“Never believe anything you see on Halloween.” That’s the Reverend M. Goodman quote that opens up Millennium‘s second Halloween-themed episode, “…Thirteen Years Later,” and immediately units the temper for this uncommon and spooky hour of tv. If this had been your first foray into the world of Millennium, you’d in all probability be questioning what a star like Lance Henriksen can be doing on a present like this. Let or not it’s identified that, whereas the Chris Carter-created collection did partake in some excessive strangeness in its three brief seasons, no episode is sort of like this one. Blending Halloween and B-horror motion pictures with the rock band KISS is a bit uncanny, little question, however this can be a journey you may always remember. As the community’s personal promotion boasted, “If you like slasher films… You’re gonna love this. Blood, guts and music’s wildest band. Don’t miss one hell of a show.”

‘Millennium’s Second Halloween Episode Is Like a Fever Dream

Thirteen years after FBI profiler Frank Black was final within the small city of Trinity, South Carolina, investigating a string of homicides he helped clear up, he and his new accomplice Emma Hollis (Klea Scott) return to analyze a brand new set of murders. Unfortunately for Frank, the city is now the epicenter of a B-horror image very loosely based mostly 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 components within the episode, too. Stanley performs the murdered director Lew Carroll; Simmons reveals up because the pretend killer, Hector Leachman; and Frehley and Criss cameo as “Sick Cop” and “Nice Cop,” respectively. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their on-stage personas, Simmons and Stanley particularly give advantageous 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 as soon as aptly famous that, “[KISS is] a wonderful circus,” highlighting the appearing skills of just a few of them. Of course, KISS has their very own distinctive historical past of movie and tv appearances, however this episode of Millennium takes all of it to the subsequent stage.

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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 would not have an ordinary felony profile (which almost drives Frank insane, “for the third time in his life”). Instead, the killer takes direct inspiration from the horror motion pictures airing regionally every night time main as much as Halloween. That means Halloween, Friday the thirteenth, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre are all truthful recreation because the brokers try 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 individuals right here, the self-absorbed and “fake” Hollywood varieties who refuse to take any of the hazard significantly.

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“…Thirteen Years Later” Is a Strange Ode to B-Horror Flicks Everywhere

As a lot as “…Thirteen 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 a complete, not not like The X-Files‘ “Hollywood A.D.” or Supernatural‘s “Hollywood Babylon.” Of course, each of these episodes aired after Millennium did it first. But at it is core, “…Thirteen Years Later” performs as a riff on B-horror motion pictures 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.

“…Thirteen Years Later” could not be extra completely 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’s a enjoyable, oddball expertise that feels very not like most episodes of Millennium (certainly, it was their first actual comedic try within the present’s third and ultimate season), however nonetheless shines as a result of of Henriksen’s deadpan response to the madness of all of it. The episode’s ultimate twist, which we cannot spoil right here, is very notable because it re-frames the whole episode and retroactively explains simply why it feels so weird in comparison with your typical Millennium hour. Even over twenty years later, “…Thirteen Years Later” remains to be a enjoyable watch, and definitely value breaking out the previous DVDs for, particularly round this time of yr.

Millennium is accessible for buy on Amazon and sadly has but to stream.

A former FBI profiler with the flexibility 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.

Release Date

October 25, 1996

Cast

Lance Henriksen , Megan Gallagher , Terry O’Quinn , Brittany Tiplady , Klea Scott , Stephen J. Lang , Stephen E. Miller , Bill Smitrovich

Seasons

3

Buy on Amazon