Themes: Haunted By the Past, Out For Revenge, Woman In Jeopardy
Main Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam Arkin, Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams, Adam Hann-Byrd
Release Year: 1998
Country: US
Run Time: 85 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This is the seventh movie in this horror series and a 20th anniversary follow-up to John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), arguably the most influential horror film of the '70s, a film that set the standard of horror for the next two decades and catapulted the career of Jamie Lee Curtis. Newspaper clippings review the murders 20 years earlier by Michael Myers, including one stating Laurie Strode (Curtis) died in a car accident. Actually, she faked her death to hide from Michael, changed her name, and became headmistress at a Southern California boarding school attended by her son, teen John (Josh Hartnett). On Halloween, with most of the school staff and students away on a Yosemite camping trip, John plans a "romantic" evening with several of his classmates -- his girlfriend Molly (Michelle Williams), Charlie (Adam Hann-Byrd), and Sarah (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe). Laurie, meanwhile, has her own date with school-counselor Will (Adam Arkin); on their date, she reveals some of the secrets of her past life to Will. Meanwhile, masked Michael (Chris Durand) evades security guard Ronny (LL Cool J) -- and the nightmares begin anew. Curtis' mother, Janet Leigh, appears in a cameo role as the school secretary. The music score by John Ottman features orchestral variations on the 1978 score composed by Carpenter. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
Michael Myers, the psycho with nine-plus lives, miraculously returns, this time twenty years after the original Halloween massacre. While the film plays reasonably well, taking some visual cues from Wes Craven's Scream films, there are a whole lot of jagged edges. The most glaring is Myers' ludicrous road trip, in which the killer makes it from Illinois to Southern California in less than 24 hours. The original scream queen, Jamie Lee Curtis, also returns and puts up a respectfully convincing performance in the lead role. The film is terse and to the point, aided by some swift direction and visual bells and whistles. The original Halloween still stands as a seminal horror film, and H20 pays adequate respect to the masterpiece: though its story concept has had more makeovers than most Hollywood debutantes, this culminating act is certainly not the worst in the series. ~ Mike DiBella, All Movie Guide
Jodi Lyn O'Keefe - Sarah; Janet Leigh - Norma; LL Cool J - Ronny; Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Jimmy; Nancy Stephens - Marion; Branden Williams - Tony; Chris Durand - Michael Myers
Credit
Dawn Snyder - Art Director, Malek Akkad - Associate Producer, Ross Brown - Casting, Christine Sheaks - Casting, Deborah Everton - Costume Designer, Steve Miner - Director, Patrick Lussier - Editor, Moustapha Akkad - Executive Producer, Bob Weinstein - Executive Producer, Harvey Weinstein - Executive Producer, Kevin Williamson - Executive Producer, John Ottman - Composer (Music Score), Ed Gerrard - Musical Direction/Supervision, John Willett - Production Designer, Daryn Okada - Cinematographer, Paul Freeman - Producer, Beau Peterson - Set Designer, Thomas Reta - Set Designer, Dawn Swiderski - Set Designer, Steve Boeddeker - Set Designer, Jim Tanenbaum - Sound/Sound Designer, Robert Zappia - Screen Story, Matthew Greenberg - Screenwriter, Robert Zappia - Screenwriter, Marco Beltrami - Additional Music
