Halloween Ends promises to bring closure to the franchise, putting it and the characters to rest for at least a little while. This isn't the first time that the series has been put on ice, however, with some previous endings being rather ignominious. One such franchise farewell was Halloween: Resurrection, a completely unnecessary follow-up to the relatively well-received Halloween H20.
Killing off series heroine Laurie Strode in the film's beginning, Resurrection featured a completely ridiculous reality TV premise. The cherry on top was Freddie Harris, an utterly laughable character played by Busta Rhymes. Destroying any suspension of disbelief, this character ironically got the drop on Michael Myers, perhaps more than anyone else in the franchise. Before Halloween ends later this year, here's a look at The Shape's most shocking defeat ever.
Busta Rhymes Played Halloween's Worst Character
Given that the original tagline was michaelmyers.com, it's no surprise that the eighth and, for a while, last Halloween movie was more on the nose than a fist to the face. The storyline had a production company attempting to film a scary reality show in Michael Myers' childhood home, with the leader being entrepreneur Freddie Harris. Played by rapper Busta Rhymes, Harris is in many ways just Rhymes playing himself, with most of his ridiculous lines ad-libbed. Focused solely on his hustle, Harris' team creates a completely fake environment within the Myers house, despite proclaiming that nothing is staged.
When not convincing college students to participate in his nonsense show, Harris seems to enjoy watching Kung Fu movies, even picking up some moves from them. Despite how determined he is for everything to go off without a hitch, his oblivious nature somehow allows him to survive when the real Michael Myers starts killing those invading his home. This leads to Freddie's finest hour, and the movie is all the worse (or better) for it.
How Did Busta Rhymes' Character Somehow Beat Michael Myers?
Freddie Harris ends up employing some of his aforementioned martial arts moves as he faces off against Michael Myers, and though it's not super effective, he manages to survive the experience. He even recovers from being stabbed by Myers, something which is usually a sure-fire death sentence. Confronting The Shape one last time, he's nearly killed by Michael before electrocuting him in a rather sensitive part of his Shape anatomy. Afterward, Myers is knocked into a tangled mass of electrical cords, being truly shocked and burned to death. Freddie replies with the "cute" remark that Michael is looking a little "chicken-fried."
This absolutely awful (yet temporary) end to one of horror's icons is just as bad as the rest of the movie, with the character pulling it off making it even worse. Freddie Harris isn't Laurie Strode, nor Laurie's son or daughter. With no real narrative connection to Michael, Strode, Samuel Loomis or any other familiar character in Haddonfield, it's almost anti-climactic that this is the guy who finally does Michael Myers in. Of course, that's not even taking into account his utterly ridiculous characterization, which borders on the lines of both self-parody and being almost offensively stereotypical.
Still, it's ultimately an impressive showing for Freddie Harris, who took on Myers in mostly unarmed combat and lived to tell the tale. It might have been his laughable nature that protected him, with Myers more used to helpless teens fleeing from his presence. The fact that someone stood up to him, spouting some incredibly cheesy lines with gusto, no less, likely threw even The Shape for a loop. Fortunately for him -- and audiences -- no further movies have brought the Freddie character back. At the same time, something homaging him could be a funny, if cringeworthy, Easter egg. Given the character's potency against Michael Myers, if Laurie Strode wants to make it out alive during Halloween Ends, she may just have to.. busta rhyme.