Halloween H20 – 20 Years Later

Curtis touches up her scream queen roots with a complex reworking of the Laurie Strode character she created for John Carpenter's groundbreaking original. Twenty years on, Laurie is the headmistress of a private school and the divorced, alcoholic and over-protective mother of a 17-year-old son. Still obsessed with the Halloween night when her homicidal brother Michael Myers came home, Laurie confronts the twentieth anniversary with paralysing fear and liberal doses of booze. Her son, meanwhile, skips a school camping trip in favour of an intimate party with his girlfriend and another couple; so when 'The Shape' reappears, right on cue, there's plenty of young flesh for him to slice up. Despite a tedious set-up and saggy middle section, things gather pace as the teen victims are dispatched in a variety of nasty ways. While Carpenter's film was all about economy and a skilful use of empty space, Miner's busy compositions have a cluttered feel that is echoed by superfluous orchestral music, which merely washes over the original's spare, atmospheric electronic score.