In a summer full of overlong epics like ``Armageddon'' and ``The Mask of Zorro,'' a modest quickie like ``Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later'' seems refreshingly unpretentious, even though it takes almost as long to pronounce that unwieldly title as it does to watch the movie. But here's a case in which brevity is something of a handicap.
There are some intriguing issues bubbling just below the blood-spattered surface of ``H20,'' which brings Jamie Lee Curtis of the original two ``Halloween'' movies to restore some much-needed class to the slasher-flick genre, but the film's 85-minute running time leaves scores of irritating unanswered questions and unresolved issues.
All right, no one buying a ticket for ``H20'' is going in expecting an insightful study of human nature, but much of the movie's first hour devotes itself to detailing the disturbing, fragile bond between Curtis' character Laurie Strode and her 17-year-old son John (Josh Hartnett).
Still traumatized from her violent brushes with her psychotic brother Michael Myers, Laurie now lives under the alias of Keri Tate and oversees Hillcrest, an exclusive prep school. She's referred to by John as a ``functioning alcoholic,'' which apparently means she can pound glasses of chardonnay at lunch, down a triple-vodka at dinner and still have the energy to harangue Hillcrest's useless security guard (LL Cool J).
Director Steve Miner, whose previous films include the clever sleeper ``Warlock,'' manages to sustain a fair level of tension as Laurie's drink-induced hallucinations of Michael give way to the all-too-real thing, the chalky-faced killing machine who shows up at school while the kids are away on a Halloween field trip. While family counseling might have worked wonders for other siblings in similar situations, Laurie and Michael prefer to resolve their differences with big knives, heavy machinery and the always-reliable fireman's ax.
Curtis is both ``H20' ''s trump card and its biggest problem, the trouble being that she does such a fine job of illuminating Laurie's hollow shell of a life that we can't help but want to know more about her and how she's managed to keep it together for as long as she has. There's considerably more attention paid to characterization here than one would expect in a horror film, and that may cause ``H20'' to seem slightly sluggish to fans raised on the high-energy, hip wit of the ``Scream'' movies.
James Sanford
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