Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

Dir: Steve Miner

1998

**

Dimension Films (Miramax) spent a lot of money on the Halloween rights but they made an awful film in their first attempt (Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers). They weren’t going to make the same mistake again, and while I’m generally dead against re-makes and re-boots, there really was only one direction to go with the series and that was to start again – or at least, start just after the beginning. Again, I hate it when studios do this but they had no choice, Kevin Williamson wrote a script that continued the story of the last film, Robert Zapia and Matt Greenberg were then brought in to develop his idea further, and the end result was that we fans were asked to completely forget that Halloween III, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers ever happened. Done. I’m totally fine with that, although I feel bad for Donald Pleasence and Danielle Harris, both of whom were great in those not so great films. Pleasence was sadly dead before H20, otherwise I’m sure he would have featured and Rob Zombie did cast Harris in his 2007 remake – one of the few things I liked about his adaptation. The big news here however was that Jamie Lee Curtis was back. To director Steve Miner’s credit, our of respect for all of the previous script-writers he connected some story elements to the new film. This installment retained Laurie's faked death from Williamson's treatment, revealing that she did so in order to avoid detection by her relentless brother. Under a new identity, Laurie has fled to Summer Glen, California, along with her only son, John. However, to focus more on the Laurie Strode character, the events of parts 4, 5, and 6 are written out of the continuity, thus erasing the Jamie Lloyd (Laurie’s daughter) character from the canon. The film added hip young actors who would all go on to become a-list stars including Michelle Williams, Josh Hartnett and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as well as popular rap artist LL Cool J. However, one of the brightest ideas was to cast Jamie Lee Curtis’s mother Janet Leigh, as not only was it great to see a famous mother and daughter relationship on screen but Leigh was the original Scream Queen from Alfred Hitchcock’s Pshyco. On October 29, 1998, Dr. Sam Loomis' former colleague Marion Chambers returns home to Langdon, Illinois, to find that her house had been burglarized. Her teenage neighbor Jimmy and his friend Tony call the police. Marion discovers that the file on Laurie Strode, Michael Myers' sister, is missing. She immediately rushes back over to Jimmy's house, where she finds him and Tony dead. Michael Myers suddenly appears and attacks Marion before slitting her throat, killing her. The police arrive just as Michael leaves the house with Laurie's file. Two investigators discuss what they know about Loomis' life. Having survived the explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital in 1978, Loomis was under Marion's care at this house before dying, presumably from natural causes. However, even after nearly 20 years, Loomis refused to believe that Michael was dead, and devoted the rest of his life to studying all information about his former patient. The two investigators then enter his private study, completely untouched by Michael's burglary, and find that the walls are covered with photographs, sketches, and newspaper articles about Michael; from the murder of his sister Judith, to the stealing of her tombstone, to the murders in 1978, as well as articles on Laurie Strode, including her supposed death in an automobile accident. Meanwhile, in California, Laurie is living a seemingly perfect life with her teen son John and his girlfriend Molly, and has a career as the headmistress of Hillcrest Academy, a private boarding school where John attends. However, Laurie is far from happy, as the tragic events from 1978 still haunt her and lives in fear that her brother may return. Laurie has tried to get her life together with the hope that Michael would never come after her again. She ultimately faked her death in a car accident, and then relocated to California under an assumed name, Keri Tate. While a woman and her daughter are at a rest stop, the two narrowly avoid Michael, who steals the woman's car. At the academy campus, the students leave for an overnight field trip at the Yosemite National Park. Later that evening, John and his girlfriend Molly are having a Halloween party in the basement with their friends, Charlie and his girlfriend Sarah. Charlie goes off into the kitchen and is killed by Michael. Sarah finds Charlie's body and tries to escape via the dumbwaiter, but Michael savagely disfigures her leg before stabbing her to death. John and Molly go searching for their friends and are pursued by Michael through the school grounds. Laurie saves them as Michael corners them. Eventually he and Laurie come face-to-face for the first time in two decades. Laurie manages to get John and Molly to safety, before heading back to face Michael herself. She decides to return to the school to face Michael once and for all. Laurie succeeds in stopping Michael, but is not satisfied until she knows that he is truly dead. After Michael is loaded into an ambulance, Laurie steals the ambulance with his body. Michael re-animates and attacks Laurie, who swerves and the ambulance drives off the road. Michael tumbles out and is pinned between the ambulance and a fencepost. He reaches out to Laurie, wordlessly pleading for help, and Laurie approaches him warily. She seems to consider helping him, but looks into his eyes and abruptly reconsiders, and decapitates Michael with a fire axe, killing him instantly. John Carpenter was originally in the running to be the director for this particular follow-up since Curtis wanted to reunite the cast and for the crew of the original to have active involvement in it. It was believed that Carpenter opted out because he wanted no active part in the sequel; however, this is not the case. Carpenter agreed to direct the film, but demanded a three-picture deal with Dimension Films. Carpenter’s bargain was denied by the Weinsteins, and therefore no deal took place. A truly stupid decision. It was great to see Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode and the scenes where she comes face to face with Michael are electric, unfortunately there isn’t much else to say for the rest of the film. I’ve never thought a school was ever a particularly scary place, it might be for boarders but it certainly doesn’t do it for me. I did like the supporting characters but the film was caught up in a spate of samey horror films out at the same time and they all seemed to follow a similar – and quite dull – formula. It was all hype and no substance. It’s not a terrible film, it’s certainly better than some of the other sequels, but it is largely uninteresting and a bit forgettable really. Great ending though.