Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later
20 years after the game changing horror movie revelation that was John Carpenterâs Halloween, a decision was made (for the first but not the last time for the franchise) to completely âretconâ and reboot the series with an âalternateâ timeline that was to explain that Michael Myers had not been seen since the events of Halloween 2 when he burned up in the hospital explosion and (excluding Part 3âs non-Myers storyline concerning the masks) stating that the events of Halloween 4, 5 and 6 had NEVER happened with the so called Jamie Lloyd Trilogy. It was only natural for them to move in this direction since the linear story had pretty much been all played out with Michael (and The Man In Black) having killed his niece Jamie and the subsequent real life death of Donald Pleasence (who had proudly carried these films all during this time) preventing the series from carrying on with the notion that his Dr. Loomis would serve not as Michaelâs enemy but rather as his guardian and protector (as The Man In Black did), now possessed by the same evil that had pervaded Michael and also helping him hunt down his remaining bloodline. As intriguing as the concept of Myers and Loomis now standing together as allies sounded, the passing of Pleasence meant that the series had nowhere to go unless the OTHER big name connected with the series would now return: Jamie Lee Curtisâ Laurie Strode, whom it was explained in Part 4 had died in a car wreck and left young Jamie an orphan with the NEW explanation being that she had faked her death and then changed her name while Jamie apparently had never existed but she now had a nearly grown son played by Josh Hartnett. Itâs clear that The Weinsteins and Miramax (now co producing with longtime franchise guru Moustapha Akkad) wanted this new Halloween to have a little bit of the vibe that had come from Scream (easily the biggest and most influential horror hit of the 1990s) by showcasing pretty young actors straight from the WB network school of looking good on camera all while employing what was supposed to be witty, and at times self referential dialogue (for which original Scream writer Kevin Williamson was brought in to work extensively on the script) that turned out to be a little too obvious for its own good (thereâs even a bit where Jamie Leeâs real life mother Janet Leigh cameos and has a scene with her daughter before a few notes from the Psycho instrumental score are played on the soundtrack!) and thereâs actually a scene showing characters watching Scream 2 on TV! To top it all off, the hiring of director Steve Miner (veteran of two Friday The 13th entries) seemed rather appropriate given that John Carpenter was first offered the job and demanded $10 million dollars to do so! The film opens with Myers breaking into the home of the now dead Loomis and murdering his nurse girlfriend (Nancy Stephens returning) along with a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a nosy teen. More importantly, he ransacks Loomisâ office files until he finds what heâs looking for: the private file on Laurie Strode which details where sheâs living now (Northern California) and what her new assumed name is (Keri Tate), which right off the bat proves two interesting points, which are 1) Laurie obviously trusted Loomis enough to allow him and only him to know where she could be found (also knowing that he could have assisted in helping her fake her death) and 2) Michael was obviously way too scared and rattled by Loomis to even attempt anything like this when he was still alive (and also confirms that even in this new timeline that Loomis had still survived the hospital explosion itself even though he was at ground zero of the blast). While the police bumble through the crime scene and make the expected call to warn the town of Haddonfield, Myers tools his way out to The West Coast where Laurie and her new identity are the Dean of a prestigious private high school and sheâs also screwing the schoolâs guidance counselor (Adam Arkin) while Hartnett her son (who is fully aware of his motherâs secret) is getting it on with the super hot future Oscar nominee Michelle Williams and hanging out with his loser friend (Adam Hann-Byrd) and his inexplicably gorgeous girlfriend (Jodi Lynn OâKeefe) which follows the old horror movie motif of strictly segregated couples with no third wheel friends and no guys and girls ever being portrayed hanging out as just âbest friendsâ even as that becomes the norm in real life. After spending over half the movie (poorly) building up and developing these characters, Myers finally arrives at the school on Halloween night, a place where literally nobody else is around because the rest of the student body has gone off to Yosemite except for the school security guard played by LL Cool J (yeah I know), so the suburban atmosphere and backdrop of innocent kids trick or treating while the monster walks among them is pretty much gone here, replaced by perfunctory kill scenes on the few characters considered expendable (with the idea being implied that Hartnett as Myersâ nephew thus makes him another âfamily primary targetâ in the same way that Laurie is) before Laurie sends the survivors off to safety and accepts that she now must do battle with Myers himself for the last 15 minutes of the movie (which Curtis herself acknowledged as being where the movie actually âbeginsâ) and the extended battle of wits and brawn using several forms of weaponry on both sides is definitely one for the record especially the ending that for all intensive purposes ended the series once and for all and helped expose Akkad (who did not approve the ending) as being a jaded old con man still clinging to the one last piece of iconic cinema which he controlled with his constant stipulations over the years that Myers MUST NOT EVER DIE so that the series may continue under his watch and make him even more money until his tragic 2005 death in a terrorist bombing. Despite the fact that it was a pretty definitive (and appropriate) ending to both the film and the franchise as a whole that Curtis, Miner, The Weinsteins and everyone else working on the film down to the catering crew (and most of the fans) approved of, Akkad still decided that he was going to pull rank and squeeze yet another sequel out of the storyline as he basically forced Curtis (who was under contractual obligation) to come back for a cameo in the next film which was considered so bad in both its execution and âtwistâ explanation of Myersâ survival that it in essence killed the series as we knew it for the time being and in doing so set up Rob Zombieâs remakes and then the eventual recent rebirth / reboot (which had Carpenterâs involvement and was a direct sequel only to Part 1) which featured Curtisâ Laurie coming back for a fresh, new start. One can see why Curtis later admitted that she did this one for the money while going in with good intentions. Despite its laborious setup, the entire thing seems rushed as if they didnât have enough production time to fine tune and give it a real atmosphere for the given material (and the private school setting seems all wrong here) not to mention the fact that Myersâ mask actually changes during the course of the film which wasnât noticed until post production leading to some clumsy uses of CGI to try and cover for it. The only part that doesnât seem rushed is Janet Leighâs school secretary sentimental gushing over her boss (Curtis) in a maternal way, but the most fascinating scene that was actually filmed here but not used is one in which a student in Laurieâs class (not knowing that her teacher is THE Laurie Strode) reportedly gave an oral presentation on the Halloween murders which Myers was infamous for and DOES mention Jamieâs involvement and subsequent death at the hands of her uncle (on the idea that Laurie faking her death and disappearing was part of The Witness Protection Program and that Jamie was not allowed to come along for some reason) which causes Laurie to break down in grief and go to the bathroom to vomit. That kind of emotional scene (had it not been deleted) would have been worth 10 scenes of Josh Hartnett imploring his mom to just let him do what he wants and also manage to tie the whole franchise together. But we get what we get instead: the much ballyhooed return of Jamie Lee Curtis to the role that made her famous which would be just as much celebrated when it happened again another 20 years later, but not much more than thatâŚ
5/10