Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel

7/09/2021

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel

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Returning star Jamie Lee Curtis and an assortment of the fresh young faces against the ghoulish face of killer Michael Myers adorn this poster for Steve Miner's Halloween H20

It has been 20 years since Michael Myers' escape from a mental hospital and subsequent murderous spree on the fateful Halloween night of 1978. Laurie, his sister, has faked her own death and now works as the leader of a private school in California, as Michael strikes again.

Halloween H20 is written by Robert Zappia (Thunder Alley (1994-95)) and Matt Greenberg (Grey Knight (1993)) and directed by Steve Miner (Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)). It is the 7th film in the Halloween franchise, although it retcons [effectively ignores] the plots of the preceding 3 films.

It has a nostalgic value to me due to the time it came out and the time that I first saw it, but it also simply just works, although its plot setup is extremely simple. - Yet that is the case with Halloween right from the first one by John Carpenter, - a boogieman out to slay you, - and the simplicity doesn't diminish its effect.

Jamie Lee Curtis (Queens Logic (1991)) makes all the difference, because it is so palpable that she wants to be this character and support this universe, and that that's why she's there. She also has a wonderful exterior scene here with her real-life mother Janet Leigh (Prince Valiant (1954)), which in a beautiful way brings these two biologically and generically related horror queens together in the same film, - and gives it an added quality in the process.

Halloween H20 is well-made, elementarily exciting and mostly tasteful in its effects, (SPOILER perhaps cute teen Josh Hartnett (O (20021)) with a hockey ice skate through his face is on the edge but besides that.) It is a terrific, compact screamer.

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker

Steve Miner: Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) - Miner debuts with solid if formulaic first sequel

Watch a short TV trailer for the film here

Cost: 17 mil. $

Box office: 75 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.41 times its cost)

[Halloween H20 premiered 27 July (USA) and runs 86 minutes. Carpenter was in talks to direct but insisted on being paid 10 mil. $ and getting a 3-picture deal, which the Weinstein brothers of Dimension Films turned down. Shooting took place from February - April 1998 in Utah and California, including Los Angeles. The film opened #3, behind holdover hit Saving Private Ryan and fellow new release Snake Eyes, to a 16.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 55 mil. $ (73.3 % of the total gross). The 20 mil. $ international gross comes from a 1999 Variety article. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. Myers returned with Curtis in Halloween: Resurrection (2002) by Rick Rosenthal. Miner returned with Lake Placid (1999). Curtis first returned in Virus (1999). Halloween H20 is rotten at 52 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Halloween H20?

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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7/09/2021

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel

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