THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Sometimes, you don’t know if things are worth going back to until given a chance.
PLOT
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later takes place in the titular timeframe since the events of the first two films, and retcons the events of the Thorn arc. Laurie Strode now lives in California instead of Haddonfield, working as a headmistress of the private boarding school Hillcrest Academy, where her only son John attends. She has high support from her secretary Norma Watson and guidance counselor Will Brennan who she’s also dating. Despite living under the alias ‘Keri Tate’, she’s still traumatized of what happened between her and her murderous brother Michael Myers. Ever since then, she’s had nightmares of him coming after her and have struggles of alcoholism. Unbeknownst to her, he greatest fear is coming true because the Shape is confirmed to have survived the fire, as he went to Langdon, Illinois, to kill Marion Chambers-Whittington (Nancy Stephens), the only person to have taken care of the late Sam Loomis when he was ill. After killing her and two innocent teens named Jimmy & Tony (Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Branden Williams), he takes the nurse’s car and drives to California. When the car gets a flat tire during the drive, he takes another from a woman and her young daughter at a highway rest area, but leaves them abandoned & unharmed. Back at Hillcrest, the majority of faculty students are preparing for a field trip to Yosemite, but Laurie is against John attending out of worry. He later expresses that the fear of her brother is affecting him more than she realizes, thus encouraging her to change her mind. However, she only does just when he plans to stay on campus to have a Halloween party unbeknownst to her with his girlfriend Molly Cartwell and their friends, Charlie & Sarah (Adam Hann-Byrd & Jodi Lynn O’Keefe) who are also dating. With everyone departing for the field trip, the only adults to stay are Laurie, Will and security guard Ronny. Unbeknownst to the latter, Michael sneaks onto campus. When Laurie gets intimate with Will, she shares of her past on how she faked her death in order to keep Michael from finding her. Realizing her son is now the same age as she was 20 years prior, her worry returns and starts calling him only to realize the phone lines got cut off. When they group up with Ronny and arm themselves, Michael continues his killing spree by brutally murdering Charlie & Sarah near a dumbwaiter. When he pursues the remaining couple, John only gets grazed in the leg with a knife until his mom finds them and helps them hide. When regrouping again with Will, he accidentally shoots Ronny before the boogeyman re-appears to fatally stab him from behind. Laurie retreats, only to tell John & Molly to leave campus and find help as she arms herself with an axe to face her fears. She is able to stab him a few times before shoving him off a balcony, but a recovering Ronny stops her from finishing him off, believing him to be dead at that point. When the authorities arrive, Michael’s body is apparently taken in a body bag and into a coroner’s van. Refusing to take a chance, she carjacks the van and causes it to crash. She gets out in time and sees her brother get trapped between the van and a nearby downed tree. The film then ends with her beheading him with the axe while sirens approach.
THOUGHTS
The best way to discuss this film is through Pros and Cons.
PROS: Before Blumhouse gave their spin on this franchise, this was the original legacy sequel that came about and despite my anger towards the unnecessary Resurrection, this one is fine on it own. Director Steve Miner, who previously directed Friday the 13th Part 2 and Part 3, was aiming to be a return to form while also bringing things full circle in sendoff fashion. With a much better design on the mask, actor Chris Durand feels way more intimidating than those who stepped in during the Thorn arc. My only takeaway from it was how it had to be digitized when he attacks Charlie. I'm still rattled how he used a dumb waiter to his advantage because that all of things I've seen in this franchise appeared the most harmless until seeing this. Thanks to an impressive score by Marco Beltrami & John Ottman, it felt the roots were reformed because that was made me feel most frightened whenever the Shape was onscreen. With the first return from Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie, we get a creative take on how it's best to put the past behind you sooner or your worries will affect your loved ones more than you can know. It is important to keep your guard up, but that shouldn't stop you from trying to enjoy what's in front of you. That is her dilemma here because the trauma was so severe she couldn't grasp moving on until she was sure the pain was over. Every smile she had was only a mask to cover how paranoid she's always been. The fact not only her son, but also her secretary Norma, beautifully played by Jamie's mother Janet Leigh, had to be so maternal towards her comes to show how vulnerable she's allowed herself to be. She predictably had the right to feel such since