Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

Talk about visiting the past.

Because there is nothing like making box office movies to bring back a favorite slasher villain, Michael Myers, the William Shatner-masked villain of the 1978 John Carpenter horror classic, “Halloween,” has come back from the supposed dead to slash his way through the 1998 film, “Halloween: H20: 20 Years Later.”

The “H20” subtitle is often confused for the chemical formula for water. The letter and numbers are just a shortened way of letting everyone know that this takes place 20 years after what happened in the original.

Lawrence Van Gelder stated in his review, “For horror film devotees eager to know how this unseasonable visit from the darker spirits of autumn rates, frankly, it's more marketing trick than moviegoer treat.”

Gelder went on to say, “Though most of the action is routine and heavily dependent for suspenseful atmosphere on dim lights, billowing ghostly white curtains, rustling leaves and under-illuminated hallways and rooms, the big gimmick of ''H20'' is the return of Jamie Lee Curtis of ''Halloween'' and ''Halloween II'' (1981) as the prey of the homicidal Michael Myers (Chris Durand).”

In the latest sequel, directed by Steve Miner, a resident of the “Friday the 13^th” franchise, the former Laurie Strode is living under a new name, Keri Tate, and works as the principal of Hillcrest Academy, a protected high school in Northern California. She is also the single mother of John, played by Josh Hartnett, who, turning 17, is exactly the same age Laurie was when she first went against the traumatic moment in 1978.

Laurie has never forgotten what happened. She has nightmares, drinks alcohol a lot and has a medicine cabinet filled with prescription pills. Gelder said, “John, a student at her school, chafes against her possessiveness and uneasy fear that her ordeals have not ended.”

As what is shown, she’s right about that.

With the start of the 1998 Halloween season, most of the school leaves on buses for a field trip at Yosemite National Park. However, what Laurie doesn’t know is that John has planned to stay behind at school. Like mom, who has planned to spend the evening with her boyfriend, Will (Adam Arkin), the school counselor, John has planned a romantic, candlelit evening with his girlfriend, Molly (Michelle Williams from “Dawnson’s Creek”), and their friends, Charlie (Adam Hann Byrd) and Sarah (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe).

Throughout all of this, Michael Myers has been killing people to get to the school.

“Halloween H20” has some fun by inserting Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis’s mother and star of Hitchcock’s classic “Psycho,” as one of the school staff, which gives her the chance to start their conversation by saying, “If I could be maternal for a moment” and going on to say, “We’ve both had bad things happen to us.”

“H20,” written by Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg, also has some fun with rapper LL Cool J as Ronny, the school’s security guard, who is writing a loving romantic novel while apparently make sure its electronic gate keeps the students in and the monsters out.

Gelder noted, “But the throwaway jokes are few and far between, and after a pre-title sequence reintroduces Michael and shows just how far up suspense and thrills can be ratcheted, ''Halloween H20'' declines into the routine.” Nobody is going to be surprised by who survives and who gets killed.

The only question is whether the dead will stay dead.

In all honesty, if you want to skip the sequels after “Halloween 2” and see this one, by all means you can, and see how the series “should” have ended. However, I do have to say that this one definitely is still making the series go downhill, sadly. None of the sequels have come close to being as great as the first two movies were. I’m sorry to say that this one is not better than any of the other sequels, it’s still getting worse. If you want to not see this one, you’re not missing anything, so it’s alright to skip this one.

Well, unfortunately it won’t get any better now. The reason why is tomorrow we are going to talk about the absolute worst in the “Halloween franchise.” I know I’m not looking forward to it either. Just hold on to your vomit bags because the sooner we can get it over with, the sooner we can continue to better installments. Let’s just brace ourselves tomorrow for the continuation of “Halloween-a-thon” in “Halloween Month.”