Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

DIRECTED BY: Steve Miner

STORY BY: Robert Zappia and Kevin Williamson (uncredited)

SCREENPLAY BY: Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg

MUSIC BY: John Ottman

ADDUTIONAL MUSIC BY: Marco Beltrami (from Scream)

DISTRIBUTOR: Dimension Films

STARRING: Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam Arkin, Michelle Williams, Adam Hann-Byrd, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Janet Leigh as Norma, introducing Josh Hartnett, with LL Cool J, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt

RUNNING TIME: 86 Minutes

Plot:

20 years after the original we find out that Laurie Strode is not dead. She faked her death and is now living under an assumed name as the headmaster of a prep school in northern California. She has a son who is 17 years old; the same age as she was when Michael tried to kill her. On Halloween day nearly the entire student body and faculty is at Yosemite National Park. Michael finds them and comes to kill them. Laurie finally decides that she is finished running away. She takes an ax and goes after him. She ends up decapitating him.

Mythos Information:

Takes place October 29 - 31, 1998; 20 years after the original (I know that one is hard to figure)

Takes place in Summer Glen, California.

Dr. Loomis is dead. Before he died he lived with Nurse Marion (Nancy Stephens) who worked with him in 1978.

Laurie did not die in a car accident. She faked her death and made it appear to be a crash. She assumed the name of Keri Tate and became the headmaster of a prep school.

When Kevin Willamson wrote the original story outline for this movie he was going to at least mention the events of all of the Halloween sequels. Somewhere along the line it was decided that some of the sequels were going to be disregarded. The writers decided to eliminate everything except for parts 1 & 2. Director Steve Miner wanted to ignore everything except for part 1. This resulted in some confusion about the back story.

Cues, indicating that everything after part 1 never happened:

* At the beginning the cops say that Michael's body was never found after the murders 20 years ago.

* The cops say that Dr. Loomis died "a few years ago". Part 2 ended with his apparent death in an explosion 20 years prior.

* Michael has no burn marks on his hands.

Cues indicating that everything after Halloween II never happened:

* When Laurie/Keri busts John for sneaking into town he says "Michael Myers is dead; you saw him burn."

* Laurie/Keri refers to Michael as her brother several times. That fact was not reviled until Part II.

RANT MODE ON:

I personally think that Moustapha Akkad and Paul Freeman sold out the true fans on this one. This is not one of those cases like Highlander II where a sequel completely ruined continuity for the rest of the movies. Given that the way that they chose to do it made even less sense than quickly explaining the sequels, what would it have hurt to throw in a few quick lines about Jamie Lloyd or Tommy Doyle.

RANT MODE OFF:

Since I don't deal in reality when talking about film Mythos, I have come up with a theory that incorporates this film into the Halloween legacy. Since Laurie only left behind Jamie when she faked her death we can conclude that Jamie and John had different fathers (Laurie's experience being stalked by a homicidal maniac obviously messed up her head and could have left her feeling vulnerable and lead her to make some irresponsible choices) John was with his father at the time of Laurie's supposed "death". Some time later, perhaps after Jamie's disappearance in 1989, Laurie/Keri contacted John's father. Somewhere along the line John's father split, and she was left with John. The daughter that she abandoned apparently dieing in an explosion (Halloween 5) would explain her extreme over-protectivenes toward John.

Story:

Halloween 6 may have made some money, but the prospects for another sequel were looking rather grim. Part 6 had opened up as the number 2 movie, but many of the series fans felt that Halloween had gone to hell. Horror movies were not a hot item at the time and Donald Pleasence was dead. Dimension had commissioned Daniel Farrands, who had written part 6, to write a script for a seventh entry. He wrote a script called Michael Myers: Lord of the Dead; this script continued the story of part 6. The project languished in development hell waiting for the execs to decide what path it would take. At this point it is entirely possible that Halloween 7 could have ended up being made for the direct-to-video market; as had other horror sequels like Children of the Corn 3 & Candyman 2. (Dimension became one of the biggest users of this practice with From Dusk Till Dawn 2, The Prophecy 2 and Hellraiser 5) Another block to the development was because Moustapha Akkad still controlled a portion of the rights to the series and felt more of a responsibility to the fans than the Dimension suits did. He wanted to make a film that would make amends to the fans who were disappointed by part 6.

In 1996 Dimension released a movie called Scream (maybe you've heard of it?) which brought new life into the horror genre. It's writer Kevin Willamson was a big fan of the original Halloween and had lifted many ideas from it (just as Halloween creator John Carpenter had done with Psycho). At the time that this Willamson fueled horror revival was going on Jamie Lee Curtis realized they were coming up on the 20th anniversary of Halloween's original release. She contacted Willamson and said that she would like to be in another Halloween film, and she wanted him to write it. The idea was brought to Dimension and they loved it. Willamson was honored to be asked to be part of the Halloween legacy, but was very busy. In the end a deal was struck, that he would write the basic outline of the story. (including a way to bring back Laurie Strode, who had supposedly died in a car accident)

You can get a look at Willamson's original 7 page outline here.
Notice that he does not disregard part 4 - part 6. Also notice that he creates an elaborate soap-opera style sub-plot, instead of the simpler horny teenagers plot that was in the final version of the film. He also breaks several of the Scream rules, which were based on Halloween and it's imitators. Mick (who's name would eventually become John) is a self absorbed asshole who has sex with the bitch-girl Sara; not the nice character that Josh Hartnett ends up playing. Molly, the virgin, dies at the end. The ending is more elaborate, featuring helicopter crashes and an even worse death for Michael than the decapitation with an ax.

