Violence/Gore: Kept to a minimum in line with a more mainstream approach to the series, but while the killings aren’t as gory this time around, they do seem more tragic and almost unbearably sad, in particular when one girl is savagely stabbed multiple times while pinned to the ground, and in another when a really nice guy gets the knife-in-the-back-elevator-ride that Michael once gave a nurse in HALLOWEEN II.

Sex/Nudity: If you’ve ever wanted to see a long-in-the-tooth and fully clothed Jamie Lee Curtis making out with every woman’s fantasy, Adam Arkin, here’s your chance.

Best Line: Norma: “It’s Halloween. I guess everyone’s entitled to one good scare.” Keri: “I’ve had my share.” (Jamie Lee Curtis’ mother, Janet Leigh, echoing a line first spoken by Charles Cyphers in the original HALLOWEEN, now followed by Curtis’ ironic reply.)

Score:

Wow. We never thought it would happen, but then sudddenly, it did. Jamie Lee Curtis - screamer turned star - returned to the series that made her an icon of modern horror. After years of avoiding the issue, she was ready to bite the bullet just in time for the anniversary and revisit her scream queen character of Laurie Strode to see what might have happened to this poor girl twenty years after her first traumatic encounter with her brother-turned-demonic killer. Perhaps it was fate that Curtis would be back - yes, fate definitely caught up with her here. Fate never changes (fans of the original film will know what I’m blathering about).

Anyway, H20 was a laudable attempt to bring some mainstream gloss to the B-movie slasher series, and Curtis’ return garnered this seventh sequel (!) some considerable coverage on shows like Entertainment Tonight. Sadly, Donald Pleasence had since departed this mortal realm, so Curtis’ rematch with Michael would happen without the sorely missed presence of Dr. Sam Loomis. Still, this was pretty cool stuff for a dedicated Myers fan. Laurie was back!

Of course, the previous three movies had established Laurie as dead and mired themselves in a convoluted continuity of their own that had nearly buried the series. This time around, the creators wisely decided to take a chance with fan sensibilities and jettison everything that happened in HALLOWEEN 4-6, picking up the story twenty years after HALLOWEEN II. Out goes Jamie and the Thorn cult, in comes Keri Tate, alcoholic school marm and a dead ringer for a girl who was once terrorized one horrible Haddonfield Halloween night. Could Keri be Laurie incognito? Duh.

Although the movie often plays like a love letter to fans of the original two films, there are problems. I still don’t understand why the opening voice-over, a word-for-word re-enactment of a speech first performed by the late, lamented Pleasence, was re-recorded with a younger man trying to replicate Pleasence’s distinctive tones. Surely they could have extracted the audio. Rights issues? For whatever reason, it grates on the nerves of this old-time HALLOWEEN fan, but wait…it gets better.

Some might get a bit of a rush out of hearing the classic Carpenter-penned HALLOWEEN theme rendered with a full orchestral sound, but after the initial excitement of the mass media-supported anniversary sequel dies down, rewatching this film just exposes all the flaws. In a move towards broader audience acceptance, the gorier aspects of the earlier films are toned down, but so too went much of the suspense and dark tone. In many ways, the attitude of this sequel feels more like a typical action thriller than a horror/slasher movie. At best, it’s an uncomfortable marriage of two approaches, but everyone does what they can with the uneven material. While none of the new kids are particularly impressive, they scream when they need to and run when they have to. But you might stifle a giggle when Curtis stands menacingly in shadow and screams Michael’s name at the top of her lungs in challenge as the theme kicks into high gear. It’s all just a bit too over the top at times. In fact, Curtis’ overwrought performance as the alcoholic Strode has its charm but also grates on the nerves after a while, and by the end you may be hard-pressed to decide which sibling you want to root for. Let’s see - who’s the likeliest one to come back in several more HALLOWEEN movies? Right, well I know where I’m putting my money then…

As for the eternal mask issue, it was well publicized that the film makers were unhappy with the new mask - why oh why is there always another damned mask resculpt in every installment - after shooting had already begun. The replacement design, while an improvement that comes as close to the original as we’ve seen so far, still shares some screen time with the crappy first version due to some horrendously ham-fisted editing.

Finally, there’s that ending calculated to elicit a huge audience cheer. But it only holds up if this is truly the final HALLOWEEN movie. Since we know it’s not, it just becomes a matter of figuring out how they plan to get around the seemingly inescapable conclusion. Fans who had read an earlier script for that last scene, circulated around the ‘net, were already way ahead of the game. We all knew the Shape would return…but would Laurie be back to face him again? Read on…

DVD Extras: Isn’t the anniversary enough for you? Sheesh.

ATB