The fact that this latest sequel stars Jamie Lee Curtis and is willing to disregard the dreadful "Halloween" sequels that have preceded it does not necessarily guarantee that it will be a satisfying film. Despite the fact that it has abandoned the inept plotting and filmmaking which occupied its joke of a predecessor, "The Curse of Michael Myers" (as I stated above, you can take comfort in knowing that there are no Druids in this time around), it has not gone the extra mile to actually be something special, and as a result, it comes across as a disappointingly mundane, forgettable slasher film. The film is loaded with plenty of nice in-jokes that could make this a potentially memorable finale to the "Halloween" saga (I especially loved seeing Nancy Stephens reprise her role as Nurse Marion from the first two "Halloween" films), but alas, the director of this material is Steve Miner ("House", "Friday the 13th Part 3"), who is competent enough, but hardly in John Carpenter's league when it comes to pumping up the adrenaline of an audience. His murder scenes are presented in such a humdrum fashion that you end up saying to yourself, "is that it?". What's most sorely missed in "H20", however, is the presence of the late Donald Pleasance. Without his wonderfully campy scenes of him describing the pure evil of Michael Myers, the film feels undernourished, so we end up with many overlong stalk-and-slash scenes that barely push the film up to its scant 85 minutes.
However, while on an overall scale, "H20" is hardly a satisfying conclusion to the saga, it does come up with an ending that would be the ideal way to close off the series. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that it perfectly sums up everything that the entire "Halloween" saga has been about, and for the first time, makes one finally think that yet another sequel would be impossible. If the 80 minutes that preceded this conclusion had been just as strong, we might have had a really special motion picture to close off the past 20 years of slasher mayhem.
However, while on an overall scale, "H20" is hardly a satisfying conclusion to the saga, it does come up with an ending that would be the ideal way to close off the series. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that it perfectly sums up everything that the entire "Halloween" saga has been about, and for the first time, makes one finally think that yet another sequel would be impossible. If the 80 minutes that preceded this conclusion had been just as strong, we might have had a really special motion picture to close off the past 20 years of slasher mayhem.