Creeptober Day 1: Halloween H20

Creeptober begins by revisiting a classic selection from the most appropriate film franchise for the season!

Magic Symbol: Thorn Rune updated on
Check the Creeptober announcement article to find out where you can stream Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later.

Creeptober begins today! Thank you for joining us on this 31 day journey through some of the very best Halloween horror movies! To begin the marathon, we wanted to start with something emblematic of the season. A movie that feels classic in a way, but without relying on something everyone has seen a hundred times. To us, Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later fits that description perfectly!

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Read on for our thoughts on Halloween H20 as well as a recap of the movie, and join the conversation on our Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

Reacting to Halloween H20

Josh Hartnett and Michelle Williams in Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998).
Halloween H20 was Josh Hartnett’s first feature film (he’s seen here with co-star Michelle Williams).

If you’re a fan of the Halloween franchise and you’ve seen all of the movies, then you’ll surely notice that many of the sequels attempt to recreate the magic of the 1978 original. Classic scenes and situations are alluded to over and over again throughout the series, but they’re never quite as effective as John Carpenter’s original. Halloween H20 does this sort of thing a lot. But that isn’t a bad thing. It feels natural and even expected for H20 to echo the original, and it does it well. H20 is easily one of the best sequels (and requels) in the franchise.

Josh Hartnett and Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20 (1998).
Part of the fun in this scene is watching the background actors react to the argument. They see what’s happening, pause, and then decide to take another route on their journey.

The story of Laurie and her son John is definitely the best part of the movie. Watching Laurie struggle with decades of lingering trauma, and seeing how that is affecting her son John, provides the biggest emotional hook in the story. Jamie Lee Curtis and Josh Hartnett are great together as mother and son. Their scene on the sidewalk in the city when Laurie catches him sneaking out of school is one of the best moments in the whole movie.

Michael's CGI mask in Halloween H20.
This CGI monstrosity was apparently used to cover a mask that was originally used, then replaced and reshot for most of the other scenes.

As good as Laurie and John’s characters are, Michael, unfortunately, is probably the weakest part of H20. For one, he looks goofy. The mask is strange (multiple masks were used, including the infamous CGI mask), and showing his real eyes so clearly through the mask was a bizarre choice. He also looks weirdly small to me. So, not nearly as imposing as he should be. On top of that, he doesn’t feel as dangerous as he does in other movies. H20 has one of the lowest body counts in the franchise, but it’s not just that. Multiple intended victims escape from him. That’s not unheard of, but the overall level of slasher violence is somewhat limited in H20.

Laurie at the end of Halloween H20 (1998).
The suddenness of the ending of Halloween H20 is better than the finale of Halloween Ends (specifically Michael’s final moments in Ends, but not the fight which is quite good). It’s just too bad that the H20 ending was written in a specific way so that it could be undone in Halloween: Resurrection.

Regardless of any complaints about Michael though, Halloween H20 is still a highly entertaining late-90s slasher. It’s smartly made, the new characters are all enjoyable to watch (Ronnie is my personal favorite), and it feels like a natural progression of the Halloween franchise. It’s similar to what came before it, but it’s different enough to stand on its own. I can’t think of a better way to begin October than with H20.

Halloween H20 – A Recap

Michael Myers in Halloween H20 (1998).
It’s impressive that, twenty years later, Michael still fits into his coveralls. The mask is a bit tight though.

Halloween H20 is set twenty years after Michael Myers’ 1978 murder spree. Within the continuity of the franchise, it includes the original Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981). So, Michael and Laurie are still brother and sister (unlike the 2018 sequel), but Laurie doesn’t have a daughter (Jamie Lloyd from Halloween 4, 5, and 6). Instead, Laurie has a 17-year-old son, John.

But don’t worry about all of that. You don’t need to know the convoluted history of the Halloween franchise in order to enjoy H20. You can watch it on its own and understand it just fine. So here’s what the movie is about.

Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween H20 (1998).
Regardless of the timeline shenanigans, Jamie Lee Curtis grounds Halloween H20 with her emotional portrayal of Laurie.

Laurie Strode is now, in 1998, known by the name Keri Tate. She is haunted by her brush with death at the hands of her brother in 1978, and her trauma is affecting her teenage son John. Laurie is now the headmistress of a private boarding school far away from her hometown of Haddonfield, but she can’t shake the fear that Michael might find her and attempt to kill her once again.

A school trip beginning on Halloween sends most of the students away, leaving the school grounds nearly empty. The only people left behind are Laurie, school counselor Will Brennan, security guard Ronnie Jones, and four students: Sarah, Charlie, Molly, and Laurie’s son John. Also arriving at the school that night is Michael Myers, who found Laurie’s location after “visiting” the home of Dr. Loomis’s former nurse, Marion, and digging through her files. So, Laurie’s nightmare becomes a reality, and she is determined to save her son while ending her brother’s hold over her once and for all.

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Meet The Author

Chris has a degree in film studies at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo, Japan. He is a renowned expert on horror cinema.