her brother came back just as she worried. Despite being afraid, she incredibly faced her fears when it mattered most. Despite Resurrection retconning the result of her actions, I'm glad she did the absolute in killing Michael because she knew he'd never stop coming and at that point, you already felt the relief she was regaining. Breakout Josh Hartnett gives a solid go as John who has his own eagerness in wanting to make the best out of his life and is tired of his mom holding him back. She's validated in being overprotective, but that doesn't mean they had to be together 24/7 to be safe. Especially with the absence of his dad, he didn't want to be taking care of her forever and having space was all he wanted, which is obvious he had that when he was with Molly. Without overrating her, I think Michelle Williams was interesting as well because she has her own eagerness in making her life count with all the fun she could get, but is way more optimistic about it to the point of zero doubt in how things can go. She finds comfort with John in return because he gives her all the comfort she seeks as she does for him, being equals. After what happened to Laurie though, I do hope they can still find a future together. Since the Strode matriarch had a crossroads with her son, you would think she wouldn't have a companion the way he does. Luckily, she had a second chance at love when it came to Will. Adam Arkin was cool because he was the most open minded guy which may be part of his line of work, but is more genuine about it even when off the clock. He wants Laurie to be happy and encourages her to open up, which she eventually does, at the cost of him meeting her extended family. His death stung because by then, Laurie's happiness was taken away again and the rest would be history. Lastly, it still surprises me that rapper LL Cool J would play a security guard because it feels out of character for him, but that is the one thing I won't judge about this movie because everyone starts somewhere. I thought he was cool as Ronny because he was supportive towards John wanting to live freely, while also having his own creativity since he was an aspiring writer which he'd share with his girlfriend. What was the funniest thing about him was not his dumb luck in surviving a headshot, but the fact his near death experience inspired his next script. And the fact Resurrection didn't mention it was a missed opportunity.
CONS: There are a lot of things I can give the movie credit for, but then there are multiple things that far more confusing than Scream existing in this franchise, as in a movie that references the predecessor itself. Story wise, why did Loomis have a file on Laurie in the first place? Since she was never his patient, he never needed it. Even if he wanted to check on her, this was too big of a risk which leads to Michael finding her anyway. I did think it was funny for Ronny’s girlfriend to commentate on letting John leave campus for lunch, but I doubt either guy heard her when the telephone wasn’t even in an earshot. If we’re getting into continuity errors, how bout the same group of trick or treating kids are on one side of the street and quickly are on the other just to startle Laurie. Ain’t no way they crossed the street that fast and you can’t fool me otherwise. Also, how did she not notice Michael follow her? I know she was giving Ronny shit for not doing his job, but she had to notice a suspicious car like the one her brother drove. I then wonder when did John get flowers for Molly? We only saw Charlie steal liquor and he had not flowers on him when he was standing up to his mom. So if there was a store on campus that sold flowers, that should be clarified. It even gets crazier to realize Laurie didn’t even see him get on the bus. If she’s so overprotective, she should’ve done that. And what stops Michael from killing Ronny? If he’s gonna start killing people on campus, there’s no reason to spare him in his mindset which is different from the mom & daughter pair earlier because he was just not gonna waste time at that point in comparison. Michael also messes up by aiming for John’s leg instead of his back which would’ve made it harder for the guy to escape. It’s even a trip once Will mistakenly shoots Ronny when he thought it was Michael. The thing is it kinda was when you look back at the frame before the trigger got pulled. My problem with the moment of confusion was that it implies Will is hallucinating like Laurie, which doesn’t add up since he doesn’t got 20 years of trauma to make a mistake. Lastly, I do not want to mention Resurrection again, but I don’t believe Michael had enough time to swap clothes with a paramedic because there had to have been witnesses to see it and the fact there weren’t is bullshit which ruins Laurie’s redemption that is the whole point of this movie. If you can ignore such bullshit, I’m sure you’ll still have a good time here. To wrap up, Halloween H20 is a much better sequel compared to other slasher films that knows what it is and does its best to make as much sense as the predecessors. If you’re a fan of this franchise, I hope this pleases you.
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