“Michael Myers is back to continue what he started: a bloodfest of horror and terror in “Halloween H20.” Unfortunately, he’s lost his touch and failed to please.
The story begins simple enough. It has been 20 years since Michael Myer’s bloody reign originally began. Believed to be dead, we discover that he is still alive and still intent on killing his sister, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). To escape her past Laurie faked her death and lives under the alias Keri Tate with her 17-year-old son, John (Josh Hartnett). She is now the head mistress of a secluded private school, the final setting in which the majority of killings are to occur.
When I decided to go see this film I thought I was in for a good scare. Boy, was I ever wrong. As I remember, the original Halloween was scary and suspenseful. Yet when I saw “H20” I found myself not being frightened but predicting every single thing about to happen. For example, there is one scene where Michael Myers’ car breaks down at a rest stop. There’s a woman and a little girl trying to use the bathrooms. The suspense was building all along but I knew they wouldn’t die because if he killed the mother, you would have to explain what he would do to the little girl. Of course he didn’t kill them, he just took their bag with their car keys in it, a strange thing for a serial killer to do. Not once was I scared or left in suspense, two key characteristics of a horror movie. The story also seemed very short. Michael got to the school, killed three people and minutes later it was all over.
I kept thinking that there could have been so much more to the story line. For example, the movie takes place at a school. If the writer had developed more teen characters, there could have been more scenarios where Michael Myers could have killed them. The story line itself wasn’t very original because it followed the same pattern as “Scream.” It’s no wonder, considering both films involved Kevin Williamson (he is a co-executive producer of “Halloween: H20”). Surely there could have been a better way of telling the story. In the end, I left the theater very disappointed.
The film is scheduled to be re-released in theaters on October 31 along with the original “Halloween.” Stay away from “Halloween: H20” but go see the original “Halloween.”
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