By Kyle Laugh
It's been twenty long years since the release of “Halloween: H20”, the film that was created in honor of the Original “Halloween” story-line which was created approximately twenty years prior to that, reforming the series timeline and ignoring all the entries from three to six and developing what some would call a “proper” trilogy for the series seeing as “Halloween III: Season Of The Witch” went completely off the rails and screwed royally with the loyal fans of the first two entries in the series. But, had they actually paid attention to the film’s advertisement, they would have realized that “The Night He Didn't Come Home” meant just that and they could have simply chose to have skipped out or showed up to theaters without expectations of Michael Myers being the main antagonist of the film.
Of course, after “H20” had come and gone, “Resurrection” reared its ugly head and ruined yet another timeline. I'm not saying “H20” was perfect, but it was fitting for a trilogy considering the involvement of Jamie Lee Curtis.
But let’s take a step back and discuss “H20” properly seeing as that's what we’re here for.
Laurie Strode, now going by the name Keri Tate, had moved to California where she eventually became headmistress at a highly secure private school. Although she had physically gotten away, Michael Myers continues to haunt her in her dreams causing her to utilize doctor prescribed medications while also having become an alcoholic of sorts.
Although her fears are far-fetched, Laurie.. umm excuse me, Keri gets a visit from her mentally disturbed brother Michael, forcing her to take action and face him one last time all the while protecting her son and his friends as best she can given the circumstances surrounding her.
The film was directed by Steve Miner (Friday The 13th parts 2 and 3, House, Lake Placid), written by Robert Zappia.
It stars a returning Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, Prom Night, Scream Queens), (at the time) teen heart throb Josh Hartnett (The Faculty, 30 Days of Night, Lucky Number Sleven), Michelle Williams ( Dawson's Creek, Shutter Island, Venom) and everyone's favorite 80’s rapper, LL Cool J (Deep Blue Sea, S.W.A.T., NCIS: Los Angeles).
A fond memory I have when thinking about this film is recreating the trailer using Mario Paint’s slideshow, specifically the scene where Myer's is slowly lowering himself from the rafters while stalking Laurie. Of course, being a kid at the time, we would recreate the scene in a variety of spoofs where Michael falls and hurts himself or any comedic way we could to that degree.
The film itself was able to rake in $55 million through its theatrical run making it a financial success to say the least but critics bashed the hell out of the film commenting on Curtis’ acting abilities along side the story-line which they claim to have been able to easily see through. From a movie goers perspective however, most people enjoyed the film both then and now giving it much higher praise than the “professionals” had.
From a personal standpoint, I’ve always loved this film. Next to the aforementioned “Mario Paint” recreations, It was always a film I enjoyed revisiting and had rented from my local movie store on multiple occasions especially when hosting the occasional horror film marathon with friends with the addition of the first two original films to make it a true trilogy.
Hold on a second. I just got a phone call… What?... What do you mean this entry doesn’t exist anymore? Seriously? I don’t care if “Kenny Powers” helped write the script…. And Laurie isn’t even related to Michael? What the fuck?
So… Turns out this new Halloween film coming out in October is rewriting the whole damn series again. Laurie never made it to the hospital, Loomis never got blown the fuck up with Myers in an operatory and nobody fell in love with a damn paramedic. What we have here is yet another timeline to add into the “Halloween” legacy making it four separate timelines. This entire series is officially a choose your own adventure book now but in movie form.
Regardless, if you’ve not seen the film, I think you should watch the original, it’s sequel and “H20” in order. This way you can enjoy it before the two of those films disintegrate into dust (Cheap Infinity War Joke). Plus, who doesn’t want to enjoy some more slasher goodness at the hands of Myers’? And yes, I barely spoke about the film’s plot, but you can easily figure out what is going on and that there are going to be some kick ass kills involved!
7 out of 10.
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It's Beyond The Void Horror Podcasts 100th Episode! Help them celebrate by listening and sharing. It's a fun episode. They give thanks and take on two movies that could be so bad their good. Both from Italy. These movies will change your life. Have listen here or you can Listen/Subscribe on iTunes here!