Look kids, it’s another “Halloween” sequel! It seems they couldn’t end the madness with “Halloween: H20”, the seventh entry in the series, in which everything came full circle and tormented victim Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) exacted her revenge on psychotic brother Michael Myers, lopping off his head with an axe as the screen went to black. Why another sequel? It’s simple: the last one made a profit. When “Halloween: Resurrection” was greenlit, the scene must have resembled this:

Dimension Films Executive: Rick, here’s a dead horse. We were wondering if you could beat it for us.
Director Rick Rosenthal: Sure!

And so the “Halloween” saga continues. For you see, that wasn’t actually Michael Myers that Laurie beheaded the last time out. It was a paramedic that he encountered earlier, unconscious and dressed in Michael’s trademark overalls and Captain Kirk mask. Meanwhile, the maniac made a quick escape. “H20” was a perfectly respectable sequel, with Michael Myers getting his just desserts from scream queen Curtis, who was the sole survivor of a troupe of Haddonfield, Illinois baby-sitters in John Carpenter’s classic 1978 original. I couldn’t think of a more appropriate finale. In hindsight, it’s unfortunate that “Halloween: H20” was such a financial success. After all, it spawned this labored, uninspired and completely unnecessary continuation chapter that exists solely because the cash cow that is Dimension Films needs a larger pasture to feed.

The opening scenes of “Halloween: Resurrection” find Laurie Strode (Curtis, back again - and I refuse to believe for anything more than contract obligations) in the Haddonfield insane asylum, awaiting the return of brother Michael so she can kill him and ensure there won’t be a “Halloween 9” (please God...). Naturally, Michael makes an appearance and tosses Laurie off the asylum roof to her death (the series seems to be meeting its demise along with her). The ensuing plot lamely milks the phenomenon of reality TV, with Busta Rhymes as the creator of “Dangertainment”, a TV series that invites various teenagers to spend the evening at Myers’ childhood home for a live webcast. Bianca Kajlich (of TV’s “Boston Public”) is the innocent virgin who will survive the night after Myers inevitably returns to protect his personal domain, slicing and skewering his way through a young cast that includes Thomas Ian Nicholas (“American Pie”) and Sean Patrick Thomas (“Save the Last Dance”). Rapper Rhymes, who seems to think he owns the movie, gives one of the most ridiculous performances I have ever seen. When he challenges the iconic Myers to a kung-fu fight, my urge to exit the theater while muttering obscenities was overcome only by my urge to laugh at the screen. It’s absolutely embarrassing.

Director Rosenthal (who also helmed the watchable but generic “Halloween II”) is intermittently successful in giving the film a sense of mood and atmosphere. There are even a few segments when, in its own clichéd and mechanical way, the film starts to work. Too bad about the acting (which is dreadful), the script (which abandons the intriguing premise for nothing more than senseless slaughter) and the ending, which is the most insulting of the entire series. I think even Michael Myers himself would be tired of this old routine by now. I know the audience is.