Halloween: Resurrection - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Halloween: Resurrection



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Ah yes, Halloween: Resurrection, the film that basically killed the entire Halloween sequel franchise until the Rob Zombie remake came about. The film hailed as the single worst Halloween film known to man, and a virtual train wreck from start to finish. However, I’m going to die on this hill and state that this is nowhere near the worst film in the franchise. In fact, it’s almost genius level. It’s the Jason X of the series in that it’s sooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad that it’s downright hilarious. Acting as part social commentary on the rest of the series (as well as reality shows in general in real life) and giving loving homage to 80s slashers, Resurrection continues to be one of my most rewatched of the later sequel, as awful as it really is.

The film acts as a direct sequel to the events in H20, sort of retconning the final few moments of H20 by informing the audience that the person she decapitated at the very end wasn’t Michael, but actually a paramedic that Michael switched places with at the last moment. Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis reprising her role for all of 15 minutes) is now in a mental asylum, waiting for Michael to come and get her. Well, come and get her he does, gutting his sister and sending her to her grave before vanishing into the night.

Fast forward a little bit and we’re privy to a whole new breed of house hunters. Aspiring “reality show” host Freddie Harris (Busta Rhymes) and his partner Nora (Tyra Banks) have set up a reality show where young students come and take a haunted house esque tour through Michael Myers old house, complete with head mounted video cameras to document their every move in the house. Friends Sara Moyer (Bianca Kajilich), Rudy (Sean Patrick Thomas) and Jen (a 22 year old Katee Sackhoff) get chosen to go in for the first tour, and are stoked that they finally can be on TV. However, Unbeknownst to anyone, Michael Myers is actually living under the house, and as the randy teens navigate the house he begins to pick them off one by one.

Honestly, this movie is plain awful. Awful good I might add, as Resurrection is downright hilarious as well as awful. It’s full on 80s and early 2000s teenager stupidity for our leads, to the point where you’re almost cheering for Myers to slice and dice a few of them. Not only that, it’s so over the top with the action and the Blair Witch style shaky POV cams that I just start laughing halfway through the film. To put the icing on the cake, we have Busta Rhymes hamming it up to level 15 on a scale of 1-10, and actually goes Kung-fu on Michael Myers for the end battle (including electrocuting Michael in the groin in what is what one of the funniest death scenes ever). Honestly, I thought I was watching a Bollywood film for the last 10 minutes or so.




Rating:

Rated R for strong violence, language, some sexuality and brief drug use





4K Video: Video:

The new Dolby Vision enhanced 4K master looks once again, good, but never super GREAT on 4K UHD. The image is stable, with the same golden orange and red tinge that Halloween films are known for, and actually looks really similar to H20 in many aspects due to them being filmed 3-4 years apart. Fine details are generally really good even though a vast majority of the time is spent inside a pitch black haunted house, and some of the shots are from POV cams the students are wearing. Black levels are paramount for the film, and they look rather nice thanks to the Dolby Vision enhancements. There’s some grain spikes in low light shots, and a few weak looking scenes (look at the cops pulling up at the end, looks sourced from a lower rez source or a weak camera shot), but overall this is a great looking encode and light years better than my old Echo Bridge disc (I have no idea if the Blu-ray inside is sourced from the new 4K master, or from the old 2014 disc as I don’t have access to the 2014 disc to compare, but it definitely outclasses the included Blu-ray as well).









Audio:

Now, the audio on this disc is nothing short of superb. It’s a full 5/5 rated horror movie track due to being the newest of the bunch, and it certainly pulls no punches. The entire mix is simply beautifully atmospheric, with creaking wood, water splashing behind the audience, and incredibly nuanced surround usage make this amazingly immersive. The depth and richness of the ambient noises is palpable, and the bass can be utterly devastating when things kick off with Michael. The end scene in the basement with Sarah, Freddie and Michael is crazy (that blast when Freddie slams through the door is incredible) and does some serious earth shaking with the LFE channel. Simply superb and probably the very best track of the entire 3 film set.












Extras:

• Commentary with director Rick Rosenthal and editor Robert A. Ferretti.
• Hell Raiser Interview
• "Butcher and the Blade"
• "Haddonfield North"
• "Sister, Scream Queen Sister"
• "The Youngest Shape"
• "Tales from the Script" .
• Interview
• "Web Cam Special"
• "Head Cam"
• "Set Interview"
• Deleted Scenes and Alternate Endings (
• Still Gallery
• Storyboards
• Home Video T.V. Spots
• Trailer

Final Score: ​

Is Halloween: Resurrection a good movie? Oh my goodness gracious no, but it is a hilarious FUN movie if you go in knowing that this is just basically an over the top lark. It’s pure velveeta cheese at it’s finest, and while I’d love to give this a 4.5/5 rating for sheer entertainment value, It’s an objectively bad movie as well. Thus I’m going to give it a 3.5/5 rating to sort of balance that good/bad/awful/cheesy ying-yang going on. The 4K UHD looks and sounds very good, and the extras are simply superb. Hilarious watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Busta Rhymes, Brad Loree, Bianca Kajilich, Sean Patrick Thomas, Katee Sackhoff, Tyra Banks
Directed by: Rick Rosenthal
Written by: Larry Brand, Sean Hood, John Carpenter (Characters), Debra Hill (Characters)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 90 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 4th, 2022

Recommendation: Fun Watch