Countdown to Halloween: “Halloween H20” and “Halloween: Resurrection”

A couple of editions back, I checked out the 1981 sequel “Halloween II,” which even though it’s not as suspenseful as the 1978 classic, it’s still a worthy sequel. So, for this edition and Halloween is on Friday, I wanted to take another look at a couple other sequels in the franchise - “Halloween H20” and “Resurrection.”

In the 1998 sequel “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later,” two decades after surviving a massacre on Halloween night 1978, former babysitter Laurie Strode finds herself hunted by persistent knife-wielder Michael Myers. Laurie now lives in Northern California under an assumed name where she works as a headmistress of a private school.

But it’s not far enough to escape Myers, who soon discovers her whereabouts. As Halloween descends upon Laurie’s peaceful community, a feeling of dread weighs upon her - with good reason.

“Halloween H20” is, by far, one of the best sequels in this series as it not only brought back Laurie Strode but it also provided a satisfying finale for her story - which obviously wasn’t a finale for long. This entry of the series also provided some decent scares and good suspense.

“Halloween H20” also gave us an emotional Laurie Strode as she’s still reeling from her trauma and still living in fear. Curtis’ portrayal of her character is more compelling than her previous appearances in the original classic and 1981 sequel. This sequel also gets really exciting when the hunted finally becomes the hunter, where Strode finally stops running and confronts Michael Myers - which is really the best part of this sequel.

The ending of “H20” provided a genuine sense of finality for both the franchise and for Strode’s story. The emotional payoff of her final confrontation with Michael Myers was the best way to finish her journey - well until “Resurrection” and the recent rebooted trilogy came on.

Looking back, “Halloween H20” is a trailblazer for the modern “legacy sequel” trend. It brought back a final girl from a decades old franchise to face her trauma and confront her tormentor, a formula that would later be used in the 2018 “Halloween” (another good installment of the series). Even with some of its flaws, “H20” is a major highlight of the series.

And, speaking of flaws, it’s time to get to the 2002 sequel “Halloween: Resurrection.”

The original house of horrors, the dilapidated home of infamous serial killer Michael Myers, has now become the set of a webcam reality show.

But when the veteran slasher discovers a group of university students has taken over his old killing grounds, he decides it’s time to bring the blades out of retirement.

With “Halloween H20” being one of the best entries of the original series, “Resurrection” is definitely the worst of the franchise (and that counts the Rob Zombie movies). This sequel’s plot is really weak, the retconning of the ending to “H20” is really not great and the addition of Busta Rhymes (remember him?) didn’t help either.

The retconning of the previous movie’s ending, with having Laurie Strode accidentally killing a paramedic instead of Myers doesn’t really make sense and seems like a money-driven decision that ruined the previous ending. The reality show - which is this movie’s central plot - is really bland and “Resurrection” really lacks the suspense and scares that some of the previous entries delivered.

The worst part of this movie (and probably the franchise as a whole) is when Busta Rhymes defeats Michael Myers with the help of martial arts - yes, you read that right. The whole scene where his character used martial arts to fight the infamous Michael Myers is really out of place and not even entertaining.

“Halloween: Resurrection” marked the end of the original timeline and soured many fans on the direction of the series. Its poor reception cleared the way for the franchise to be rebooted five years later with the 2007 remake of “Halloween” directed by Rob Zombie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKJCTI-967E

• During the scene where Norma is leaving, she stands in front of the car from Psycho (1960). The music playing in the background at this part is also from Psycho. Janet Leigh, who plays Norma, played Marion in Psycho. The license plate on the car is also the same as the second car Marion buys in Psycho, NFB 418, which are Norman Bates's initials and lastly, Norma is the first name of Norman Bates's mother from Psycho.

• John Carpenter was originally in negotiations to be the director since Jamie Lee Curtis wanted to reunite the cast and crew of the original. It was believed that Carpenter opted out because he wanted no active part in the sequel, however, this is not the case. He had agreed to direct the movie but his starting fee as director was $10 million and he wanted a three-picture deal with Dimension Films. Carpenter rationalized this by saying the hefty fee was compensation for revenue he never received from the original Halloween (1978), a matter that was still a point of contention between Carpenter and producer Moustapha Akkad even after twenty years had passed. When Akkad and Dimension Film's Weinstein brothers balked at Carpenter's demands, he walked away from the project.

