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Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

  • 1998
  • R
  • 1h 26m
IMDb RATING
5.8/10
85K
YOUR RATING
Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, LL Cool J, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, and Michelle Williams in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Trailer
Play trailer0:29
3 Videos
99+ Photos
Slasher HorrorTeen HorrorHorrorThriller

Laurie Strode, now the dean of a Northern California private school with an assumed name, must battle the Shape one last time, as the life of her own son hangs in the balance.Laurie Strode, now the dean of a Northern California private school with an assumed name, must battle the Shape one last time, as the life of her own son hangs in the balance.Laurie Strode, now the dean of a Northern California private school with an assumed name, must battle the Shape one last time, as the life of her own son hangs in the balance.

  • Director
    • Steve Miner
  • Writers
    • Debra Hill
    • John Carpenter
    • Robert Zappia
  • Stars
    • Jamie Lee Curtis
    • Josh Hartnett
    • Adam Arkin
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.8/10
    85K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Steve Miner
    • Writers
      • Debra Hill
      • John Carpenter
      • Robert Zappia
    • Stars
      • Jamie Lee Curtis
      • Josh Hartnett
      • Adam Arkin
    • 753User reviews
    • 184Critic reviews
    • 52Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 2 wins & 12 nominations total

    Videos3

    Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
    Trailer 0:29
    Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
    Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
    Trailer 0:29
    Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
    Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
    Trailer 0:29
    Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
    How David Gordon Green Made the 'Halloween' He Wanted to See
    Interview 2:04
    How David Gordon Green Made the 'Halloween' He Wanted to See

    Photos254

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    Top cast28

    Edit
    Jamie Lee Curtis
    Jamie Lee Curtis
    • Laurie Strode…
    Josh Hartnett
    Josh Hartnett
    • John
    Adam Arkin
    Adam Arkin
    • Will Brennan
    Michelle Williams
    Michelle Williams
    • Molly
    Adam Hann-Byrd
    Adam Hann-Byrd
    • Charlie
    Jodi Lyn O'Keefe
    Jodi Lyn O'Keefe
    • Sarah
    Janet Leigh
    Janet Leigh
    • Norma
    LL Cool J
    LL Cool J
    • Ronny
    Joseph Gordon-Levitt
    Joseph Gordon-Levitt
    • Jimmy
    Branden Williams
    Branden Williams
    • Tony
    Nancy Stephens
    Nancy Stephens
    • Marion
    Beau Billingslea
    Beau Billingslea
    • Fitz
    Matt Winston
    Matt Winston
    • Matt
    Larisa Miller
    Larisa Miller
    • Claudia
    Emmalee Thompson
    Emmalee Thompson
    • Casey
    David Blanchard
    • Waiter
    John Cassini
    John Cassini
    • Cop #1
    Jody Wood
    • Cop #2
    • Director
      • Steve Miner
    • Writers
      • Debra Hill
      • John Carpenter
      • Robert Zappia
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews753

    5.885.4K
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    Featured reviews

    7HumanoidOfFlesh

    Pretty good,but nothing really groundbreaking.

    "Halloween H20:20 Years Later" made by Steve Miner("House",the second and the third part of "Friday the 13th" series)is quite good,especially if you liked John Carpenter's classic "Halloween".The film disregards Parts 4-6,which is not necessarily a bad thing.Luckily it has plenty of suspense,and a good amount of scares-especially the prologue is quite terrifying.There is only a little bit of gore,so gorehounds will be disappointed.Jamie Lee Curtis is pretty good as a Laurie Strode,but the other characters played by the supporting cast are shallow and empty.The score by Marco Beltrami sounds exactly like the one from "Scream" and this is surely big mistake.All in all I enjoyed this one and you should too if you are a fan of "Halloween" series.7 out of 10-a solid horror flick!
    7TheLittleSongbird

    20 years later...and worth the wait

    John Carpenter's 1978 'Halloween' is wholly deserving of its status as a horror classic. To this day it's still one of the freakiest films personally seen and introduced the world to one of horror's most iconic villainous characters Michael Myers.

    Which is why it is such a shame that not only are all of the sequels nowhere near as good but that the decline in quality is so drastic. Ok, the original 'Halloween' is very difficult to follow on from, but most of the sequels could at least looked like effort was made into them. The exception however is 'Halloween H20: 20 Years Later'. It's not perfect and nowhere near as great as the original, but it's the only sequel that's above average, let alone good and by far the best since the original. It does a great job breathing fresh life into a series that had gotten stale as quick as one can down a can of coke gone flat and such a welcome addition after the badness of the fifth and sixth films.

    'Halloween H20: 20 Years Later' has its flaws. It is too short and at times erratically paced, sometimes rushed and then taking a bit of time to get going after the opening. There is not enough breathing room for development of characterisation, which generally is shallow apart from the central relationship and the script tends to be weak (not unexpected, though actually it's far worse in the previous sequels, at least it sounds complete).

