Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Twenty years after the classic and revolutionary original film in 1978, we got another sequel in the Halloween series in 1998 with Halloween H20: 20 Years Later. More importantly, Jamie Lee Curtis returns to play the character that helped her launch her career.
Directed by Steve Miner, H20 follows the original film from 1978 and it’s sequel from 1981 and skips the events of films 4-6. Laurie Strode (Curtis) is hiding from her famous killer brother Michael Myers (Chris Durand) under the private name Keri Tate while working at a private school in California. Her only son John (Josh Hartnett) attends the school with his father not in the picture. Michael Myers is back in the picture and ready to strike on Halloween Day.
Making her appearance back into the series after 18 years, Jamie Lee Curtis is now playing a character losing it especially on the infamous Halloween Day anniversary (the famous day Michael went on his killing spree) and she seems to be losing her son John who seems to be done with his mom’s antics. Because of that, you do feel sympathy for Laurie, especially since Jamie Lee Curtis is very hard not to like as an actress. Really gone from Hollywood now, Josh Harnett was a real talent in the late 90’s and he shines as a teenager going through the difficult phases of a teenager. You have two nice leads (even if John could be developed more) in characters that are interesting and comparing to first and second films, it takes a step at different atmosphere (yay, preppy school). Once you get to its horror elements though, H20 falls flat fast as it follows all the cliches. You know what’s coming. You know who dies in boring death scenes. You don't have a secondary cast to help with pacing and more importantly, Michael is nowhere to be found at times. A film that wants us to enjoy random dark scenes and random jump scares between characters (not Michael, who we want). So, so, so dull.
It is one of horror biggest misses. You wasted the great Jamie Lee Curtis back into her ionic series by giving her a film with no story and no fun whatsoever. A similar feel to the late 90’s horror vibe with this film the bottom barrel of them. Such a lousy attempt at what came before.
