Watched H20 again for the first time in years. The girlfriend is a big fan of the first movie and she hadn't seen this one.
I've learned to deal with the idea of soft reboots these last couple of years, and that continuity doesn't really matter; story matters. With that in mind, there's some strong character work on display here and a fascinating First Act dealing with survivor's guilt. There's a real sense, as well, of the older generation stepping back in to reclaim their Hollywood, as Jamie Lee Curtis does some of her best work here. There's an obvious affection for the character of Laurie, but it's also a real opportunity to rebuild a character from scratch as it's been twenty years and Laurie has been through so much she's a completely different person.
Unfortunately the Scream-generation pokes its head in during the Second Act. The teenagers are relatively bland characters, even if great actors like Michelle Williams and Josh Hartnett are occupying the roles. Hey, it was early in their careers, and they at least have screen presence if very little in the way of story arcs. John learns to...trust his mother, I think.
The music, heavily borrowed from the first two Scream movies (and Mimic, of all things) is overbearing and lacks the subtlety of the first two movies. There are far too many jump-scares accompanied by blaring horns.
Michael also looks off. Too little, the eye holes are too big, and the body language is lazy and not mechanical enough. Better than some of the sequels, but Michael is too clean. In fact the entire movie has an air of artificiality. Miner doesn't know how to stage dynamic blocking, and most of the time actors are just standing around in rooms talking. The camera clumsily follows Michael without any grace or sense of mystique.
There's some attempt at atmosphere, as Phil pointed out above, but the movie feels as lost as Michael himself. He's relatively lacking in motivation here: is he out to kill John to punish Laurie, like the discussion of Frankenstein hints at earlier in the film? Or is he grabbing anyone in the vicinity until Laurie shows her face? In the original movies he was either recreating the death of his first sister (1963) with a babysitter or with his other sister, so going after John doesn't jibe with that. At least Jamie Lloyd was a girl, and in many ways the fourth movie implies Michael sees himself in her (and perhaps once to pass his curse to her).
Fortunately the Third Act battle saves the whole film. I admit when Laurie grabs the axe and goes back to confront Michael I got chills, and her stealing Michael's body to finish the job is the kind of thing we always yell at movie characters to do in horror films.
Kudos to the film for tackling and subverting common horror tropes at the beginning and end, but the middle feels like filler.
Halloween 4 is still the winner. It's cheese, but it knows what it is and tries to amplify the first movie rather than imitate it.
