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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.
Related posts:
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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