To coin Jim Morrison of the Doors and his paraphrase, ‘no one here gets out alive’ may seem an odd quote to take for a horror movie – as death and survival are always main factors of horror movies. 

Director Rick Rosenthal and his new film Halloween Resurrection appears to have done nothing but churn out a well trodden formula of a film, which is predictable and dull.

The expectation of Halloween Resurrection is that it would be a revival of a movie series that would herald a new direction in the deliverance of the horror genre. Sadly this is not the case. The casting of Busta Rhymes role seems clearly beneath his acting talent, as the script is a rather anodyne affair. A worthless cameo appearance of Jamie Lee Curtis is hardly noteworthy, as the rest of the cast seem to blend into something resembling paint drying.

Rosenthal’s meddling with the directive cinematographical styles of Oliver Stone and that of the Blair Witch Project. Which serves only to prove an already well used formula from which Halloween was spawned, producing a rehash of something less engaging than a bad episode of ‘Eastenders’. One cannot help wondering where we have seen all of this before.

The Halloween series started some 25 years ago and it captured audiences worldwide with its simplistic psychological approach to the horror genre. It proved to be a defining moment of the seventies horror, spawning many films of its ilk in the years to follow. 

However, Halloween Resurrection is not the zeitgeist of a series of horror movies for a new generation to come. The outcome is nothing but a series of predictable killing by a rather less than engaging protagonist Michael Myers. Indeed the setting of a bunch of college students locked in an insular environment plays the formula of a horror movie too well. Indeed this type of storyline is nothing new either, as many film directors of this genre focus around the typified obsessions with college student formula.

Rosenthal’s heavy reliance on audio effects timed with the cynical Freudian timed stimuli of imagery certainly lacks subtlety in which leaves the viewer with nothing but a slight case of tinitus, heavy earache, and boredom – as opposed to a rush of adrenaline and the fear factor that we normally expect. Sadly, this gets all too repetitive and one wonders whether Rosenthal should have left this project well alone.




Some how over the years, the story of Halloween, the technology we are accustomed appears to have lost this movie and makes it seem rather dated. Indeed the lack of script written dialogue for the ‘deathless’ protagonist Michael Myers makes the film bland and rather weak. The question remains whether this is a Halloween series too far, much less be bored into watching another. Let us hope not.

Rating:- Sorry to Paramount Studios, but a Poor, but generous 1 out of 5.

A quick thanks to The Crosby Plaza, Waterloo, for all your help with this review.  Just a advert for them, this is a grate place to see the films, quiet and small.  Often it feels like you privet movie screen.

Film Review by Dominic Bonner.

Directed by:- RICK ROSENTHAL 
Screenplay by and Story by:- LARRY BRAND, SEAN HOOD and LARRY BRAND 
Produced by:- PAUL FREEMAN 
Co-Producer:- MALEK AKKAD 
Executive Producer:- MOUSTAPHA AKKAD 
Co-Executive Producers:- BOB WEINSTEIN
HARVEY WEINSTEIN
LOUIS SPIEGLER
H. DANIEL GROSS 
Production Designer TROY:- HANSEN 
Director of Photography:- DAVID GEDDES 
Music by:- DANNY LUX 

Cast credits. First credits only:- 

• JAMIE LEE CURTIS/Laurie Strode, BUSTA RHYMES/Freddie Harris, TYRA BANKS/Nora Winston 
  BIANCA JAHLICH/Sara Moyer, SEAN PATRICK THOMAS/Rudy Grimes, DAISY McCRACKIN/Donna Chang, KATEE SACKHOFF/Jen Danzig, LUKE KIRBY/Jim Morgan, THOMAS IAN NICHOLAS/Bill Woodlake, RYAN MERRIMAN/Myles Barton and BRAD LOREE/The Shape 

• Running time:- 107 mins