“By no means consider something you see on Halloween.” That is the Reverend M. Goodman quote that opens up Millennium‘s second Halloween-themed episode, “…13 Years Later,” and immediately units the temper for this uncommon and spooky hour of tv. If this have been your first foray into the world of Millennium, you’d most likely be questioning what a star like Lance Henriksen could be doing on a present like this. Let it’s identified that, whereas the Chris Carter-created collection did partake in some excessive strangeness in its three quick seasons, no episode is sort of like this one. Mixing Halloween and B-horror films with the rock band KISS is a bit uncanny, little question, however this can be a trip you may always remember. As the network’s own promotion boasted, “For those who like slasher movies… You are gonna love this. Blood, guts and music’s wildest band. Do not miss one hell of a present.”
‘Millennium’s Second Halloween Episode Is Like a Fever Dream
13 years after FBI profiler Frank Black was final within the small city of Trinity, South Carolina, investigating a string of homicides he helped resolve, he and his new associate Emma Hollis (Klea Scott) return to analyze a brand new set of murders. Sadly for Frank, the city is now the epicenter of a B-horror image very loosely primarily based on the very case that Frank solved over a decade earlier, now with the rock band KISS set to carry out a live performance within the third act. Yeah, they received the precise band to indicate up for this one, with the newly reunited unique lineup — Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss — performing their hit 1998 single, “Psycho Circus,” collectively on stage.
Even funnier, the band themselves have elements within the episode, too. Stanley performs the murdered director Lew Carroll; Simmons reveals up because the faux killer, Hector Leachman; and Frehley and Criss cameo as “Sick Cop” and “Good Cop,” respectively. Maybe unsurprisingly, given their on-stage personas, Simmons and Stanley specifically give fantastic performances, with the latter’s work because the opening’s sleazy movie director being probably the most genuine of the bunch. When speaking concerning the band in an on-set interview, Lance Henriksen once aptly noted that, “[KISS is] an exquisite circus,” highlighting the performing abilities of some of them. After all, KISS has their own unique history of film and television appearances, however this episode of Millennium takes all of it to the following degree.
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As Frank struggles to discover a motive for his killer, he and Hollis lastly make a breakthrough after they understand that the assassin does not have a regular prison profile (which almost drives Frank insane, “for the third time in his life”). As a substitute, the killer takes direct inspiration from the horror films airing regionally every night time main as much as Halloween. Which means Halloween, Friday the thirteenth, A Nightmare on Elm Road, and The Texas Chainsaw Bloodbath are all truthful sport because the brokers attempt to deduce who the killer is earlier than it is too late. To make all of it just a bit stranger, Frank and Hollis deal primarily with showbiz folks right here, the self-absorbed and “faux” Hollywood varieties who refuse to take any of the hazard severely.
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“…13 Years Later” Is a Unusual Ode to B-Horror Flicks In every single place
As a lot as “…13 Years Later” looks like an excuse for Fox to air an hour-long commercial for KISS’s 1998 reunion album, Psycho Circus (which is a superb album by the best way), the episode is equally a tongue-in-cheek critique on the movie enterprise as an entire, not in contrast to The X-Recordsdata‘ “Hollywood A.D.” or Supernatural‘s “Hollywood Babylon.” After all, each of these episodes aired after Millennium did it first. However at it is core, “…13 Years Later” performs as a riff on B-horror films simply excellent for the Halloween season. Not solely does the ultimate act happen on October thirty first, simply after a Michael Meyers-inspired copycat kill, however the entire thing is framed as a meta tackle how ridiculous most B-horror photos are, with an ending that feels simply as weird as any of the flicks the episode takes the time to name-drop.
“…13 Years Later” could not be extra totally different from Millennium‘s earlier Halloween episode, the melancholy and meditative “The Curse of Frank Black,” however that does not imply there’s no advantage to this one. It is a enjoyable, oddball expertise that feels very unlike most episodes of Millennium (certainly, it was their first actual comedic try within the present’s third and last season), however nonetheless shines due to Henriksen’s deadpan response to the madness of all of it. The episode’s last twist, which we can’t spoil right here, is particularly notable because it re-frames all the episode and retroactively explains simply why it feels so weird in comparison with your traditional Millennium hour. Even over twenty years later, “…13 Years Later” remains to be a enjoyable watch, and definitely value breaking out the outdated DVDs for, particularly round this time of yr.
Millennium is on the market for buy on Amazon and sadly has but to stream.
A former FBI profiler with the power to look contained in the thoughts of a killer begins working for the mysterious Millennium Group which investigates serial killers, conspiracies, the occult, and people obsessive about the top of the millennium.
- Launch Date
- October 25, 1996
- Solid
- Lance Henriksen , Megan Gallagher , Terry O’Quinn , Brittany Tiplady , Klea Scott , Stephen J. Lang , Stephen E. Miller , Invoice Smitrovich
- Seasons
- 3
