Review: HALLOWEEN: H20

MICHAEL MYERS SLAYS ‘EM IN LIKEABLE ‘H20’

(reviewed on ppv)

    After “Scream” revolutionized the horror industry we’ve been bombarded by awful wannabes from other companies. Surprisingly enough, Dimension films (part of the indi Mirimax giant which is part of Disney) seems to be the only studio producing decent horror films, that are, if not as good as “Scream”, at least watchable. “Scream 2”, “The Faculty”, and “Halloween: H20 Twenty Years Later” all fall under this circus tent.
    It was a startling surprise that I actually sat through the entire “H20” film and enjoyed it. The Weinstein bro’s were smart in making every horror film after “Scream” at least have something to do with Kevin Williamson, the horror/teen guru who has had a part in all the above mentioned films. Here he script-doctored “H20”, even if his name isn’t among the credits.
    This film picks up twenty years after the first two Halloween films. The other five (or is it four?) films are non-existant in this newly created “realm”. So forget about those awful other sequels (especially that third film which had nothing to do with Michael Myers per se, just halloween masks). Jamie Lee Curtis is Laurie Strode…er, was Laurie Strode. She faked her death in the eighties and now has a new identity as a head mistress of a lush Californian prep school in the middle of nowhere.
    She’s got a kid, Josh Hartnett, who did a great starring turn in “The Faculty”, and a lover, Chicago Hope doc what’s-his-name? Adam Arkin.
    The catch? It takes place UNDER WATER. H20? Get it? Okay, the catch is really that it’s twenty years to the halloween when good old Laurie was attacked by her bro in the white mask as she was on a cushy babysitting detail. She survived. Apparently so did he. Both are back. It’s halloween. It’s gonna be a bloody mess.
    And it is, for the most part.
    The plot is more or less a classic decoy just to get Strode and Myers for a final showdown that will end…it….all!    
    At an hour and twenty two minutes, the film is short and sweet. It could have used some beefing up I’m sure, but it works out perfectly fine. There are some bad moments (the opening sequence which doesn’t make any sense to the rest of the film except to cameo the kid from "Third Rock from the Sun"), but for the most part it’s a great, spooky, fun little horror film that has a pretty cool ending and enough stars (look…the security guard is none other than LL Cool J!) to pack a good punch. **1/2 (out of ****)