House of Horror (Archive)

Tag: Laurie Strode

  • Halloween: Resurrection

    Halloween: Resurrection
    Tagline: Evil Finds Its Way Home
    Released: 2002
    Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Brad Loree, Busta Rhymes, Bianca Kajlich, Sean Patrick Thomas, Thomas Ian Nicholas, and Tyra Banks
    Directed by Rick Rosenthal
    Written by Larry Brand and Sean Hood

    Format: DVD
    Distributed by Dimension Films
    DVD Release Date: December 10, 2002

    Features:
    Special Features:
    Widescreen (2.35:1) – Enhanced for 16×9 Televisions
    Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
    Feature commentary with Director Rick Rosenthal and Editor Robert A. Ferretti
    Deleted and Alternate Scenes with Director Commentary
    Web Cam Special with Director Commentary
    Photo Gallery
    Tour of the set with Production Designer Troy Hansen
    On the set with Jamie Lee Curtis
    Head Cam Featurette
    Storyboard Comparisons
    Spanish Subtitles
    French Track

    Premise: Original Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween: H20, True Lies) is back and joined by Busta Rhymes (Shaft) and Tyra Banks (Coyote Ugly) in the terrifying Halloween: Resurrection – the latest in this electrifying horror film series! The reality programmers at DangerTainment (Rhymes, Banks) have selected Rudy (Sean Patrick Thomas – Save the Last Dance), Bill (Thomas Ian Nicholas – American Pie 1 & 2) and a group of thrill-seeking teenagers to spend one fun-filled night in the childhood home of serial killer Michael Myers. But the planned live broadcast turns deadly when their evening of excitement becomes a night of terror as Michael himself decides to crash the party!

    Plot Breakdown (spoilers): Three years after the events of Halloween: H20, Laurie Strode has been confined to a mental institution on a count of murder. Flashback sequences reveal Laurie did not really decapitate Michael Myers at the end of the previous film, but rather a paramedic with whom Myers forcefully switched clothing and his mask. Laurie pretends to be heavily medicated, but in reality, dodges her pills and prepares herself for the inevitable confrontation with Michael Myers. When Myers finally does appear, Laurie lures him into a trap on the roof of the institution. Before she can kill him for good however, he turns the tables on her, and stabs her in the back. She gives Michael a kiss, tells him she will see him in hell, and falls off the roof to the ground below, dead.

    A year later, a group of six college students win a competition to appear on a reality show produced by DangerTainment, on which they are to spend Halloween night in the childhood home of Michael Myers. Their mission is to find out what led him to kill. The investigation is done via live broadcast on the internet, with each student wearing a small camera. The participants think the show is entirely for entertainment purposes, and that the stunt will earn them some publicity and scholarship money. While in the house, the students undercover staged “secrets” of Michael’s insanity, only to inadvertently uncover a subterranean lair where Myers has been living for the past 20 years. The event goes horribly wrong however, when Michael returns home and one by one, kills the students and the crew involved in the broadcast.

    Sara Moyer, the only student left alive, uses her PDA and pen pal on the outside to escape the house and into the adjoining garage, where Myers soon follows. After a brief confrontation, Michael is electrocuted and left to die in a conflagration, which destroys the garage. Only Sara Moyer and Freddie Harris, the host of the show, survive the night’s events. Later, Myers’s severely burnt body is taken to a morgue, where a frightened female mortician slowly opens his body bag. He opens his eyes and the mortician screams, just as the screen goes black.
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  • Halloween: 20 Years Later (H20)

    Halloween: 20 Years Later (H20)
    Tagline: This summer, terror won’t be taking a vacation.
    Released: 1998
    Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Adam Arkin, and Michelle Williams
    Directed by Steve Miner
    Written by Robert Zapia, Matt Greenberg, and Kevin Williamson (uncredited)

    Format: DVD
    Distributed by Dimension Films
    DVD Release Date: October 19, 1999

    Features:
    Widescreen Presentation (2.35:1)
    Unmasking the Horror
    Trivia Game
    Music Video – “What’s this Life For” performed by Creed

    Premise: This smart and suspenseful thriller scares up a bone-chilling good time with original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies, Halloween I & II) and a hot cast of hip young stars! Now the headmistress of a private school, Laurie Strode (Curtis) is struggling with the horrifying, 20-year-old memories of the maniacal killer Michael Myers… when he suddenly reappears with a vengeance! And this Halloween, his terror will strike a whole new generation! Laurie’s rebellious son John (Josh Hartnett – The Faculty), his girlfriend (Michelle Williams – TV’s Dawson’s Creek), and the school security guard (LL Cool J) will become Michael’s newest victims unless Laurie can conquer her greatest fears and put evil in its place once and for all! The time has come again for you to experience the frightening fun of Halloween – the motion picture series that totally redefined terror!