• Even after twenty years, Jamie Lee Curtis said that seeing Michael Myers on set still scared her.

• Janet Leigh's first role in a feature film for 18 years. Her previous theatrical film was The Fog (1980), which also starred her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis.

• The movie was originally supposed to continue from the previous movies (except for the unrelated Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)). Kevin Williamson's challenge was to keep films 4 through 6 in the continuity by explaining the "death" of Laurie Strode and acknowledging her daughter Jamie Lloyd from those films as canon. His original treatment for H20 therefore included a scene in which Sarah, the student at the school where Laurie teaches under the name Keri Tate, gives a class report on the Haddonfield murders. She goes into great detail about Michael Myers's killing spree, with his sister Laurie being the sole survivor, and confirms her daughter Jamie later losing both her parents in a car accident. However, Sarah then reports a rumor that Laurie isn't dead, but lives under another identity; she supposedly gave Jamie up for adoption to keep the girl safe from Michael, but Jamie's mangled corpse was found a year ago anyway. Upon hearing of her daughter's death, a grief-stricken Laurie retreats to a restroom and vomits. Williamson's explanation was that Laurie had faked her own death and got into the Witness Protection Program with her son, under the aliases "Keri and John Tate". This scene was written out of the film together with every reference to Halloween 4 through 6 when it was decided that these sequels would be ignored, and the film would directly follow from Halloween II (1981). It is unclear if the scene was ever filmed; editor Patrick Lussier states that he never saw it. Although Jamie and Michael's return in part 4 were omitted from the film, Laurie going into hiding under a fake name still remained in the finished film, adding that Michael may have survived his burning at the end of Halloween II (1981).

• In the "Halloween: 25 Years of Terror" documentary, John Carl Buechler and Greg Nicotero of KNB FX revealed four completely different masks are used throughout the movie. The first one from John Carl Buechler resembled the one from Halloween 6. However, the producers were not satisfied so they called in Greg Nicotero and had him make a new mask and filming resumed using it. That mask was replaced by another one and at one point a CGI mask is also used.

• Jamie Lee Curtis has played Laurie Strode in films released in six different decades from the 1970s to the 2020s: Halloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022).

• Before he knew Jamie Lee Curtis was involved, Josh Hartnett wasn't sure he wanted to audition. "Halloween 7? Is that going straight to video, or is that going straight to hell?"

• The original working title for the film was Halloween 7: The Revenge of Laurie Strode, a clear pun on Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989).

• Director Steve Miner also directed two films in another popular horror series: Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) and Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982).

• In the original script by Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg, there was at one time a plan for Michael Myers to speak a single line at the end of the movie. He was to have said "Laurie" just before being speared to death by Jamie Lee Curtis. This idea was eventually dropped from the final script.

• Executive producer Moustapha Akkad said that the killer in H20 was not actually Michael Myers but in fact a copycat killer, and that this would be explained in the next Halloween movie. The idea was dropped for Halloween: Resurrection (2002), which explained the reappearance of Michael Myers by revealing that he had traded places with a paramedic at the end of H20, who had then been mistaken for Michael and was subsequently beheaded by Laurie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HebtVEmJTeY

• Was first named "Halloween: The Homecoming", but producers wanted a title that said Michael Myers is alive so in February 2002, the film was officially named Halloween: Resurrection (2002).

• Jamie Lee Curtis hated the idea of a sequel, as she felt that Laurie had a satisfying ending in the previous film. She initially refused to be in this film, until she ultimately agreed to do her part, only under the condition that she is killed off in the opening of the film so as to make sure her character, Laurie Strode (or herself) wouldn't appear in another sequel. (At the time of the film's initial release, executive producers Malek Akkad, and Moustapha Akkad tried to explain it by claiming Jamie Lee Curtis "was so impressed with the screenplay, that she wanted a large part in it". She has publicly stated that was not the case, she was under contract to do it.)

• Jamie Lee Curtis was quoted as saying she considered this film a joke.

• Jamie Lee Curtis appears on the movie cover with short hair, despite having long hair in the film. If looked at more closely, one can easily tell that it's the same picture of her that was used for the poster of the previous film, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).

• Bianca Kajlich cannot scream and her screams had to be dubbed in post production.

• Director Rick Rosenthal previously directed Halloween II (1981) - 21 years earlier.