Halloween H20 review.
It’s the 25th anniversary of the 20th anniversary of the original Halloween. Jamie Lee Curtis returns as Laurie Strode for the first time since Halloween II…erasing a timeline and delivering a series best performance.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
Halloween H20
Directed by Steve Miner
Screenplay by Robert Zapia and Matt Greenberg
Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam Arkin, Michelle Williams, Josh Hartnett, LL Cool J, Nancy Stephens and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Halloween H20 Review
The Halloween franchise was probably heading to the scrap heap. After lagging behind the Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees led franchises throughout the 80s heyday of slashers…it felt woefully out of place by the time Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers arrive in 1995. The next year saw the release of Scream. Its meta commentary on the genre infused new life into it. As the 20th anniversary of Halloween approached in 1998…the genre of movies that it begat were back in vogue. Horror was hot again. Hot enough to resurrect the series. Hot enough to get Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode.
The importance of Curtis’s involvement in the series cannot be understated. Her seven appearances in the franchise occupy 7 of the top 8 spots at the box office (the lone exception being Rob Zombie’s remake of the original). Movies that feature her Laurie Strode character (played by Scout-Taylor Compton in the Zombie films) fill all top nine spots. The four movies with the character sink to the bottom. I don’t know how they’re planning on bringing the series back for the 50th anniversary in 2028…but history says the inclusion of Laurie Strode makes a difference.
Much had changed in the Halloween universe by the time Halloween H20: 20 Years Later arrived. Donald Pleasance had passed away in 1995 which meant series stalwart Dr. Loomis wouldn’t be a part of the film. H20 chooses to ignore his adventures after blowing himself up in 1981’s Halloween II anyway. In the new continuity Michael Myers had never resurfaced after the first Halloween night (the second film takes place the same day as the original) and Loomis lived out his days in the care of Nurse Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens).
Erasing the timelines will become a staple of the series. Halloween H20 retains everything from the first two films…the 2018 movie 20 years later would erase everything except the original. What this basically means is that Laurie and Michael are still related in H20. In the now discarded sequels, Laurie was said to have died in a car accident…leaving behind a daughter to carry the franchise forward. H20 keeps the car crash story…using it for Laurie to have faked her death. She now lives as Keri Tate and has a 17-year-old son. John (Josh Hartnett) would become the second Strode child to be erased from existence in 2018.
Halloween H20 opens with the death of Nurse Chambers. Michael Myers has returned at last to track down Laurie Strode. Chambers has files that can lead him to Laurie’s location…so it sucks to be her. Detectives discuss how old Michael Myers would be in 1998…fearing the audience would find his return unbelievable. It’s funny in retrospect given that he would return 20 years after that…but he would only be 41 years old here.
Laurie is living her new life as the head of a boarding school in California. She is still dealing with the trauma of her encounter with The Shape in 1978. She’s shown to be an alcoholic who is overly controlling of her son. She has nightmares about her brother’s return and sees visions of him all the time. Curtis has always been great in this role…it’s a large part of why it is so iconic. I don’t think she’s ever been better than she is in Halloween H20.
It helps that she has (mostly) good material to work with. We’d see a different version of Strode dealing with her trauma in 2018…but this one feels the most interesting and realistic. She’s also given a movie with no fat on it. This is a slick, quickly paced 86-minute movie. While that’s only 5 minutes longer than the original…it feels like it absolutely flies by. Given its post-Scream production there is more of an attempt at clever dialog than the series had tried to that point…but it still feels very Halloween. Laurie and Michael don’t come face to face until 65 minutes into the movie, yet it doesn’t feel like it wastes any time getting to it.
She’s supported by a great cast as well. Her real-life mother and fellow horror icon Janet Leigh is on hand playing her secretary. H20 isn’t shy about referencing her most famous character. She plays Norma, drives the same car Marion Crane did and the Psycho theme plays when she makes her exit from the film. Future Oscar nominee Michelle Williams plays Josh Hartnett’s girlfriend. Adam Arkin is Laurie’s ill-fated boyfriend. LL Cool J and Jospeh Gordon-Levitt offer familiar faces in supporting roles.
There is a plot point that clears the school grounds out on Halloween night…which makes the campus feel as empty as the streets of Haddonfield in the 1978 movie. While it was likely done to explain how Myers can move about undetected…it is a rare win to have the uncrowded location once again. There are more overt callbacks to the original, mostly in the form of lifting dialog, that doesn’t work as well. Neither does the implication that Michael has only returned now because John has turned 17…the same age Laurie was in 1978.
But it doesn’t matter. Halloween H20 features the second best ending in the franchise’s history. Only the perfection of the original’s statement that evil lurks everywhere can top it. Laurie saves her son (and his girlfriend) and sends them away from the school grounds. She then locks the gate preventing any other exit and turns to face her fate. It’s Laurie’s finest moment. The final form of the final girl. A moment that ranks among the series finest.
Laurie definitively defeats her monster…beheading him and standing relieved and triumphant. At least until Halloween: Resurrection retcons it. That’s a complaint for another day, however. Contained inside of Halloween H20…the ending is wonderful. And so is this 20-year anniversary sequel. A legacy sequel done right. Despite its flaws, Halloween H20 is a fun watch that ranks among the best sequels in the ever-continuing franchise. 25 years looks good on it.
Scare Value
Halloween H20 has a lot of things going for it. Jamie Lee Curtis gives perhaps her finest performance as Laurie Strode. The movie has no fat on it. It also has a pitch perfect ending. Wiping away the timeline post Halloween II was radical at the time…but has become commonplace in the series. This timeline would only last one more movie itself. It still stands as one of the best sequels the series has ever produced.
4/5
Halloween H20 Links
Streaming on Paramount+
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu and Amazon
Halloween H20 Trailer
For a look at something John Carpenter did work on in the 90s…check out Body Bags.
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