    On the other hand, 'Halloween H20: 20 Years Later' is the best-looking of the sequels, the first half in particular being close in style to the autumnal look of the original, something that none of the previous sequels did. The editing is coherent, it's not shot too darkly and there is an eeriness to the setting which can be properly appreciated as a result. The music is a welcome return to being an asset than a drawback like in the previous two sequels. While not quite a character of its own like in the original, it adds to the atmosphere and enhances it.

    Luckily there's nowhere near as much unintentional camp, out of place humour or bizarre subplots or idea that muddle the story. Instead much of the film is fun and there is a tension, creepiness and suspense, even poignancy at times, that the previous sequels were sorely lacking in. The deaths are the most creative and shocking since those in the original, while the opening scene is unsettlingly tense and the ending is creepy and touching. The central relationship is handled quite well.

    Although the characters are underdeveloped, none of them are annoying and they do have enough personality to stop them from being too dull. The direction is in control of the material and is at least competent and often well above that, especially in the second half when the film really does come alive. Of the sequels, 'Halloween H20: 20 Years Later' is by quite some way the best acted, Jamie Lee Curtis' wonderful performance being the film's best asset.

    In summary, the best of the sequels/follow ups and worth the wait. 7/10 Bethany Cox
    7MissCzarChasm

    Glad Jamie Lee Curtis is back, but it could've been better

    Some may be turned off by this film because it is the 7th installment of the Halloween series. However, the filmmakers of this feature seem to treat it as the third since they totally disregard 3-6. Too bad 4 had to be in that group of forgotten movies because it was actually quite good and better than this sequel in my opinion. The main highlight is that it takes place 20 years after the original and it brings back one of the greatest horror heroines to ever grace the screen, The original scream queen, Jamie Lee Curtis. Essentially this is a project made for her and in that aspect it totally works, however as a Halloween film it feels out of place. It seems to have picked up on the new millenium horror trend of adding hot teen actors into the mix and is basically shot like an episode of Dawson's Creek. Kevin Williamson even did some polishing on the script. In this aspect it doesn't work too well, but for the 7th installment in the series i guess it could've been worse.

    As i said this is a showcase of Jamie Lee Curtis. It's very interesting to see how her character has changed in 20 years. Her performance is very good and is much more assertive than she was in the first 2 installments of the series. The problem is she is one oft he few characters worth any interest. Josh Hartnet as her son, and Michelle Williams as his love interest are the only 2 teen actors in the film worth mentioning. Josh Hartnet and Jamie Lee Curits share a very good mother/son chemistry that is vry effective in the film. Michelle Williams is more believeable than most potential teen slasher movie victims in her role. The rest of the cast is DOA. The supporting characters are vastly under-written. LL Cool J is funny in his scenes but they are too far and in between for him to become very interesting character. The other teen actors are just there to be slaughtered. The only oher interesting cast choice is Janet Leigh(shower victim from Psycho) in a Cameo. very cool to see mother and daughter together on screen. Michael Myers just isn't scary in this film. No because his presence is wearing thin because this is the 7th installment but because he isn't portrayed well by the actor/stuntman.

    There are good things though that raise it above most of the sequels. The second half comes at you with full force. After a rather long set-up things move into high gear once Michael begins to wreck havoc. His showdown with Laurie is good but i wish it could've been longer. Another interesting thing this sequel does is gives us some closure. you'll see once you view the film. It's very rare that a series does this and it's very effective in this film.

    I recommend this film based on the performance of Jamie Lee Curtis. If you want to see how she has been in the last 20 years than this is a film for you. Fans of the series should see this. I just worry that Halloween Ressurrection will ruin the semi-good note this film ended on, when it's released this summer. I hope to god they have a reason to bring Michael back for THE 8TH TIME. Evil never dies apparently and neither does this series even when it does have a fairly good finale.
    6evanston_dad

    Surprisingly Good

    "Halloween: H20" makes an obvious effort to return to the franchise's roots and recapture the qualities that made the first one so good. It doesn't come close to succeeding, but it does manage to become, in my opinion, the second best of the series, though that's pretty faint praise.

    There are some creepy scenes early on in this film (the one in the deserted rest stop bathroom, most notably), but this movie really exists for the sole purpose of having Jamie Lee Curtis kick Michael Myers's ass, and the catharsis in watching her do so is worth the price of admission. There are some obligatory killings, but they go for gruesome rather than frightening, which was not John Carpenter's approach. But when Laurie Strode takes matters into her own hands and comes after Michael with guns blazing (so to speak), hold on to yourselves--violent tendencies seem to run in this family.

    The producers of this movie use a bigger budget to add some modern "scary" sound effects for atmosphere and fill out John Carpenter's original score with a sweeping orchestra--it's like John Williams' version of the Halloween theme. The whole thing feels like it's running on an I.V. drip of pure adrenaline. But fans of the series, or at least of the first two films, should enjoy it.

