HALLOWEEN H20: 20 YEARS LATER REVIEW!!! (FLAWED YET ENTERTAINING) - SPOOKY SEASON MARATHON!

Initial release date: August 3, 1998

Studios: Miramax-Dimension/Nightfall Productions/Trancas International

Tagline: It's going to be one hell of a family reunion

Plot: Two decades after surviving a massacre on October 31,1978, 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 the headmistress of a private school. But it's not for 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.

Cast

Jamie Lee Curtis - Laurie Strode/Keri Tate

Adam Arkin - Will Brennan

Michelle Williams - Molly

Adam Hann-Byrd - Charlie

Jodi Lyn O'Keefe - Sarah

Janet Leigh - Norma

Josh Hartnett - John

LL Cool J - Ronny

Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Jimmy

Nancy Stephens - Marion

Chris Durand - Michael

Writer(s): Robert Zappia (Prey For The Devil)

Matt Greenberg (Pet Semetary 2019; 1408)

Director: Steve Miner (Texas Rangers; Lake Placid; Friday the 13th Part 2 and 3)

Rated R for terror violence/gore and language (86 minutes)

To kick off my spooky season marathon, I wanted to start with Halloween H20 (which I didn't get to last year). This is a Halloween sequel that I haven't seen in years and always thought it's definitely one of the better sequels. So, does it still hold up? Well kinda ...

Sure Halloween H20 isn't the perfect sequel to the series. The movie is fairly short and seems rushed at times, especially when the movie gets to the final moments. And, after numerous viewings over the years, I finally noticed that they did use a few different masks. You just have to look carefully. And one of them includes a very terrible looking CGI mask for a split second or two.

Despite the few flaws this sequel has, it's still fairly entertaining. It does a decent job being a worth follow up to the original movie and the ending with Laurie Strode and Myers would have been a great way to put the series to bed - even though they got another rematch in another timeline years later with the recent Halloween trilogy. H20 also has some good scares and, like I stated before, is one of the better sequels.

And, later on I will also give another look at the 2002 sequel Halloween: Resurrection, the sequel that killed the original timeline.

Here are some fun tidbits for Halloween H20: 20 Years Later!

• During the scene where Norma is leaving the school, she stands in front of the car from Psycho (1960). The music playing in the background at this part is also from the 1960 film.

• Jamie Lee Curtis considered the movie and thank you note to her fans.

• John Carpenter was originally in negotiations to be the director since 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 isn't the case. He had agreed to direct the movie, but his starting fee was $10 million, and he wanted a three picture deal with Dimension.

• Carpenter rationalized this by saying the hefty fee was compensation for revenue he never received from the original Halloween, a matter that was still a point of contention between Carpenter and producer Moustapha Akkad even after two decades had passed. When Akkad and Dimension/Weinstein balked at Carpenter's demands, he walked away.

• 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, Curtis.

• The director and writers decided to treat this movie as if Halloween 4-6 never took place. This was a decision made to keep the plot simple and focus on Laurie.

• Jamie Lee Curtis has played Laurie Strode in numerous films in the entire franchise, but in different timelines: Halloween (1979), Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20 (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022).

• In certain scenes, Michael can be seen wearing two different masks. The director decided well into production, to go with a different mask, so certain scenes were re-shot. Some scenes with the original mask can still be seen, and in one shot it had to be altered with CGI to replace his old mask with the new one.

• Michelle Williams signed on without ever having seen any of the Halloween movies.

• The original working title was Halloween 7: The Revenge of Laurie Strode, a clean pun on the 1989 sequel Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.

• An early draft of the script revealed Charlie (John's friend), rather than Michael, as the killer. Besides being a copycat "Shape," Charlie would've turned out to be the offspring of a nurse raped by Michael at the sanitarium. The draft was titled Halloween: The Son of Michael Myers. Both the title and the twists were eliminated in rewrites.

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

• Before Jamie Lee Curtis got involved, a 7th Halloween would've brought the series to the direct to video territory.

• In February 2003, the FX network premiered an alternate version, adding and extending footage not seen in the original release.

• Until the release of the 2018 Halloween, Halloween H20 was the highest grossing film in the franchise. It was released on August 5, 1998 in the US and later in many other countries.

• H20 cost $17 million to produce and grossed $55 million in domestic sales and $75 million worldwide.