The unfortunately titled ("Blood runs thicker than water!" And 20 years have passed! Get it?) sixth sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 Halloween is not nearly as innovative as the original, a movie that brought the "slasher" genre into the mainstream and arguably planted the seed for the string of teen titty comedies that followed in the nineteen-eighties. Nor does Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (henceforth H20) have Scream-like aspirations to mock the drill of a modern horror movie--the storytelling is retro rather than hip. And yet H20 is compelling, due in large part to an outstanding, mature performance by Jamie Lee Curtis, returning to the series for the first time since Halloween II.

Curtis' Laurie Strode now lives under the assumed name Keri Tate. She is the headmistress of a co-ed private school in Illinois attended by her 17-year-old son (Josh Hartnett), who is the same age she was when her estranged brother Michael Myers tried to kill her "with a really big kitchen knife." Fears of his return plague her sleep and have driven her to drink. But her paranoia is justified: Myers has stolen a car and, employing unfathomable powers of ESP, tracked her down. As the bodies pile up quickly (this time out, the ultra-sexually-repressed Myers doesn't even wait for the teenagers to get naked before he slits their throats), Laurie must face the music. She has what Curtis herself has described as "the Sigourney Weaver moment," wherein she wills herself to take Myers on alone. This, the climax, is by far the best sequence of the picture.

Director Steve Miner has toiled in horror and other teen genres for years. His resume includes a couple of Friday the 13^th movies, the pilots for both "The Wonder Years" and "Dawson's Creek", and the goofy, pre-Dead Alive horror-comedy House. He is a proficient hack--H20 is mostly successful in its mimicry of the first film's widescreen visual style. Unfortunately, none of what happens over the course of 85 minutes is as taut as one hopes. Maybe I'm desensitized, but the old sting note (a sudden and loud burst of music) doesn't work like it used to. As well, Myers is far too forgiving a killer here: he lets the owner of the stolen vehicle, a campus security guard, and still more live.

Thankfully, Curtis holds up her end of the bargain. She plays Laurie Strode with such conviction that her whole performance, actually, draws a parallel to Sigourney Weaver's addled Ripley. She has a terrific scene with Adam Arkin as her boyfriend in which she quietly confesses her true identity. Curtis also sells the ending, the most haunting and satisfying moment of H20. Unfortunately, her stellar turn accentuates the blandness of her mostly teenaged co-stars; Hartnett, as her son, is fine--he'll surely go places--but Michelle Williams ("Dawson's Creek"), Adam Hann-Bird (The Ice Storm), and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe are stock virgins saying little of consequence poorly.

By now, I'm sure you all know that Psycho's Janet Leigh (Curtis' real-life mom) has a cameo in H20--as do Marion Crane's old wheels--but the appearance of the original Scream Queen was not as reassuring as hearing an orchestrated version of Carpenter's minimalist Halloween score. The presence of those stark piano chords was not unwelcome, even after all these years. I wish Miner had reached deeper into his bag of tricks, but at least this final (?) entry in this series offers quantifiable treats.-Bill Chambers