Halloween: Resurrection  (2002) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)
There are positives and negatives about the way we choose to score movies. From our point of view, the worst part about it is when we have to give a great genre film C+ even though we love it, because we know it has no crossover appeal. No, I take that back. Worse than that is when we have to give a truly despicable film a C- because we know it is satisfactory to genre addicts.

This film got an average grade of B+ from opening night audiences at Cinema Score. Those audiences are not selected by Cinema score, and do not represent a random sample. They are people who wanted to see the movie in the first place, paid to get in, and were obviously satisfied. It is scored a fairly solid 3.6/5 by Yahoo voters.

On the other side of the coin, it was absolutely disemboweled by the critics on both sides of the Atlantic.

I'm with the critics. I had to give the film a C- because the series fans were obviously satisfied, but I can't imagine why.

It's basically a haunted house movie, and the plot is one I have seen, in one variation or another, about five times in the past two years. People make a film about a murderous legend. One of the crew dresses up as the legend to scare some of the others. The real legend shows up. The audience never knows which they are looking at.

NUDITY REPORT
Daisy McCrackin shows her breasts in a dark, interrupted sex scene.

This time around, it is not a film, but a reality show, in which six kids agree to be filmed while spending the night in the house of notorious killer Michael Myers. To give the story more youth appeal, the reality show is not an edited TV show but a live internet webcam broadcast. In order to make the kids' reactions more dramatic, the producers hire a guy to dress up like Mike Myers and scare the bejeebers out of them. The real Michael Myers is supposed to be dead, but he's actually feeling much better since his beheading. (I guess the wrong guy was beheaded in the last one. Or something.) So Real Mike shows up, and Phony Mike shows up, both scare the kids, and Phony Mike thinks Real Mike is some guy trying to take away his gig, and .... never mind.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • Commentary by director and editor

  • Deleted and alternate scenes with director's commentary

  • Web cam special with commentary

  • Photo gallery

  • On the set with Jamie Lee Curtis

  • Head cam featurette

  • Storyboard comparisons

  • Widescreen anamorphic format
The fans of this series must have some seriously low standards, because I don't see why the film had any appeal as a slasher film or a horror film or a haunted house film or any other kind of film.
  • The characters are cardboard and uninteresting. The most interesting character is Michael Myers himself, a mute who is not even portrayed by an actor (he's played by a stunt guy).
  • The deaths are repetitive and unoriginal - Myers uses the same old knife.
  • There aren't even any good "boo" moments.

The Critics Vote

  • General USA consensus: less than one stars. Berardinelli 1/4, Entertainment Weekly F

  • UK consensus: less than one star. Daily Telegraph 4/10,  The Guardian 1/10, The Times 2/10, The Express 2/10, BBC 1/5

The People Vote ...

  • IMDB summary. Voting results: IMDb voters score it 5.0/10, and Metacritic users average 4.1/10, but Yahoo voters appraise it at a respectable 3.6/5, and Guardian voters weigh in with a solid 6.6/10
  • It was budgeted at $15 million for production. It grossed $30 million in the USA.
  • Exit interviews: Cinema Score. Amazingly, it was graded B+ by opening night audiences, who chose to be there in the first place, so it is obviously satisfactory to genre and series addicts.

 
The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. (C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by genre fans). D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, I must reluctantly say C-, because series addicts thought it was OK. They were wrong.

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