<< Prev | Page1 | Page 2 | Page 3

Halloween: H20 – Twenty Years Later
"It just occurred to me today that I've never celebrated Halloween before."

"And why's that?"

"Oh, we've got a psychotic serial killer in the family who loves to butcher people on Halloween, and I just thought it in bad taste to celebrate." – John Strode to his girlfriend Molly

I was excited when I learned that Kevin Williamson, who’d reinvigorated the floundering slasher sub genre with 1996’s Scream wanted to take control of the Halloween series and put it back on track. It seemed only fitting, as Scream had been a loving tribute to the original Halloween. I was super hyped when I learned that Jamie Lee Curtis was going reprise her role from the original to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the series, as well as give it a fitting final installment.

However, there’s something seriously amiss in Halloween: H20, and it’s not just the absence of Donald Pleasance from the series for the first time. It looks and feels like a product of the late '90s Dimension crap factory. Its script is rife with post-Scream irony and sense of smugness and condescension to its material. I didn’t like it and despite its box office success, I wasn’t alone. The relative merits or lack thereof of H20 are still debated to this day.

I am eternally grateful that the filmmakers decided to drop the idiotic druid plot line and try to continue the story of the original. Or at least the story of Halloween II, as the whole bullshit Laurie/Michael connection is once again trotted out. Like I said, I had expected the Scream inspired postmodern irony (which was already tired when H20 came out and wasn’t worn well in the interim). What I hadn’t expected is a slasher film without much slashing or a horror film without any horror. Worst of all, director Steve Miner fails to build tension or suspense; H20 is loaded with set ups that don’t pay off. It’s also far too plot heavy for a slasher film, and with the exception of a passable pre-credit sequence, nothing much happens until an hour into this 85 minute movie. The final showdown between Micahel Myers and Laurie Strode doesn’t have enough zing to pay off an hour’s wait. It’s surprising that the direction is so flat considering that Miner is a genre veteran, with credits such as Friday the 13th Parts 2 & 3, the underrated Warlock and House to his name.

In its favor it does have slick production values and one of the strongest cast of the series, and the ending that I’d been waiting forever to see in a slasher film. I actually stood up and clapped at the big payoff, much to the surprise of my two female companions and the chagrin of the people sitting behind me. 

My opinion of H20 has softened in the intervening years, probably due in large part to having seen Halloween: Resurrection. And as far as I’m concerned, the Halloween movies stopped being Halloween movies when Donald Pleasence died. The dumb title is a tip off that it is less a sequel or tribute to the original and more of a marketing gimmick to ensnare those with fond memories of Carpenter’s film and to distance it from previous sequels. At the very least it makes a decent exit point for the series. On that level, and few others, it works.

Halloween: Resurrection
“Trick or treat, mother fucker!”  – Freddie Harris 

I’d really rather not say anything about this crap fest. However, seeing as this article is about the entire Halloween series I imagine I’m duty-bound to mention it.

It fucking sucks.
That’s really all you need to know.

I can forgive the obscene and disrespectful dispatching of Jamie Lee Curtis’s character right off the bat. Really, I can. I understand that she was under contract to be in this film, and rather than leave her story open for sequels in which she wouldn’t appear, they wanted to finish her off for good. I’m bothered by how they did it, but not to the point that I couldn’t have forgiven it if the rest of the movie was up to snuff. One thing I cannot forgive is a filmmaker assuming I’m a total idiot and treating me as such. Halloween: Resurrection is a complete garbage heap littered with plot holes, illogical character actions and a lame technical hook (concerning a web-based reality broadcast from the Myers house) that just smacks of gimmicky desperation.

Poor Katee Sackhoff.  With this black mark on her resume, it a wonder that she was given the chance to redeem herself in the current incarnation of Battlestar Galactica. Thomas Ian Nichols (American Pie) can barely wipe his perma-smirk off his face long enough to get sliced up. Busta Ryhmes and Tyra Banks are also in the film in a crass and insulting attempt to appeal to the “urban” market. The rest of the cast is padded out with nobodies who’ve gone on to do nothing.

Most of the Halloween sequels are pretty crappy, but for the most part they at least try; some minimal amount of passion and craft went into their making. Resurrection, however, is the first that is actually unwatchable. It’s possibly the worst slasher sequel ever, except for maybe the Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation. Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 is better. Friday the 13th - A New Beginning is better. Even Freddy’s Dead is better. Halloween: Resurrection fails on every level it possibly could. I’m sure it has even found a few new level on which to suck.  If I were an overly melodramatic person, I’d say that this film raped my childhood and shit on the legacy of the original. However, that’d be a little silly considering that I’m pushing 30 and far too old to be lamenting my lost childhood, and the legacy of the original is doing just fine, thank you sir.

Sometimes I have contests with friends to see who can pick the worse film. We each pick a movie and watch them back-to-back; the loser buys the beer. Simply put: I’ve never lost the contest when I’ve used Halloween: Resurrection as my choice.

Halloween: The Remake
Scheduled for release in October 2007 is Rob Zombie’s “re-imagining” of the Carpenter original. I’m not a huge fan of Zombie’s first two films; House of 1,000 Corpses was an ungodly mess and The Devil’s Rejects, while effectively recreating the look of a '70s drive-in picture, had a nasty and hateful misogynist undertone. I’m keeping an open mind, however. If there’s one thing this series needs, it’s a shot in the arm and this may just be the move that does it. Zombie is nothing if not faithful to the spirit of the films he pays homage to, and the nastiness of his last film really isn’t in keeping with the Halloween series, which has been (for the most part, at least) more restrained than it’s successive clones. The official word is that the new Halloween will be part remake, part re-imagining and part “side-quel”. Not sure how promising this sounds, but who knows? I’ve been surprised by the generally high quality of genre remakes lately, so this could be the breath of life that the series needs at this point. With the death last year of Moustapha Akkad (who I’m convinced would’ve found ways to finance continuous Halloween sequels no matter how unprofitable they were), it looks like the future of the series hinges on the success or failure of Rob Zombie’s redux.

Final Thoughts

The original Halloween will be close to me forever, though.

The original Halloween is family. 

<< Prev | Page1 | Page 2 | Page 3