Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by
Pioneer Entertainment Europe

Cat.no: PLFEB 37691

Cert: 18

Running time: 83 minutes

Sides: 2 (CLV/CAV)

Year: 1998

Pressing: 1999

Chapters: 13 (7/6)

Sound: Dolby Surround

Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)

Price: £19.99

Extras : None

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Director:

Steve Miner (Forever Young, Friday the 13th 1-3, House)

Producer:

Paul Freeman

Screenplay

Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg

Music:

John Ottman

Cast:

Laurie Strode/Keri Tate: Jamie Lee Curtis (Blue Steel, A Fish Called Wanda, Fierce Creatures, The Fog, Halloween 1 & 2, Homegrown, House Arrest, Mother's Boys, My Girl 1 & 2, Trading Places, True Lies)
Will Brennan: Adam Arkin (In The Line of Duty: Hunt for Justice, Not in This Town, TV: Chicago Hope)
Molly: Michelle Williams (Timemaster, TV: Dawson's Creek)
John: Josh Hartnett (The Faculty)
Ronny: LL Cool J (B.A.P.S., The Hard Way, Woo)
Charlie: Adam Hann-Byrd (Diabolique, The Ice Storm, Jumanji, Little Man Tate)
Sarah: Jodi Lyn O'Keefe
Norma: Janet Leigh (The Fog, The Manchurian Candidate, Psycho, Psycho (1998), Touch of Evil, The Vikings, TV: The Man From UNCLE)
Michael Myers: Chris Durand

Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later is just that. It's been 20 years since the horror began as Laurie Strode played babysitter to monster Michael. Her fears were confirmed once again in the sequel as her pants turned a shade of brown every time she caught sight of him. Twenty years later she is the headmistress of a private school and has a new name, Keri Tate. A certain date is creeping up on the calendar and when it does, Michael reappears...

However, what makes a nonsense of the whole thing is that Laurie is no longer just Michael's old babysitter but actually her sister! That's more of a surprise than anything else you'll find out in this film as it plays the obvious line right throughout the duration.

As for the cast, Jamie Lee Curtis spends her entire time screaming loudly, right from the first moment we see her after the opening credits, which themselves come after Michael arrives in Illinois and, literally, makes his presence felt by finishing off Sam Loomis' (Donald Pleasance) old secretary Marion Wittington. Loomis didn't die at the hands of Michael though. We know that Pleasance's last film to hit the big screen (well, video screen in the UK) was "Halloween 6", but "H20" conveniently forgets about parts 3 to 6, so Loomis has equally-conveniently died sometime before this film.

Adam Arkin plays her boyfriend but doesn't have much of a role to get his teeth into and the most dialogue you get out of him comes when she reveals that she isn't really mild-mannered Keri Tate, but scared witless Laurie Strode. LL Cool J is the school security guard but his role is limited too, getting to crack wise for a while before becoming the victim of...well, I won't say.

The teen-brigade, aiming to give this tired film series some burst of life, is led by The Faculty's Josh Hartnett as Laurie's son John and Michelle Williams as his girlfriend Molly, who looks cute but doesn't quite hold up to Sarah Michelle Gellar in the cute pretending-to-be-teenagers stakes. Little Man Tate's Adam Hann-Byrd and Molly's friend Jodi Lyn O'Keefe do little more than take the best-friend role for as long as they can in their tertiary roles until Michael silences them. Finally, Jamie's mother Janet Leigh surfaces as her secretary Norma and you'll remember Ms. Leigh had a problem with chocolate sauce in the shower in Psycho (yes, that's what they used for blood) as well as taking a cameo role in the 1998 almost shot-for-shot remake.

Finally, Michael Myers is portrayed by Chris Durand who goes through the gamut of emotions from A to B as he stumbles around like the Energizer Bunny. When people get hit, thumped or stabbed, they'd at least groan or scream out but he says nothing, falls down, waits a few seconds and then gets up again. Perhaps his display of method acting came from watching The Terminator again and again.

Jamie found out she was
signed up for the next Halloween sequel.

The picture is framed at the original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1, but being shot in Super 35, a fullscreen version will also be acceptable from the clips I've seen as more top and bottom picture information is available. The quality is a little on the dull side though. I know most of the scenes have to be dark because it's a horror thriller, or so that's the category this film has to come under, but even the daylight scenes don't particularly shine and at the start of side two it's rather grainy for the first 5-10 minutes.

The sound comes in Dolby Surround, as you'd expect for a PAL Laserdisc. Not much to that then as it's only used to make you realise you're meant to be scared by sending a loud thud through your speakers, but it just makes you reach for the volume switch so you don't wake up the neighbours. After the noise has died down, turn it back up so you can actually hear the dialogue which is a lot quieter.

There's not much in the way of songs, but over the end credits is a good track called "What's This Life For" by Creed, which sounds very much like the American rock band Live.

There are only 13 chapters for the 83 minutes of the film, the last being saved for the end credits, which definitely isn't enough. Also, there's no extras of any kind, even a theatrical trailer. On the plus side though, side two is mastered in CAV, unlike the American NTSC Laserdisc.

Side one ends rather abruptly as the kids start a party, but any later and it would have meant us doing without side 2 in CAV.

Overall, these days in the age of DVD you'd at least expect an anamorphic transfer, gaining 33% extra picture resolution for owners of widescreen TVs, as well as a trailer for the price of this laserdisc and as such it's hard to recommend it - and that's without commenting on the fact it's such a terrible film. I have to wonder that after linking the name 'Loomis', the actress Janet Leigh and her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis, you have to wonder whether the crew paid more attention to general film references rather than the script itself.

Only buy this disc if you find it in a sale and then have no intention of moving to DVD.