Kicking of Michael Myers Week: H20

I thought I would go ahead and get started on a week of Halloween, doing so in the middle of the month so I could save the last few days for Vincent Price and William Castle.

I just kind of chose Halloween H20 randomly from the selection of Myers films. You know, this is over and done in 80 minutes. Little fat, (and not a lot of meat on the bones, to tell you the truth), this is slim pickings. It is distilled of little in the way of characterization beyond Laurie’s troubles twenty years later to move on from Michael, always fearing he’s on the verge of finishing what he started in Haddonfield in ’78. Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Mikey is coming for Laurie and the two will finally conclude their *family rivalry*.

This film does provide a decent avenue for how Michael finds her. It is far-fetched (wouldn’t witness protection include Loomis not knowing where she is?), but reasonable to deduce Michael could use information found where Loomis was taken care of (by the nurse riding in the car with him when Michael fled the sanatorium back in ’78). Of course, tying up loose ends, the nurse, one of Myers’ few non-victims, gets the knife slice to the throat to silence her once and for all. How Michael found her, however, could be scrutinized (that, and where has this guy been for the twenty?). It gets Michael to this affluent private school in a California region quite a spell away from Illinois. Michael knows his way around America, cross country. He stops for a pee break so he can snatch the SUV of a soccer mom, herself with a daughter taking wee-wee at a off-the-beaten-path restroom area.

LL Cool J guest-starring makes sense if you consider the time when this film was made. Scream and its ilk (Part 2 was shown momentarily with Buffy on the phone with a Ghost Face killer) were the rage and casting familiar faces that could further draw attendance to your film. Steve Miner could say that he directed both Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, and perhaps Myers gets the better end of the deal in terms of production values. In terms of quality, Jamie Lee gives herself one more time to the part that launched her early Scream Queen career.

I will just ignore the next film and consider it a standalone monstrosity no worth my time. This film to me is the conclusion of the Laurie / Michael story in relation to Carpenter’s film. I remain a bit pissed off that Curtis would agree to the next film, and how they treat Laurie just made me sick. Anyway, enough of giving any feeling towards Resurrection (a good way for a film to kill a franchise not give it new life), H20 doesn’t set the world on fire with its plot. It is quite simple, but Miner takes the money provided to him thanks to the resurrection of the slasher film and shoots an attractive movie. He uses the screenplay which gives Michael the *unstoppable force* persona (he’s simply not human to take the measure of damage that is inflicted on him) and makes him a menace in the grand form the character is known to be.

Laurie has a new name and 17 year old kid (Josh Hartnett, in his first performance), a brand new life, in a gated school administration. Michelle Williams, Adam Hann-Byrd, and Jodi Lyn O’Keefe were casting choices aiming for a specific demographic. Adam Arkin is Curtis’ psychologist boyfriend and sexual partner who she reveals her nightmarish secret to. Arkin is too good an actor to be in such a rather inconsequential part but he’s game to make the most of it. His demise is rather memorable the way he jerks and shakes as Michael buries a knife in and lifts him off his feet. Michael takes a large rock to the face, ax to the chest, multiple knife wounds, and a fire extinguisher to the back of the skull (oh, and a few shots to his torso by a fireplace poker)…if this doesn’t ask you to stretch credibility, nothing will. It is that killing machine mentality that urges Michael on despite his injuries. I do think the film tries to have it both ways: Michael is “Laurie’s brother” and “The Shape”. I could dissect the film of its weaknesses, but the point is I liked it when you get down to Michael and Laurie and she’s allowed to finally put a stop to the monster that never goes away. This is the ultimate revenge of twenty years worth of terror Laurie has been unable to relinquish. That ax chop beheading allowed Laurie to finally conquer her demons. Just avoid the ludicrous opening of Resurrection in how Michael survives and bask in the victory Laurie secures for herself. That ending is fascinating: Michael is now vulnerable and reaching out for sympathy, while the one tormented so long is fresh out.

I think Curtis did well with the character in terms of the booze and anxiety, even reminded of her struggle while teaching Frankenstein in Lit class. Oh, and Janet Leigh getting to perform as a secretary, maternally offering her support to Curtis after scaring her accidentally, admitting, “Well, it’s Halloween, everone’s entitled to one good scare…” is a riot! Her car from Psycho just cemented a nice sense of humor. It helps. Leigh’s involvement, no matter how small (it reminded me of her work in The Fog), is a blast considering she shares the screen with Curtis. But Curtis and that ax hunting down Michael is a cool moment in the film, where a victim decides she will no longer tolerate her tormenter to continue coming after her.