HALLOWEEN: H20 - TWENTY YEARS LATER (Dimension - 1998) Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam Arkin, Josh Hartnett Screenplay by Robert Zappia, Matt Greenberg Produced by Paul Freeman Directed by Steve Miner Running time: 85 minutes
**1/2 (out of four stars)
Alternate Rating: C+
Note: Some may consider portions of the following text to be spoilers. Be forewarned.
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No compendium addressing Hollywood cinema in the 1990s would be complete without a reference to the remarkable effect the works of screenwriter-of-the-moment Kevin Williamson have had on the film industry. Churning out successive blockbusters SCREAM, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, and SCREAM 2 (not to mention TV's latest trendy teen serial, DAWSON'S CREEK), he's reinvigorated the slasher genre to a point where an installment of the venerable HALLOWEEN franchise is not only being treated like an event movie by its handlers at Dimension Films, but looms so fearsome that its competitors have scrambled to avoid matching up against it -- the opening for DISTURBING BEHAVIOUR jumped two weeks, while VIRUS has been shuttled off to 1999. When one considers the relative indifference which met the previous entry in the series a mere three years ago, HALLOWEEN 6: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS, the shift in the climate is obvious.
Mr. Williamson's fingerprints are all over this latest installment, HALLOWEEN: H20 - TWENTY YEARS LATER, as well. An avid fan of the original John Carpenter classic, it's no secret that the current project was originally based on his story (Mr. Williamson eventually took an executive producer credit), and that he drummed up a cameo role on request for actress Janet Leigh. In addition, his now-trademark referential style is clearly evident throughout -- there are obvious nods to key scary films of the past, including the FRIDAY THE 13TH series, PSYCHO, and even PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. (Well, *that* one's just dreadfully frightening.)
The big hook for this 20th anniversary edition, of course, is the return of erstwhile scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, the heroine of the first two films; as such, it's entirely appropriate that she enters the story shrieking her lungs out. Take that, Neve Campbell -- the queen is back in town.
But first, the film opens with a derivative, albeit capable, prologue involving another returning character, nurse Marion (Nancy Stephens), who finds her ominous, darkened house seemingly burgled. As anyone familiar with the slasher genre can tell you, *don't go in there* -- fortunately, she's been in two of these films before, so she knows what she's doing; two neighbourhood boys are dispatched instead to investigate the deathtrap. It all ends rather messily, of course (and echoes -- you guessed it -- the opening scene in SCREAM [which itself referenced HALLOWEEN] by ending with cries of terror falling upon oblivious ears), but director Steve Miner adequately mimics John Carpenter's roaming POV Panavision images and conveys a nice sense of titillating dread during the segment. The preface is capped off with an atmospheric opening credits sequence encapsulating the backstory (and winningly homaging the late Donald Pleasance's character, Dr. Loomis -- whom, in my book, was the series' most intriguing) which conveys two unmistakable points: a) Laurie Strode has faked her death and gone into hiding, and b) homicidal boogeyman (and brother, natch) Michael Myers is coming to get her.
The final confrontation between the estranged siblings is clearly the showcase for the picture, but some forty minutes of maddening banality must be endured first. While The Shape makes his cross-country trek, the film establishes its new characters and revisits Laurie, who's changed her identity and moved to California, leading a low-key life as the headmistress of a posh boarding school. Despite twenty years of anonymity and relative tranquillity, all is not right with our heroine -- for one thing, disconcerting visions of little brother pop up every five minutes or so. The picture so mindlessly overkills with its reinforcement of Laurie's traumatized state (she pops pills, tosses down drinks with utter abandon, and is even referred to in dialogue as a functioning alcoholic) that it all becomes tiresome; any creepy effect generated by her neverending series of Michael Myers-themed hallucinations is sapped. (It doesn't help that the eventual payoff scene is fumbled, either.)
One of the requisites of the slasher genre is fodder for its maniac, and H20 oblingly complies, tossing a quartet of nubile adolescents and a couple of bumbling authority figures into the fray and then numbingly extending copious amounts of uninteresting screentime to these generic, disposable characters. (Ronny, the would-be comic relief in the film, distinguishes himself the most, if only for being perhaps the most incompetent security guard on the planet.) Although it's interesting to consider how it all might have played out had original choices Robert Forster and Charles S. Dutton took on the roles which ultimately went to Adam Arkin and L.L. Cool J, respectively, the weakness lies with the thinly-drawn archetypes thrust upon the actors. The picture's interminable middle stretch is tedious, dreary material, punctuated by Mr. Miner's annoying attempts to elicit cheap shocks by zinging the sound board with every opening door.
The problem is that there's just not enough story to sustain this film; although its running time is already a thin 85 minutes, if one cuts the fat off this flick we could conceivably be looking at a short film. As a result, liberal doses of padding are used to occupy the bulk of the picture, killing time until Michael Myers arrives on the scene in a stolen car (the thought of which, forgive me, always makes me smile -- The Shape may be one bad-ass psychopathic maniac, but he's a mighty careful driver).
The stretch drive of the film, featuring Michael Myers making the rounds and finally facing off against sis Laurie in a fight to the finish, is what we've been waiting for the entire film, and well worth the wait, almost redeeming the preceding monotony. Though none of it is particularly original, it's nonetheless good fun to watch Michael stalk his prey (at one point, Michelle Williams put on a petrified expression that made me break out in a grin) and the sibling combat is about as exciting as a battle with a relentless, unstoppable villain can be. The showdown includes the film's two best moments -- a shot of Myers, just out of reach from his victims, zestfully slashing away, and a terrific cinematic scene which finds Laurie calling out a challenge to the killer as the camera cranes back and an orchestral rendition of John Carpenter's unmistakable theme explodes on the soundtrack. (It'd have been more effective if it were the simple, more elegaic piano original, but no matter.) What really makes the sequence work is the crazed intensity which shines through as Laurie shrieks into the darkness, indicating her shift from hunted to hunter; at that moment, she's the scariest person in the film.
That being said, H20 isn't a noticeably scary film -- it relies more on adrenaline thrills than chills to keep the audience involved -- and for a slasher flick, it's hardly gory; the resolution of a perversely intriguing tyke-in-jeopardy moment is indicative of its toothlessness. It remains to be seen how the sheer predictability of its by-the-numbers plotting is received by savvy audiences -- I don't think it's any coincidence that the (annoying) eight-year old next to me that snuck into the screening was able to both correctly identify SCREAM 2 as the video tape playing onscreen and accurately (and loudly) assess the fates of the various extraneous characters.
Among the three key horror franchises which emerged from the slasher era, HALLOWEEN is the sole survivor, having watched Wes Craven's A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET gracefully bow out and FRIDAY THE 13TH go belly-up (although rumblings still persist about a Freddy vs. Jason project in the works, God forbid -- in terms of charisma, it's a mismatch). Like all sequels of this genre, this film ends with a note of perceived finality, made all the more convincing by the characters involved and the manner in which it's dispatched. Still, I don't buy it -- considering the plethora of inventive previous demises and after all he's been through, do we really have a reason to believe they can keep a good man down?
- Alex Fung
email: aw220@freenet.carleton.ca
web : http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/
-- Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca) | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~aw220/ "...a first screenplay unaccompanied by a powerful agent or industry sponsor is generally a pathetic fetus of a film, nothing more." - Andrew Sarris
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