Fuji reviews Halloween: H20

[Fuji Vice]

Halloween: H20


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On Halloween in 1963, Michael Myers murdered his sister, Judith. In 1978, he broke out to kill his other sister, Laurie Strode. He killed all of her friends, but she escaped. A few years later, she faked her death so he couldn't find her. But now, in 1998, Michael has returned and found out where she's hiding. He tracks her down to a private school where she has assumed a new name and has a teenage son, John. Now, Laurie must do what she should have done a long time ago and finally put an end to Michael’s evil once and for all.

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Before I begin the review proper, I just want to mention that I HATE posters like the one they made for this movie. There's just nothing scary or suspenseful about it at all and the fact that LL Cool J is prominently featured on it is just asinine. I mean really, who the hell are they marketing this movie to, horror fans or hip hop ones? I refuse to believe those two groups are one and the same and so I wish a curse upon that poster for all eternity. Anyhow, bad poster aside, Halloween H20 was released in 1998, the twenty-year anniversary of the original film’s debut. It was meant to be both a return to form as well as a new direction for the series, bringing back the original “final girlâ€, Laurie Strode while giving us some new blood in the form of a young and hot cast. At the same time, it sought to take the extremely bad taste of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers out of everyone’s mouth and, in a way, it did manage to do so. However, the cost was extremely high, as the canon of the previous three films was thrown away in favour of a sequel that was meant to bridge Part II with this film. I don’t take too much issue with that given only Halloween IV was a good movie (I like 5 as a guilty pleasure mind you) but the very notion of ignoring canon pisses me off to no end. It’s like a slap to the face of everyone involved in any of those films (good or bad) and really just shouldn’t be done. Unfortunately, it was, and the end result was Halloween: H20, a flawed but somewhat entertaining horror film that will forever remain one of the most divisive among fans of the series.

"Lashing out because his mask doesn't fit properly."
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Directed by Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part II and III, Warlock) and written by Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg (The Prophecy II) from Zappia’s original story, the film can be classified as a “reset†of the series, as opposed to the more popular term of “rebootâ€. Clearly the idea of producer Paul Freeman here was to erase all the bad karma he’d personally created by brutalizing the last Halloween film with his insane edits. Luckily this film suffers no such bad editing, but at the same time it doesn’t really DO anything to rise above the level of a simple slasher. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you’re trying to make a simple slasher, but for some reason I feel they wanted to do a whole lot more with this movie. There are a lot of themes on display here, from the classic eternal struggle between good and evil to the inability of parent’s being able to let go of their children. Unfortunately these themes are never fully realized as Miner was too busy trying to recreate the original Halloween’s atmosphere to relatively poor effect. I didn’t need to see 8 shots of Myers silhouette in windows to know he was out there; after all he appears on-screen less than five minutes into the damn movie! While Miner has proven capable of carving out solid sequels in the past (Friday the 13th Part II is still one of the best of that series) he seems pretty uninspired here, never really shooting for the type of creativity that I believe the script desired.

"Still having nightmares about growing up with Tony Curtis for a father!"
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Getting Jamie Lee Curtis back into the Halloween family had to be the biggest coup for the producers and to be fair to her; she gives a very good performance. After spending the last twenty years honing her skills as an actress, Curtis is much more capable of being convincing as Laurie Strode than she was as a teenager. The layering of anguish she shows is quite pronounced throughout; this is a woman who has been severely scarred by the events that occurred all those years ago and she’s got the mental scars to prove it. The unfortunate part here is that while Curtis IS the star of the film and should be the ultimate focus, the majority of it is spent on her son and his friends, thereby removing the best performer you’ve got in the film for too long at times. Of course these characters, played by Josh Hartnett (in his first film), Michelle Williams (who was friendly with Miner from their time spent together on Dawson’s Creek), Adam Hann-Byrd and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, are typically bland, cookie-cutter types who I couldn’t care less about. In fact, a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt appears early on in the film and shows more acting prowess than all of them combined in about a fraction of the time! LL Cool J also appears in this film and once again, I just couldn’t care less because while I’m a fan of the man’s music I think his acting is deplorable. Finally, Janet Leigh is pretty solid in her small role and I'm always a fan of her and Jamie appearing on-screen together. In fact, here she even gets in a line about "being maternal" for a moment, which I thought was a very nice touch.

"See, even Michael Myers hates Josh Hartnett."
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When I mentioned a lot of the stuff here is uninspired, I wasn't kidding. Hell, even the film's best sequence, a fairly tense scene which takes place in a dumb waiter, is simply a rip-off of the much better air duct one from Halloween V. The Halloween films have never really been known for their outrageously awesome kills either, but they're just really, really bland here, consisting of stabbing, stabbing and hey, more stabbing! Not only that, there are hardly any kills on display at all. If you add them up (including the one's you don't actually see) you get a grand total of seven, which is pretty low for a slasher sequel. I will admit that the money shot of the film, in which Laurie first sees Myers again after all these years through the window, is handled really well and is easily the best in the film. Unfortunately that shot also happens to be all of 4 seconds and then its right back to slasher 101, where we at least get to see LL Cool J shot, though he sadly doesn't die. One thing I did find myself enjoying in the film was the musical score, by John Ottman, Jeremy Sweet and Marco Beltrami is quite good, echoing the original theme while adding a lot of suspense to scenes where the acting alone wasn’t going to do it. The “final†showdown between Laurie and Michael is also handled pretty well and it’s just a shame that it feels like it takes such a long time to get to it. While I’m sure it wasn’t the intention of the producers or the director, Halloween: H20’s subtitle of “20 Years Later†is quite appropriate; this film feels like it takes 20 years to get through, and most of those years are pretty damn bad. 4/10.

"Coming up tomorrow...Busta Rhymes?"
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[The Viper]

Excellent review but man, I disagree with the rating. Pretty much all my life, I've been a Halloween fan. It was my first horror movie when I was around 5 or 6 and it's never changed as my favorite horror series ever but I never went back to watch the old ones. I don't know why, I just never went to Blockbuster and rented them. Then I saw commercials for H20 coming and I was excited but since I was only 7 or 8, my parents wouldn't let me see it. So, I literally had to wait until 2001 to see it at a friends house. He bought the VHS and I snuck to his place and watched (still wasn't able to watch it which is why I had to sneak over there) and LOVED IT.

Then I watched it again and still loved it. I just never got around to not enjoying it. Sometimes that happens as I get older, but with this movie, it didn't. Holds a special place in my heart. I'm actually gonna watch it again tonight because of this review so thank you.

Oh and I thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt was terrific in his role. Trying to intimidate Michael swinging his hockey stick, saying he was suspended from school because he beat his teacher with the stick. Great stuff and other than Laurie (or whatever her new name was) and of course Michael, he was my favorite character in the whole movie.

 

[Fuji Vice]

The rating doesn't always indicate whether I loved the movie or not though. For example, I've rated both Q: The Winged Serpent and The Swarm 1/10 yet I watch both at least once a year because I love them. Are they good movies though? Absolutely not. :

The number I give is more exemplary of everything about the movie, from the script, acting and direction all the way through the special effects, makeup and score. To me, H20 fails on a lot of levels, but is still entertaining and has some re-watch value for sure. Seeing as that's the case, I'd stick with it as a 4/10 for the movie itself, but maybe a 6/10 for personal feelings. Does any of that make sense? :

Also, yes, not counting Laurie, JGL's Jimmy is the best character in the movie for sure. It's just too bad he only makes it through the first five minutes.