"You've heard of the tunnel? The one we all go through sooner or later? At the end, there's a door. And waiting for you on the other side of that door is either Heaven or Hell. This is that door."
— Laurie Strode.
After the film retcons certain events that happened at the end of Halloween H20, Halloween: Resurrection picks up on Michael Myers who now lives a quiet life in a system of tunnels beneath his old home in Haddonfield, Illinois. However, his domestic peace ends up shattered as the house becomes the basis for an Internet reality show called "Dangertainment", where a group of teenagers gets roped into spending a night in it, and those who manage to stay the whole night win a nice prize for their trouble — all while the Internet watches.
Needless to say, Michael doesn't like this one bit.
Released on July 12, 2002. For a long time, it marked the final film of the original series as started by Halloween, as Rob Zombie rebooted the franchise in 2007 with a remake of the first film. The franchise would eventually return to the original timeline with a direct sequel to the original film.
Halloween: Resurrection contains examples of the following tropes:
- Acoustic License: Sara is in a college classroom in the beginning. When the professor asks a question and she answers, her voice is barely higher than a whisper, yet the professor hears her clearly and responds.
- All Part of the Show: What most of the people watching the massacre think, despite several attempts by the victims to plead for help. Not until Michael decapitates Jen does it finally occur to everyone that what they're seeing is real.
- And Starring: There are two "and" credits — one for Tyra Banks and one for Jamie Lee Curtis.
- Artistic License – Physics: Katee Sackhoff's death. Michael decapitates her in one stroke with a one-foot-long kitchen knife. There are cartoons that don't make a mockery of physics as bad as that. To add insult to injury, her character's head somehow manages to fly off at a right angle to the direction it SHOULD have gone, allowing it to roll down the stairs for dramatic effect. Momentum is apparently out to lunch, too.
- Back for the Dead: Jamie Lee Curtis only agreed to be in the film so she could be killed off and therefore not star in another...at least until the second reboot.
- The Bad Guy Wins: At the beginning, Michael finally manages to kill Laurie.
- Battle Amongst the Flames: In the climax.
- Better Manhandle the Murder Weapon: Michael hands his knife to serial killer fanboy Harold, which he graciously accepts, not knowing it had just been used in several murders and he's going to be taking the fall for them.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Jen (blonde), Sara (brunette), and Donna (redhead).
- Call-Back: Michael is stopped by a fire, much as he was in the second film which was made by the same director.
- The Cameo: Rick Rosenthal, the director, plays a small role as Professor Mixter.
- Chainsaw Good: Sara attempts to attack Michael with a chainsaw during the climax. It doesn't quite work, and a few misplaced sparks set the Myers house on fire.
- Confronting Your Imposter: Halfway through the film, Michael comes face-to-face with Freddie, who's dressed as Michael. Freddie doesn't even realize that he's face to face with the real Michael (he thinks it's Charlie) and tells him to beat it, which Michael does...for some reason.note Rule of Funny probably applies here.
- Continuity Nod: Towards the end, the presumed dead Michael sits up exactly as he did at the end of the first movie, and for the same reason: to finish off his unsuspecting victim.
- For the first time in over 20 years, the Myers house is the closest to how it appeared in the first and second films, albeit in a state of extreme neglect and disrepair. The house wasn't featured in Halloween 4 or H20 and was infamously made into a gothic mansion in the fifth film. In the sixth film, it was somewhat closer to the original even though there were still some architectural deviations. Here, apart from a never-before-seen broken picket fence and a garage, the house itself actually resembles how it did since its last appearance in 1981.
- Covers Always Lie: The poster depicts Laurie with her short hair from the previous movie, but she has long hair in this one. Also, the fact that she's on the poster to begin with might give someone the idea that she's going to be the hero of this film like she was in the last one, but she's killed in the opening.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Sorta. Michael certainly wasn't intending to pretend to be Charlie, but Freddie thought he was Charlie, and Michael seems to just roll with that when they come face-to-face.
- Dead Star Walking: Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie.
- Dwindling Party: The main plot after the prologue, with several college students and crew members in the Myers house being hunted by Michael over a single night.
