Halloween: H2O Review
by Bob Bloom (bloom AT courier-journal DOT com)January 24th, 1999
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Adam Arkin 1 1/2 stars out of 4
Twenty years ago Halloween was a groundbreaker, an intense, scary, shockfest that held you breathless from start to finish.
It introduced most of the modus operendi of what became known as the "slasher" film; linking sexual promiscuity, especially that of teen-age girls, to death; the jump-into-frame bump; the unstoppable killer.
Without Halloween, they'd be no Jasons and no Freddie Kruegers. I will leave it to the sociologists to determine whether that is a good or bad thing.
Kevin Williamson, the writer of Scream and Scream 2, was profoundly influenced by Halloween. It's obvious in his works.
Now, he serves as executive producer of Halloween H2O: 20 Years Later, a cumbersome title for a cumbersome movie.
Williamson probably meant this film as a tribute to a work that set him on his career course. Unfortunately, his writers and director have done a hack job with this latest incarnation in the deadly exploits of Michael Myers.
Ignorning all the sequels that came after Halloween 2, H2O's story picks up 20 years after that infamous Halloween night back in Illinois in which Michael massacred half the teen-age population.
His sister, Laurie Strode, has changed her name to Keri Tate and is headmistress at a private school in northern California. Reprising her role as Laurie is Jamie Lee Curtis.
Her Laurie/Keri is a single mom, a closet alcoholic beset by nightmares about Michael coming after her.
And so he does. No explanation is given for where Michael came from or how he even knew how to begin to look for his long-lost sister.
But before you can say butcher knife, Michael has murdered his way to California and is making plans to skewer Laurie and anyone else within his grasp.
H2O is a pale imitation of the original. But, to be fair, this is not so much the fault of the filmmakers, as it is with the changing times.
So many films has copied and ripped off the original Halloween formula that instead of being one step behind the filmmaker, as in the original, the audience is one step ahead.
Yes H2O offers some frights. It has its share of people jumping out of corners into into the frame, red-herring screeching music that sets the audience on edge, but signifies nothing. Yet it is now so familiar, so predictable that it elicits laughs instead of screams.
H2O may be meant as a homage, but nearly comes off as parody, especially in the over-the-top finale.
Curtis is too good an actress to allow the weak material to underwhelm her. She makes Laurie/Keri's fears palatable. She does not condescend to the material. It's a shame the script never is able to reach her artistic level.
The rest of the cast is merely there to be victims. Adam Arkin really has nothing to do as the school's counselor, who also happens to be Laurie's lover.
Only LL Cool J as the school's romance-writing security guard offers some originality.
Other Halloween H2O is merely just another cliched entry into the overstuffed trunk of slasher films. And it's a sad commentary on the audience that we can laugh at all these gruesome proceedings without feeling a bit of pity or empathy for the plight of those Michael is stalking.
The vast number of these movies have so overwhelmed our senses that we have become immune to any normal reaction - except perhaps to keep a body count.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. You can reach him by e-mail at [email protected]
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