Not the best but not the worst (Halloween H20 - Twenty Years Later (DVD))

Member Name: mmintfresh

Product:	Halloween H20 - Twenty Years Later (DVD)
Date:	05/06/02 (65 review reads)
Rating:

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Halloween H20 sees the return of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), Michael Myers's original victim. She now goes by the name of Keri Tate after she faked her death to finally be free of her homicidal brother. She is the Prinicpal of a top private school which her son, John (Josh Hartnett) attends along with his girlfriend Molly(Michelle Williams) and friends Sarah (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) and Charlie (Adam Hann-Byrd). Keri is having bad dreams about what happened to her on Halloween 20 years ago and is worried about her son because he is the same age as she was when she met Michael. John tells her that she needs to get over it and that Michael Myers is dead, but her worrying is not in vain.

Micael Myers isn't dead. He first raids Dr Loomis's (Donald Pleasence's character who died in Halloween 6) nurses house and finds all the files on Laurie's and fidns out where she is. He then makes his way to her killing everyone who gets in his way. Meanwhile John, Molly, Sarah and Charlie are skiving off a camping trip to stay at school alone.

It has defintely been hit and miss with the Halloween movies. Halloween was a sppoky classic, Halloween 3 was about killer masks and was really, really stupid. Halloween 4 was okayish but Halloween 6 was ridiculous. So I sat down to watch this film with some skepticism over whether it would be good or bad. I discovered that H2O is basically a Halloween for the Scream generation.

The film is very much centred around teens, which has always been a feature of the Halloween franchise but these are the new breed of horror teens who appear in every teen horror around and are far less disposable. Jamie Lee Curtis's return to Halloween should have been a joyus occasion and at first she is the Laurie that we all recognise, vunerable but also quite strong like she was in the first film however as the film progresses she seems to become a have a go hero who wants to stop Michael one and for all, a
cliche that is involved whenever a horror film heroines arch enemy come back.

The script itself is nothing original when you compare it to the Halloween movies or any stalk and slash movies. A killer after a certain victim who will stop at nothing to get her or very seldom him. The film briefly touches on Lauire's troubled life but is more about the teenagers setting themselves up (along in an empty school on Halloween night) to be picked off one by one. There are some massive plot holes when you look back at the other 6 Halloween movies except the original. Halloween 4,5 and 6 are pratically ignored, no mention of Laurie's daughter or that damned curse Michael has to kill his family (what was up with that). I think it was a good touch that Lomis was mentioned but for people who haven't seen the other movies will completely miss this bit.

*SPOLIER*
Michael Myers is the same as ever although he has more respect for human life in this film, before he would never let a little girl and her mother go free or never leave someone half dead but he does here. He is still indestructable and is much like Jason he can keep taking the hits, but if the Thor curse thing is applicable that is the reason why. What really annopyed me about him was the ending. People I know who had seen it were saying, he's dead he's dead but of course Michael is not dead he always comes back, I think he would have died by now if he couldn't survive a little decapitation.
*END OF SPOLIER*

The film is film starts off as being perhaps a more honorable addition to the Halloween films where characters are established and the film is not made up of stalk sequence after stalk sequence but as the film progresses it descends into that territory and the last half hour is just people running away like pussys.

Although this isn't the worst Halloween film (I think number 3 is) it also isn't the best. Fans of trendy stalk and slash movies
will like it but those who don't like those films or those hoping that a Halloween movie could actually be good again will be advised to steer clear.

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