Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

Director:

Steve Miner

Writers (WGA):

Debra Hill (characters) and
John Carpenter (characters) ...

Release Date:

5 August 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

This summer, terror won't be taking a vacation.

Plot:

Laurie Strode, now the dean of a Northern California private school with an assumed name, must battle the Shape one last time and now the life of her own son hangs in the balance.

Plot Keywords:

Halloween | School | Nightmare | Michael Myers | Death

Awards:

9 nominations

Cast

Jamie Lee Curtis	...	Laurie Strode / Keri Tate
Josh Hartnett	...	John Tate
Adam Arkin	...	Will Brennan
Michelle Williams	...	Molly Cartwell
LL Cool J	...	Ronald 'Ronny' Jones
Jodi Lyn O'Keefe	...	Sarah Wainthrope
Adam Hann-Byrd	...	Charles 'Charlie' Deveraux
Janet Leigh	...	Norma Watson
Joseph Gordon-Levitt	...	Jimmy Howell
Nancy Stephens	...	Marion Chambers Whittington
Branden Williams	...	Tony Allegre
Beau Billingslea	...	Detective 'Fitz' Fitzsimmons
Matt Winston	...	Detective Matt Sampson
Larisa Miller	...	Claudia
Emmalee Thompson	...	Casey

Also Known As:

Halloween 7 (USA) (working title)
Halloween 7: The Revenge of Laurie Strode (USA) (working title)
Halloween: H20 (USA) (promotional title)
Halloween: H20 (20 Years Later) (USA) (promotional title)
Halloween: The Revenge of Laurie Strode (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for terror violence/gore and language.

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Canada:18A (British Columbia) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:R (Manitoba) | Iceland:16 | USA:R (certificate #36140) | Brazil:18 | Spain:18 | Singapore:NC-16 (re-rating) | Singapore:PG (cut) | Italy:VM14 | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/18 | South Korea:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Canfield-Moreno Estate - 1923 Micheltorena Street, Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Dimension Films

Trivia:

The line "everyone is entitled to one good scare" is said by Norma to Laurie. Sheriff Brackett (Charles Cypers) originally said it in the first Halloween.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the classroom on the blackboard, the spelling of W.B. Yeats' name changes from the (wrong) spelling "Yates" to the correct "Yeats."

Quotes:

Tony: Hasn't anyone ever told you that second-hand smoke kills?
Nurse Marion: Yeah, but they're all dead.

Movie Connections:

References Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

Soundtrack:

MR. SANDMAN

Forget "Resurrection"--the series ends here.

Back before Lions Gate (now Lionsgate) held the monopoly on mainstream genre pics, Dimension Films was the go-to place for horror and suspense of the 'indie' sort. In 1998, with Wes Craven's 2 "Scream" films maintaining the public interest to great financial success, Dimension decided to put their acquisition of the "Halloween" franchise to good use (especially after the atrocious "Curse of Michael Myers") by making a sequel to end all sequels (at least until the atrocious "Halloween: Resurrection" turded up multiplexes).

In addition to being one of the most instantly-recognizable titles in all of horror, "Halloween: H20" came to screens with an added incentive: it marked the series return of original protagonist/victim Laurie Strode (played with cat-like veracity by Jamie Lee Curtis). Curtis' presence, in addition to the reliable skill of director Steve Miner (who cut his teeth on two "Friday the 13th" sequels), plus a story that wisely disregarded the incidents of all the sequels past "II," set "H20" up as the series payoff I was so eagerly awaiting. After leaving the theater, I was more than satisfied with the end result.

Years go by. Dimension becomes a notorious den of re-cuts, re-shoots, and re-castings (just ask Wes "Cursed" Craven) still trying to mine the 'Fresh-Faced-Teen' demographic that doesn't seem to exist anymore. Upon re-examination of "H20"'s box/poster art, I noticed a recurrent motif (from "Scream" to "Phantoms" to "Nightwatch" to "Rounders") in design: the proliferation of airbrushed faces looking Deeply Concerned about something, in addition to an over-reliance on bold, exclamatory blurbs from dubious sources (WWOR-TV, anyone?).

But I'm not reviewing the marketing tactics of a company whose former glories (namely Tarantino and Rodriguez) are now its only source of revenue.

"Sin City" notwithstanding, "H20" might have been the last good movie to come out of Dimension. At its core, it is a surprisingly compact (86 minutes, including credits) horror-thriller that moves so briskly we are never able to get too cozy with the characters. Miner goes for the subtle compositions that marked John Carpenter's original, and is fairly successful: the film refrains from the obligatory sex and self-referential attitude that would have been profitable at the time. From frame one, "H20" feels like a continuous, flowing set-piece...but the way it sidelines its characters leaves a hollow echo when it's all finished. Also unfortunate is that the suspense is so heavy-handed it seldom creates tension; this might be attributable to Chris Durand's overly self-conscious portrayal of the menacing Michael Myers. The relationship between Curtis, her son John (Josh Hartnett), and Myers is the film's intriguing familial triangle, but is disappointingly underdeveloped (though for the sake of the series, it wraps things up well enough).

In the end, "H20" is Curtis' show. She imbues her character with as much straight-faced commitment as she did in '78, in addition to a toughened exterior bent on preserving family values at any cost. The denouement, which contains a moment as touching as it is creepy, gives new meaning to the phrase, "tough love."