    Plot Breakdown (spoilers): On October 29th, 1998, in Langdon, Illinois, Nurse Marion Chambers-Wittington (Nancy Stephens, Halloween and Halloween II) returns home to find her house has been burglarized. Alarmed, she asks assistance from Jimmy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a teen who lives next door, and his accompanying friend. After calling the police, Jimmy investigates Marion’s house and is unable to find anything out of place, except that her office was ransacked. After the boys leave, Marion inspects the mess in her office. She notices a file folder labeled Laurie Strode, which has been opened and the contents taken. Feeling like someone is still there, she rushes to Jimmy’s house, only to discover he and his friend have been killed. As she tries to escape the murder scene, the killer makes himself known: Michael Myers. Marion attempts to flee, though Myers catches up to her and slits her throat. As the police finally arrive, answering the original burglary report, Myers manages to slip by them into the night. The next morning, detectives note Dr. Loomis’s files on Myers in Marion’s home and alert Haddonfield that Michael Myers, whose body has been missing for 20 years, might be returning home.

    On October 31st, in Summer Glenn, California, a secluded private school is planning a field trip. The buses leave that night, and students are expected to be packed and ready by time the buses leave. Keri Tate (Jamie Lee Curtis), headmistress of the school, begins the morning by arguing with her 17 year-old son, John (Josh Hartnett), about going on the trip. She feels he isn’t ready to go alone without her supervision. As the day goes on, Keri is haunted by the tragic events that took place on Halloween 20 years ago, when Michael Myers tracked her down and tried to kill her. Since then, she has become a functioning alcoholic, overbearing parent, and unable to maintain intimate relationships. Her boyfriend, Will (Adam Arkin), who works as a counselor at the school, notes her mood and her attempts to distance him. Later, before the buses leave, Keri has a change of heart and gives John her permission to go on the trip. However, unbeknownst to Keri, John, his girlfriend Molly (Michelle Williams), and friends Sarah and Charlie, plan on having a covert Halloween party in the empty school. As the buses depart, Michael Myers unnoticeably gains entrance onto the grounds, and disconnects the phone lines.

    Later that night, Keri confides in Will that she is really Laurie Strode, the survivor of the 1978 Halloween murders. She had faked her death in a car accident years ago to go into hiding under an assumed name. She prays every year that her brother, Michael Myers, will be unable to find her. While Keri discloses her past to Will, John and his friends continue with their private Halloween party. Myers stalks the unsuspecting teens, and after the pairs separate, kills Charlie and Sarah. John and Molly, concerned that their two friends have not returned, set out to find them. Meanwhile, Keri notices that John’s camping equipment is still in his room and believes him to be somewhere on campus. Worried, she grabs a gun under her pillow and sets out to look for him, with Will in tow.

    As John and Molly continue their search, they soon discover the dead body of Sarah, with Michael Myers revealing himself soon after. The two teens escape with Myers in pursuit, eventually ending up outside the doors of the locked dorm. Keri and Will, who could hear the kids’ screaming, get to the locked door moments before Myers catches up to them, and after kids are safely inside, Keri and Michael come face-to-face through the door’s port window. While Keri reaches for her gun, Myers disappears. Afterward, Keri and Will secure the kids in a closet and go looking for the elusive killer. Myers soon emerges, killing Will and prompting Keri to run. She gathers the kids and the three make it to her SUV, driving off toward the school’s front gate. When they arrive, Keri gets out and instructs the kids to drive to the nearest house and call the police. After the vehicle leaves, Keri destroys the gate’s controls, locking herself in with Myers. She grabs a fire axe and sets off into the school looking for Michael.

    Upon entering the school’s second level, Keri shouts out at Michael, only to have him come down behind her. Knowing, she strikes him in the chest with the axe, albeit to no effect. The two engage in a game of cat-and-mouse, until Keri is able to surprise Michael, stabbing him numerous times, and pushing him off the second floor balcony to the ground below. Later, after the police arrive, Myers’s body is placed in a body bag and loaded into a coroners’ van. Keri, knowing Michael’s not really dead, grabs her axe and steals the van, driving off with Michael’s body. Under Keri’s watchful eye, Myers eventually escapes the body bag and tries to kill her. Keri slams on the brakes, sending Myers through the windshield. In a desperate attempt to kill him, she drives full speed at Myers, pinning him to the front of the van and then sending the vehicle tumbling down a hill, where it pins Myers against a tree. Keri, now wounded from being thrown from the van, finds her axe and approaches the trapped killer. Michael reaches out to her. Instinctively, she reaches out, and pulls back while remembering everything he’s done to her. Keri chops his heads off with the axe, finally killing him. Michael’s head then rolls down the hill.
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