Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) Review

"If you wanna stay handcuffed to your dead brother, that's fine, but you're dragging me along, not anymore!"

-John Tate

Ignoring the events of the 4th, 5th, and 6th movies, H20 picks up with Michael Myers murdering Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens), the nurse who was with Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) on the night of his escape.  Michael finds the location of his sister, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), in Marion's office and travels across the country to find her.  Laurie is in hiding, living under a new name, and is the headmistress of a boarding school, which her son, John (Josh Hartnett), attends.  Laurie has been unable to get over her encounter with Michael and every Halloween, she dreads that he will come back.  This year, she's right...

What Works:

H20 has some really great actors in the cast, which works wonders for the film.  Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, and Adam Arkin all do an especially great job and they have wonderful dynamics.  I especially like the relationship between Laurie and John and their conflict is the most interesting storyline of the movie.

There are even a few notable actors in supporting roles as well.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the unlucky first victim of the film, LL Cool J plays the school security guard, and Jamie Lee Curtis' mother, Janet Leigh, best known for being in Psycho, plays her Laure's secretary.  It's fun having such talented people even in the smaller roles.

H20 is the first Halloween sequel to be released after Scream and the impact is obvious.  The dialogue is witty and there is plenty of meta-references to other scary movies.  Some of them are a bit much, but I still enjoy it all the same.

This movie scales back the body count of the other sequels, but we get a few solid kills as well.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes a hockey skate to the face, Marion Chambers gets a brutal throat cut, Adam Arkin gets lifted in the air like one of the nurses in Halloween II, and Sarah (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) gets a dumbwaiter dropped on her leg.  We may have a lower quantity of kills, but most of them are quality.

Finally, it's great to have the Laurie-Michael reunion happen and while it isn't perfect, it's still really fun.  By far the best part is the ending, where Laurie steals Michael's body and drives off in a van, runs him over, and gets him pinned between the van and a tree.  Us slasher fans finally get what we've been screaming at the TV for years when Laurie straight up decapitates Michael with an axe.  It's great to see this horror veteran make such an extremely savvy move.  It's such a satisfying way to end the movie and the series...except for the fact the Halloween: Resurrection happened.  It's too bad.  This would have been he perfect way to end the series.

What Sucks:

When Michael finally springs into action and starts killing people at the school, it feels a bit rushed.  Michael dispatches most the characters in quick succession and Laurie gets John and his girlfriend, Molly (Michelle Williams), out of the picture right away.  In a matter of minutes, it's just Laurie and Michael.  Granted, that is what we all were watching this movie for, but, including the credits, this movie is only an hour and 26 minutes, we could have used a few more scenes with Michael stalking the other characters, especially John and Molly.  The time from when they see Michael for the first time to when they leave the school has got to be less than five minutes.

Finally, parts of the Michael-Laurie showdown felt a little silly.  Laurie throwing a bunch of knives at Michael was goofy, but the one sequence I didn't like was when Laurie was hiding underneath some tables and Michael was standing on top of them.  Watching Jamie Lee Curtis scramble around on the ground like that didn't really feel in character.  I wish Molly had been given this sequence instead.  It would have felt more in-line with their characters.

Verdict:

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later is a really solid sequel and is nearly as good as the original.  It has excellent acting, fun characters, solid kills, and one of the best finales the horror genre has ever seen.  There are a few parts that are rushed or goofy, but this movie has absolutely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good