    LL Cool J is totally wasted in the token black character role, and Janet Leigh makes a pointless appearance as well, but listen for the brief strain of Bernard Herrman's "Psycho" score in one scene with her.

    Grade: B
    6Jonny_Numb

    Forget "Resurrection"--the series ends here.

    Back before Lions Gate (now Lionsgate) held the monopoly on mainstream genre pics, Dimension Films was the go-to place for horror and suspense of the 'indie' sort. In 1998, with Wes Craven's 2 "Scream" films maintaining the public interest to great financial success, Dimension decided to put their acquisition of the "Halloween" franchise to good use (especially after the atrocious "Curse of Michael Myers") by making a sequel to end all sequels (at least until the atrocious "Halloween: Resurrection" turded up multiplexes).

    In addition to being one of the most instantly-recognizable titles in all of horror, "Halloween: H20" came to screens with an added incentive: it marked the series return of original protagonist/victim Laurie Strode (played with cat-like veracity by Jamie Lee Curtis). Curtis' presence, in addition to the reliable skill of director Steve Miner (who cut his teeth on two "Friday the 13th" sequels), plus a story that wisely disregarded the incidents of all the sequels past "II," set "H20" up as the series payoff I was so eagerly awaiting. After leaving the theater, I was more than satisfied with the end result.

    Years go by. Dimension becomes a notorious den of re-cuts, re-shoots, and re-castings (just ask Wes "Cursed" Craven) still trying to mine the 'Fresh-Faced-Teen' demographic that doesn't seem to exist anymore. Upon re-examination of "H20"'s box/poster art, I noticed a recurrent motif (from "Scream" to "Phantoms" to "Nightwatch" to "Rounders") in design: the proliferation of airbrushed faces looking Deeply Concerned about something, in addition to an over-reliance on bold, exclamatory blurbs from dubious sources (WWOR-TV, anyone?).

    But I'm not reviewing the marketing tactics of a company whose former glories (namely Tarantino and Rodriguez) are now its only source of revenue.

    "Sin City" notwithstanding, "H20" might have been the last good movie to come out of Dimension. At its core, it is a surprisingly compact (86 minutes, including credits) horror-thriller that moves so briskly we are never able to get too cozy with the characters. Miner goes for the subtle compositions that marked John Carpenter's original, and is fairly successful: the film refrains from the obligatory sex and self-referential attitude that would have been profitable at the time. From frame one, "H20" feels like a continuous, flowing set-piece...but the way it sidelines its characters leaves a hollow echo when it's all finished. Also unfortunate is that the suspense is so heavy-handed it seldom creates tension; this might be attributable to Chris Durand's overly self-conscious portrayal of the menacing Michael Myers. The relationship between Curtis, her son John (Josh Hartnett), and Myers is the film's intriguing familial triangle, but is disappointingly underdeveloped (though for the sake of the series, it wraps things up well enough).

    In the end, "H20" is Curtis' show. She imbues her character with as much straight-faced commitment as she did in '78, in addition to a toughened exterior bent on preserving family values at any cost. The denouement, which contains a moment as touching as it is creepy, gives new meaning to the phrase, "tough love."

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Jamie Lee Curtis considers the film a thank you note to her fans. She stated that "Without that early career, I truly don't think I would have been an actor."
    • Goofs
      The newspaper clip shown during the opening credits, which states that Laurie Strode died in a car accident, says that she was a survivor of the "Halloween murders" of 1968. They took place in 1978.
    • Quotes

      Tony: Hasn't anyone ever told you that second-hand smoke kills?

      Nurse Marion: Yeah, but they're all dead.

    • Alternate versions
      An early workprint version had a different score and an altered opening credits montage, as well as a slightly different version of of the dorm room scene, where the girls have "So I Married An Ax Murderer" playing on the TV instead of in the final version where they have on "Scream 2."
    • Connections
      Featured in 2nd Annual Mystery Science Theater 3000 Summer Blockbuster Review (1998)
    • Soundtracks
      Mr. Sandman
      Written by Pat Ballard

      Performed by The Chordettes

      Courtesy of Barnaby Records, Inc.

      By Arrangement with Celebrity Licensing, Inc.

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    FAQ30

    • How long is Halloween H20: 20 Years Later?Powered by Alexa
    • Was it a copycat killer or was it really Michael in this film?
    • What is 'Halloween H20' about?
    • Is 'Halloween H20' based on a book?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 5, 1998 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Halloween: The Website of Michael Myers
      • Miramax
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Halloween H20: Veinte años después
    • Filming locations
      • La Puente, California, USA(town: Summer Glen)
    • Production companies
      • Dimension Films
      • Nightfall Productions
      • Trancas International Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $17,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $55,041,738
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $16,187,724
      • Aug 9, 1998
    • Gross worldwide
      • $55,041,738
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 26 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • DTS
      • Dolby Digital
      • SDDS
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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