THE AISLE SEAT - "HALLOWEEN: H20"
by Mike McGranaghan
When it was released in 1978, John Carpenter's Halloween instantly became a horror classic. It was not the first movie made about a mad slasher, nor was it the last. However, it had intelligence and savvy; when confronted with the maniacal Michael Myers, star Jamie Lee Curtis fought back. Like many horror movies, Halloween was followed by a series of lousy sequels. To mark the original's 20th anniversary, there is another: Halloween: H20, which more or less ignores the other sequels and picks up the story two decades later.
The movie opens in much the same way that the Scream pictures have, with a little introductory section in which a young actor (in this case "3rd Rock From the Sun" star Joseph Gordon-Levitt) gets murdered by the masked killer. We then move to the main story, in which we learn that Laurie Strode (Curtis), the heroine from the original, is now the headmistress of a prep school in California. She is also living under a new name with her son John (Josh Hartlett). Even after two decades, Laurie is afraid of her murderous brother Michael Myers; she never actually saw him die and realizes that it's possible he is still out there somewhere. John tells her to stop worrying about it, but every October 31, she turns into a basket case.
This Halloween is no different. All the students have left for a trip. The only four who remain are John and his girlfriend Molly ("Dawson's Creek" star Michelle Williams) and another young couple. They have decided it would be more fun to have a Halloween make-out party than to visit Yosemite National Park. Because the school has electronic gates that can only be opened by Ronnie the security guard (LL Cool J), the kids are locked in. As you no doubt guessed, Michael does indeed decide to return on this anniversary, and he manages to get inside the gates where he begins stalking everyone.
H20 returns to the classic formula of the original. Everybody remembers how scary that film was, but if you go back and look at it, you'll see that the terror really only came during the final act. Most of the film was spent building up to the terrifying conclusion. H20 does the same thing. The first hour is set-up, as Michael Myers makes his way to the prep school. The last 30 minutes are the actual attack as he takes out his wrath on the kids, and Laurie struggles to kill him once and for all. I like this approach because it builds tension, as opposed to just seeing how many bodies can be hacked apart in 90 minutes.
The other interesting thing is that this is a horror movie with half a brain in its head. The story (which was conceived by Scream writer Kevin Williamson, who also did an uncredited polish on the script) takes Laurie's trauma seriously. This woman has demons in her past that affect her current life, including her romance with the guidance counselor (Adam Arkin). There is a sense of things being left unfinished for her. When Myers finally arrives, she is determined to put some closure on things. Maybe she'll be killed, maybe she'll do the killing. Either way, she's going to get rid of this guy permanently. Having this scenario makes the movie tense when the two finally meet again. It isn't about whether or not Laurie will get ripped apart; it's about whether or not she can make sure Michael is dead.
Halloween: H20 works on a couple levels. It's a witty semi-satire on the horror genre that fits perfectly into the Scream/I Know What You Did Last Summer formula. It's also scary during the climactic showdown between brother and sister. There's even a small, unexpected moment of reconciliation between the two before the real killing begins.
I think horror movies work because they are a safe way for the audience to deal with fears about death. By the end of the movie, there is usually only one person left standing. That person is the survivor. By making it all the way through the film, we have survived along with them. The audience has confronted its fears and grasped upon its survival instincts in a safe environment. Halloween: H20 is certainly not great art, but as a horror movie, it works on that primal level. You get extremely tense, then leave the theater feeling strangely triumphant.
(
out of four)
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