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.
