{"id":41003,"date":"2023-10-31T00:31:15","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T04:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=41003"},"modified":"2023-10-30T14:36:26","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T18:36:26","slug":"at-25-halloween-h20-is-still-a-horror-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/31\/at-25-halloween-h20-is-still-a-horror-milestone\/","title":{"rendered":"At 25 \u201cHalloween: H20\u201d is Still a Horror Milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I can still remember sitting in the theater among the crowds watching as the audience sat expecting Michael to get away. Then Laurie took the swipe with her axe lopping his head off clean. I can still remember hearing the audience offer an audible gasp in sheer shock. This was it. It was done. Michael was dead. Laurie had beaten her demons. But then there came \u201cResurrection,\u201d and then \u201cHalloween (2018).\u201d Jamie Lee Curtis wanted nothing to do with Halloween for a long time, and then she took on the role of Laurie one last time, but then killed her off in \u201cResurrection.\u201d One last time. But then she re-emerges years later for \u201cHalloween\u201d in 2018 to reprise Laurie Strode yet again.<\/p>\n

I wish Jamie Lee Curtis would make up her mind already. I digress.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the audible gasp was still pretty loud in the theaters, and even I couldn\u2019t help but react to what was the finality of it all. Michael had been slain like the monster that he was. \u201cHalloween: H20\u201d (or \u201cHalloween H20: 20 Years Later\u201d or sometimes \u201cH20\u201d) was an important horror movie milestone in 1998 and to this day it\u2019s still considered one of the biggest Horror movie milestones. Not even time and sequels and remakes could really nullify its impact and clear cut importance. This was during a time where teen oriented horror movies were still the norm and everyone was still looking to deliver their own \u201cScream.\u201d So to have Laurie Strode return once again to take on Michael and face off as the fates conspired to bring them back together, was something that had to be seen in movie theaters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Say what you want about \u201cH20\u201d but in the terms of giving us the showdown between Michael and Laurie Strode after that fateful Halloween night, director Steve Miner and Kevin Williamson delivers. Even in spite of being rendered not completely the definitive timeline of events, \u201cH20\u201d manages to be a pretty great reunion of good and evil that also injects Laurie\u2019s own son Jack in to the mix. Along with the prologue that closes up the original \u201cHalloween\u201d with the re-appearance of Nurse Chambers from 1978\u2019s \u201cHalloween,\u201d it also sets the stage for what is otherwise an epilogue to \u201cHalloween II.\u201d It takes us through a buffer of the events of what\u2019s unfolded during Laurie\u2019s disappearance and Dr. Loomis\u2019 death. \u201cH20\u201d is set in the timeline where \u201cHalloween\u201d and \u201cHalloween II\u201d took place prompting Laurie to flee.<\/p>\n

Sadly, in this timeline Jamie Lloyd doesn\u2019t exist. To make things even sadder, good old Dr. Loomis dies in a retirement home, not battling Michael. Laurie is forced to assume another identity in hopes of escaping Michael Myers and the carnage that comes in his wake. That never stopped Michael, of course, who seemingly spent most of his years trying to track Laurie down to complete his mission. While the original film was about fate seemingly bringing together Michael and Laurie in a fight for dominance, \u201cH20\u201d retcons Michael\u2019s whole purpose as a literal demon coming back to creep up on Laurie. Laure is now an alcoholic and prone to vivid dreams of \u201cThe Shape\u201d all the while looking after her mal adjusted and distant son John.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And who can blame him as he has basically been forced to deal with her psychological problems for most of life while chasing way any potential husbands as well a John\u2019s friends. At a period where most studios were opting to deliver \u201cScream\u201d-lite screenplays with \u201cwink wink\u201d self awareness, Kevin Wlliamson dial down the self aware meta humor in favor of a narrative that precise, swift in pacing, and bears very little flab. Where most of the \u201cHalloween\u201d movies dealt with bringing a lot of the death and terror to Michael within his house, Michael seemingly takes special exception with Laurie. Much like \u201cHalloween II,\u201d Michael travels across country willingly stalking her away from Haddonfield. There\u2019s always this specter looming over her shoulder, which makes her new life almost impossible to enjoy.<\/p>\n

His biggest mistake is tracking Laurie down in her territory as, despite the school she is apart of becoming a veritable warzone, Laurie is able to get the upper hand with her familiar surroundings. So much of \u201cHalloween H20\u201d is built around the powder keg that\u2019s about to explode, but so much of the lead up still manages to be exciting in its own right. From the taunting of a mom and her child at a gas station, lurking around the private school, to sadly demolishing two of John\u2019s friends. The big moment leading up to Laurie\u2019s face off involves Laurie\u2019s son fighting Michael, which is such a dramatic moment that sadly didn\u2019t get more time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The scene is very abrupt but it\u2019s an appreciated moment leading in to the big climax in the school. So much about \u201cH20\u201d is Laurie taking her life back once and for all, and by the time the movie ends she essentially fails. She brings Michael down, sure, but she isn\u2019t much better off than when we first met her. If you\u2019re willing to ignore \u201cResurrection,\u201d it leaves her in shambles and we\u2019re left lingering on the question if she\u2019ll ever be able to pick up the pieces all over again. Can she? Can John? Will they become the scapegoats for the lives lost at the school? There were a ton of production problems including getting the mask of Michael just right.<\/p>\n

Despite the obvious inconsistencies in the design and some bumps in the road narrative wise, \u201cHalloween: H20\u201d gets the whole reunion pretty damn well. It\u2019s also a damn good way to end the nineties as so much of the decade was based on deathly serious horror, and the glut of horror pretending to be Oscar worthy thrillers. It\u2019s campy, it\u2019s crazy, it\u2019s exciting, and damnit, was a fine way to end this storyline once and for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I can still remember sitting in the theater among the crowds watching as the audience sat expecting Michael to get away. Then Laurie took the swipe with her axe lopping his head off clean. I can still remember hearing the audience offer an audible gasp in sheer shock. This was it. It was done. Michael […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13],"tags":[441,661,922,950],"class_list":["post-41003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-pcthugs","tag-halloween","tag-michael-meyers","tag-sequel","tag-slasher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41008,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41003\/revisions\/41008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}