of the plot is built, but it also hints that the movie is aware of the Freudian and Jungian interpretations of the horror genre that have long been popular in academic circles.

The film also plays games with the voyeurism inherent in contemporary popular culture, as well as the increasingly blurred reality that results from improvements in special effects. We get shots of enthralled internet viewers watching horrible crimes unfold in the old Myers house, yet they are so used to seeing violence on screen that they simply attribute it all to camera tricks and sit idly by, watching it all unfold. As a viewer of the film, however, you are aware that the murders are really taking place and that they ought to try to stop them. Of course you also know that it is just a movie and the effects are being produced by camera tricks so if you saw it on TV you'd sit idly by, watching it all unfold. So maybe its not exactly ingenious, but it's at least a little clever and more than I expected.

Formally the film is directed dully but competently by Rick Rosenthal. The internet show aspect of the plot provides us with split screens as well as fuzzy, bad camera angles and I can understand those who don't enjoy the gimmick. However, if the choice is between having to take a second to figure out what's on the screen and knowing immediately but not caring, I'll probably take the former while most horror films choose the latter. The film certainly isn't brilliant and perhaps not even good, but it is clever in its own way and at the very least Busta Rhymes and Tyra Banks score some points on the Sports Guy's (from espn.com's Page 2) Unintentional Comedy Meter.

Rating 47%