- Charlie: Impaled through the throat with a tripod.
- Bill: Stabbed through the head.
- Donna: Shoved onto a bent-outward piece of metal fence, impaling her.
- Jen: Decapitated.
- Jim: Head crushed barehanded.
- Rudy: Stabbed several times and pinned to the wall.
- Nora: Killed through unknown means, with her body hung from the garage rafters.
- Eat the Camera: Done jokingly when Sara has a camera in her mouth, pretending to gag on it.
- Evil Overlooker: The poster
◊ does this with Michael Myers' Black Eyes of Evil looming over the frightened-looking protagonists. - Fauxlosophic Narration: The film opens with a narration about a tunnel leading to heaven or hell from Laurie...which doesn't tie in with anything else in the story.
- Final Girl: Sara Moyer. She's brunette, responsible, modest, and doesn't drink or do drugs.
- Flipping the Bird: Donna flips off Jim when he comments on her legs.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: A picture of Josh Hartnett, who played Laurie's son in the previous film, can be seen in her room at the hospital.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Freddie tries to bring Michael Myers down with his fists.
- Groin Attack: Freddie electrocutes Michael in the groin.
- The Hero Dies: Laurie herself at the beginning.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice:
- Rudy being pinned to a door after being impaled with three knives.
- Donna gets killed by being impaled on the spike from a metal fence.
- Impromptu Tracheotomy: Charlie is speared through the throat by a tripod-wielding Michael.
- Killed Offscreen: Nora, with no hint as to how.
- Loony Fan: Harold, a mental patient with intense knowledge of Serial Killers. This directly results in Laurie's death - as he likes to break out of the asylum while dressed as a famous killer, the guards assume the guy walking up to the building wearing the white mask and overalls is just Harold and not the actual Michael Meyers.
- The Man They Couldn't Hang: Sara and Freddie try to kill Michael by respectively wrapping a cable around his neck and kicking him out a window. He cuts the cable and survives.
- Murder by Mistake: Laurie seemingly killed Michael by chopping his head off with an axe in H20, but it is revealed that she actually killed a paramedic whose larynx Michael had crushed before knocking him out and switching clothes with him.
- Off with His Head!: The deaths of both an asylum guard named Franklin and Jen (the latter being decapitated with a single swing of a regular kitchen knife).
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Trick or treat...muthafucka."
- Quizzical Tilt: Michael gives one to one of Freddy's Trash Talks.
- Retcon:
- Michael's decapitation in H20 is retconned here with the excuse that Michael crushed a paramedic's larynx and switched places with him.
- Michael's eye injuries and severe burns sustained in the first two films remain missing entirely as they were in H20. Apparently, these films think he made it through those films unscathed.
- A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma: Virtually word-for-word as Freddie (Busta Rhymes) hypes up the premise of his reality television show filmed inside the old Myers residence as "a mystery wrapped up inside of a riddle inside of an enigma."
- See You in Hell: Laurie's last words.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Myers finally kills Laurie along with several Red Shirt characters, and he's still Not Quite Dead at the end.
- Slashed Throat: The fate of Willie, the second guard killed at the asylum in the beginning.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Laurie herself in the opening. This was enforced by Jamie Lee Curtis herself, as she was contractually obliged to be in the movie, but wanted to ensure she would never appear in another sequel.
- Tragic Mistake: Having accidentally murdered an innocent man at the end of the last film, Laurie attempts to unmask Michael once he's caught in her trap, to make sure she's killing the right person. This unfortunately gets her close enough that he can grab her, stab her, and drop her to her death.
- Villain Decay: Never has Michael been less threatening and more embarrassing than when he gets chewed out by Busta Rhymes and, instead of killing him, inexplicably turns around and walks away...or when he gets kung-fu-kicked out of a window with a "comically" screaming caricature of kung fu by Busta Rhymes...or when he gets shocked with a high voltage cable in the genitals by...Busta Rhymes...
- Waking Up at the Morgue: Done in the ending, complete with Eye Awaken.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: There's no mention of what happened to John Tate, just a photo of him in Laurie's confinement room.
