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Michael Myers,
what a persistent boy our knife-fettished friend is. This is his seventh consecutive
appearance, and something like his 40th chance at revenge (he must be pondering
- "why don't they just die?") Anti-esque of several grating cliches
most horror flicks assimilate into their scripts, at least H20 makes a serious
attempt to avoid the overacted pauses, the hokey thriller romance (a few scenes
actually mock at this), and the moments of contrived suspense where a victim
helplessly stands without running, waiting until the predator is inches away
before initializing any sort of thinking ability. But you still have to kill
the mute freak 4 or 5 times.
While most stars have to be begged to memorize reincarnated lines of past movie successes, Jamie Lee Curtis pushed for the H20 project (maybe it's her way of saluting the first of the overdone series, which launched her acting career). Curtis plays Keri Tate (a name she adopted from her previous Laurie Strode to forget the past) who beheads a pompous California private school. Her son attends the school, Tate has a romane with the guidance counselor (Adam Arkin), liquor is her meditation, and she still conveniently sees her monster brother (a benefit to the plot later on). Her son stays home from a school camping trip, left alone with the mindless beast of a brother to his mom, and therefore the whole familia is left entangled in the rage against the past. A simple plot that works because it's horror.
The directing and production design of H20 is carbon-copied from the 70s - Hollywood should be beyond this minute sensibility in action. Thrill-seekers won't be stunned but they won't be bored.
Dodging
Halloween's 2-6, and simply resorting as a sequel to Gory Pumpkin
Night 1, H20 scatters futile but narrow plot. Starring Jamie
Lee Curtis, Cuba Gooding Jr., Michelle Williams. Dir: Steve Miner