Screenwriters Robert Zappia was brought in to turn Willamson's outline into a screenplay. As often happens in the rewrites the story drifted away from it's conception in several places. John Carpenter was talked to for a short time about directing it, but he eventually declined. Jamie Lee Curtis brought in director Steve Miner. He has a varied filmography which ranges from Friday the 13th parts 2 & 3, to the Mel Gibsen drama Forever Young (with Jamie Lee Curtis) to lots of TV work. In fact Curtis originally met Willamson through Miner; he was directing some episodes of Willamson's TV show Dawson's Creek Matt Greenberg was brought in for further rewrites to the script; he ended up streamlining the plot to it's bare essentials, which is why the movie ended up running only 86 minutes.

Here is an early draft of the script.

When the shooting script was completed it had been changed so much from Willamson's outline that the writers' guild ruled that he would receive no writing credit. In order to keep the name of one of Hollywood's hottest young screenwriters attached to the project he was given co-executive producer's credit; dispite having contributed only the most basic of story elements.

One of the problems the film-makers faced was what to do about parts 4 - 6. Willamson was going to include an explanation of what happened in the other sequels. When asked what he thought of the sequels he said that he liked parts 4 & 5, with the story of Jamie; but didn't care that much for part 6 (Note that even though he didn't care for it part 6 he wasn't going to just say that it never happened.) The film-makers could not even agree on what sequels they were choosing to ignore. Steve Miner informally called this film Halloween 2 (saying that even part 2 never happened) The writers were saying that everything after Halloween 2 never happened. This creates some contradicting information that ended up in the film. (see Mythos Info)

Unlike the other Halloween films this one had a higher budget than any of the previous installments, $17 million; which is more money than the part 6 made in it's theatrical run. It had a more high priced cast than any of the others. Adam Arkin (Chicago Hope) & Michelle Williams (Dawson's Creek) were brought in by director Steve Miner, who had previously worked with them on their TV shows. Josh Hartnett made his feature film debut as Laurie/Keri's son; he was originally reluctant to make his debut in the seventh entry in a slasher film series. "Halloween 7, is that going to go straight to video or straight to hell?" Jamie Lee Curtis' mother Janet Leigh (of Psycho fame) had a small role as a secretary. Nancy Stephens reprised her role as nurse Marion from the first two films. LL Cool J, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, and Adam Hann-Byrd were also cast.

The movie was shot in the spring of 1998 for a planned release date that October. For the first time since the original Alan Howarth did not provide the music. John Ottman (The Usual Suspects) was hired to score this one. Before its release Dimension replaced some pieces of Ottman's score with cues from Marco Beltrami's Scream score. You can get John Ottman's original score on a CD that he released called "Portrait of Terror". Legal issues are the only reason that "Portrait of Terror" is not simply called "Halloween H20: The Original Motion Picture Score". As hype built in anticipation of this movie Dimension moved its release date up to August 5, 1998, opening opposite Brian DePalma's Snake Eyes. It opened up 3rd in the nation, on 2000 screens and made $55 million in its domestic theatrical run, which is more than the past 3 films made combined.

Trivia:

For the first time for a Halloween film this one was shot using the Super 35 process. The movie was released to theaters in Anamorphic at a ratio of 2.35x1, as were the first 3. This was done at Jamie Lee Curtis' insistence.
If you don't know what I am talking about check out my artical on film aspect ratios.

John Tate was named after Halloween's creator John Carpenter.

Was originally going to be called Halloween: The Revenge of Laurie Strode.

Charles S. Dutton was originally cast as a police detective who was eliminated from the script in rewrites.

As in the original their are several references to Psycho:

* Janet Leigh plays a character named Norma who mentions that the drain in the girls' shower is clogged. Janet Leigh played a woman who was killed by Norman Bates in the shower in Psycho.

* Charlie tells John that he is becoming an enabler to his mother and will probably still live with her when he is 40, probably running a motel somewhere. In Psycho Norman Bates ran a motel with "Mother".

Laurie/Keri tells John to drive down to the Becker's house. In Scream Mr. Becker tells his wife to "go down the street to the Mackenzies' house", which is a line from the original Halloween

Michael Myers is played by one person in this one stunt-man Chris Durand.

Some of the DVDs of this movie have covers that claim it has an audio commentary with director Steve Miner and Jamie Lee Curtis. This was an error. The DVD does not have such a commentary. The H20 DVD is now out of print and can not be found in stores. Their are rummors that Dimension may release a special edition some time this year. Now that we've already bought it they'll release a better one so we have to buy it agian.

Deaths:

Jimmy Howell (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) - Ice skate to the face.

Tony (Brandon Williams) - Knife to the back.

Marion (Nancy Stephens) - Throat slit

Charlie (Adam Hann-Byrd) - Corkscrew to the throat

Sarah (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) - Stabbed

Will Brennan (Adam Arkin) - Stabbed in the back

Michael Myers (Chris Durand) - Decapitated with an ax by Laurie Strode/Keri Tate

Sex/Nudity:

Their are 2 sets of horny teenagers in this movie. (John Tate & Molly and Charlie & Sarah) Their is also a horny grown up couple Keri Tate (AKA Laurie Strode) & Will Brennan. There are two incredibly beautiful young women (Michelle Willams and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe); but nobody has sex or even gets naked, damn shame.