A lot of us are having marathons of the films in the HALLOWEEN franchise this time of year, and while the films have a lot of great characters for us to enjoy spending time with there are also some characters who are known for being extremely irritating. Two characters that get the most complaints about them are Tina Williams in HALLOWEEN 5 and Freddie Harris in HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION. So for this Halloween edition of the Face-Off series we decided to have a little fun and pit these two against each other in a competition to find out which one is more annoying.
As played by Wendy Kaplan, Tina Williams grates on viewers' nerves because she's so loud and overly active. She's always screeching, laughing, bouncing, and/or running her way through scenes, from the moment she's first introduced trying to get attention by pounding on a window, sticking her face up against it and yelling. She continues to seek attention for the rest of the film – as soon as that window is open, she's dancing around the room and singing. Tina disregards advice and authority because it might disrupt the good times she has planned, and she's so dim that she spends several minutes trying to play with kittens in a barn before she remembers she doesn't like cats. Even in small doses Tina would have been too much, but the biggest problem is that she becomes the secondary heroine in the film after a beloved character from HALLOWEEN 4 is killed off.
Going along with the idea that Busta Rhymes is playing a character named Freddie Harris in this film is giving him the benefit of the doubt, because it sure doesn't feel like he was putting much effort into creating a character here. Ad libbing like crazy, Rhymes seems to just be playing himself, his top priority in most scenes being to amuse himself. Maybe it's because his character is manipulating situations in the film, so it takes a while for him to take anything seriously. Whatever Rhymes was doing it worked out for him, as the director loved what he brought to the movie and let him ramble on and on, dropping some horrendous, cringe-inducing lines. HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION wouldn't have been very good no matter who was playing Freddie Harris, but having Rhymes' distracting, clownish performance in so many scenes sinks it even lower.
Michael Myers pulls a fast one on Tina, picking her up in her boyfriend's car while wearing the mask she gave her boyfriend (whose name was also Michael.) So the way Tina acts toward him in their scene together is an inappropriate way to act toward Michael Myers, but there's a tension to the scene because there's the threat that he could snap and kill her at any moment. Like when she leans over to kiss his mask and his grip tightens on the steering wheel. Later Tina and Michael will cross paths with her knowing exactly who he is, and that time she has the appropriate response: pure terror.
This is the most appalling thing about the way Freddie Harris is presented in this movie – the fact that he was allowed to make a joke out of Michael Myers. Freddie is wearing the Myers costume when he and the slasher first come face to face, planning to scare some people, and when he sees the real Michael he thinks it's a foolish employee of his and goes on a long rant, berating the guy. He tells his “employee” to leave, and Michael actually listens. He walks out. Later Freddie will knock Michael around with martial arts moves while dropping quips and one liners. It's awful.
If Tina has any saving grace, it's the fact that she seems to care deeply for her friends, which includes Michael Myers' niece, young Jamie Lloyd. Tina isn't a perfect friend, she gets easily distracted from visiting Jamie in the children's clinic where she's a patient (although she did already visit Jamie earlier that day) and later she leaves a crying, scared Jamie in the clinic because she wants to go meet her boyfriend at a party. It's also strange that she participates in a Michael Myers prank at that party, despite knowing the damage the guy did to Jamie. Still, she has more emotional depth than you might expect her to have when she's bouncing around like a fool.
For the majority of the running time, any time Freddie seems to display any depth it's just an act so he can get people to do what he wants them to do. He's out for fame and fortune, and he's exploiting the Michael Myers legend and tricking a bunch of college kids to achieve it. His plan gets a lot of people killed, so the movie tries to make us believe that he has learned a lesson by the end. When reporters swarm the heroine, he comes to her aid and shuts down the questions, delivering a speech about Michael Myers not being a soundbite. Then he smashes a camera, something he wouldn't have done before. They tried, but it's tough to take anything he says or does seriously.
“You know what they can do if they can't take a joke!” – “Bupadah bupadah bupadah bupadah bupadah bupadah bupadah!” – “Promises were made to be broken, babe.” – “Oh, Max, shut your canine trap.” – “I just flipped my skirt!” – “Tina, Queen of Room Service!” – “Michael, don't I even get a kiss?” – “I said stop the goddamn car, I want a pack of cigarettes!” – “When you're older there are people you're gonna meet who make you feel, like, connected. Like your heart is made of neon.” – “You're really creepy, filling that little girl with all that boogeyman crap.” – “I'm never sensible if I can help it!” – “Take me, but spare my friend! She's a virgin.” – “What am I doing? I hate cats.” – “You guys wanna come skinnydipping?”
“Who's knockin' on my door this late? Whoever this is, is distracting me from seeing Wat Chun Lee whoop some ass.” – “Oh Freddie boy, damn you good.” – “Let the Dangertainment begin in this motherf*cker!” – “I ain't paying you to be Michael Myers! I'm playing Michael Myers!” – “I left the back door unlocked for your ass to go out the back, into the garage! That's what I did!” – “Go on, scoot! Skedaddle! Get the f*ck outta Dodge!” – “You hit me like I murdered your f*ckin' mother or something.” – “Trick or treat, motherf*cker!” – “Michael Myers is a killer shark in baggy ass overalls.” – “Looking a little crispy over there, Mikey. Like some chicken fried, motherf*cker. Well, may you never, ever rest in peace.”
Tina dies a heroic death. Seeing Michael Myers chasing Jamie across a field, Jamie on foot and Michael driving a Camaro, Tina runs after them. After Michael crashes his car, Tina catches up with him just as he's about to stab Jamie – and she throws herself in front of the slasher to save her young friend. Tina is stabbed in the chest and uses her dying breath to tell Jamie to “Run!” She was annoying, but her death is a sad one.
Freddie should have died, and did in the first cut. Somehow he proved to be so popular with test audiences that he was resurrected in reshoots and gets to save the day. Busting into a burning garage and saying “Trick or trick, motherf*cker!”, Freddie gets a heroic fight with Michael that ends with him jamming an electrical cable into the iconic slasher's testicles. As Michael gets hit with an electricity and fire combo, Freddie makes his exit.
Well, Freddie Harris almost pulled off a clean sweep in this Face-Off… which is not a good thing for him, because the winner here is actually the loser. Freddie is the more annoying of these characters, by far. Tina is irritating, but she has some redeeming qualities. I don't find that Freddie has any, unless you're able to laugh along with Busta Rhymes while watching HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION.
What do you think, is Freddie more annoying than Tina or does Tina irritate you even more? Are there fans of what Rhymes brought to RESURRECTION? Share your thoughts on these characters in the comments section below.
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