Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (or Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later) is a 1998 American slasher film directed by Steve Miner, and starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Adam Arkin, Michelle Williams, Adam Hann-Byrd, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, Janet Leigh, LL Cool J, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Josh Hartnett in his film debut. It is the seventh installment in the Halloween franchise and a sequel to Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981), ignoring the Thorn Trilogy story arc of the previous three installments. It follows a post-traumatic Laurie Strode, who has faked her death in order to go into hiding from her murderous brother, Michael Myers, who finds her working at a private boarding school in California.
Halloween H20 was released in the United States on August 5, 1998. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with many saying it was at that point the best of the sequels but still paled compared to the original. It grossed $75 million worldwide against a budget of $17 million, making it the fifth highest-grossing film in the franchise. A sequel, Halloween: Resurrection, was released in 2002.
Plot It has been twenty years since Michael Myers escaped from Smith's Grove and returned to his hometown of Haddonfield to kill his long-lost sister, Laurie Strode. After an explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital caused by Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael's body disappeared and was presumed dead.
On October 29, 1998, Marion Wittington (née Chambers), Loomis' former colleague who took care of him until his death, returns home to the house they shared in Langdon, Illinois, only to find that it has been broken into, discovering that the file on Laurie Strode is missing. Marion seeks help from her teenage neighbor, Jimmy, before he and his friend, Tony, are killed by Michael, who slashes Marion's throat. Michael drives away in Jimmy's car, as the police arrive on scene.
In Summer Glen, California, Laurie lives under the identity of "Keri Tate", having faked her death to stay hidden from Michael. She lives with her son, John, and is the headmistress of Hillcrest Academy, a private boarding school, where she is supported by her secretary, Norma Watson, and guidance counselor Will Brennan, with whom she is in a relationship. Despite the new life she has built for herself, her traumatic encounters with Michael cause her to suffer from chronic nightmares and become an alcoholic, living in fear that her brother will one day find her. Back at the academy, most of the faculty and students are preparing to leave for a trip to Yosemite. Laurie has forbidden John to go, worried that something will happen to him.
Meanwhile, Michael, having gotten a flat tire, is forced to steal another vehicle from a woman and her daughter who stop by a highway rest area leaving them unharmed but stranded. When John and his friend Charlie Deveraux sneak off of campus, Laurie has a heated argument with John about how her fears affect his life. John's girlfriend, Molly Cartwell, is also unable to attend, prompting Charlie and his girlfriend Sarah Wainthorpe to forego the trip so that they can all have a Halloween party on campus. Reflecting on their argument, Laurie changes her mind about not letting John go on the trip, though he ultimately decides to remain behind with Molly, Charlie, and Sarah, unbeknownst to his mother.
After most of the teachers and students have departed, security guard Ronny Jones spots and investigates Michael's stolen truck at the main gate, inadvertently letting Michael sneak onto the campus. Following Norma's advice, Laurie reveals her true identity to Will, before reflecting that John is now the same age she was when Michael first came after her. Attempting to call John, she discovers the phones are down and that he never left campus. Laurie joins Will and Ronny to search for John and his friends, while Michael kills Charlie and Sarah. Molly and John barely escape, before reaching Laurie, who comes face to face with her brother for the first time in twenty years.
Will accidentally shoots Ronny, mistaking his shadow for Michael, before Laurie witnesses Michael kill Will himself. Laurie, John and Molly make a run for her truck, but knowing that Michael will never stop hunting her, Laurie decides to face him, arming herself with an axe. Stalking each other throughout the campus, Laurie stabs Michael several times and shoves him off a balcony through a table in the cafeteria below. Before Laurie can finish him off, Ronny, who survived being shot, stops her, believing Michael to be dead.
The authorities arrive a short time later and the entire school becomes a crime scene. Michael's supposed dead body is loaded into a coroner's van, but Laurie suspects he is still alive. Predicting Michael's tricky nature, she grabs her axe and hijacks the van to kill Michael for good. When he awakens and breaks out of the body bag, Laurie slams on the brakes sending him crashing through the windshield and down an embankment. Laurie then rams the van into him, pinning him down to a downed tree. Laurie approaches and calls out to Michael, staring him down for a moment of pity. After he tries reaching towards her, Laurie decapitates him with the axe. As sirens approach from the distance, Laurie sighs in relief.
Cast
Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode/Keri Tate Josh Hartnett as John Tate Adam Arkin as Will Brennan Michelle Williams as Molly Cartwell Adam Hann-Byrd as Charlie Deveraux Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as Sarah Wainthrope Janet Leigh as Norma Watson LL Cool J as Ronald 'Ronny' Jones Chris Durand as Michael Myers Nancy Stephens as Marion Chambers-Whittington Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jimmy Howell Branden Williams as Tony Alegre Beau Billingslea as Detective Fitzsimmons Matt Winston as Matt Sampson Larisa Miller as Claudia Emmalee Thompson as Casey Tom Kane as Dr. Sam Loomis (voice) Lisa Gay Hamilton as Shirley 'Shirl' Jones (voice)
Production
The original idea for the seventh Halloween film began as the second half of the treatment written by Daniel Farrands during pre-production of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, which he later submitted as a new treatment entitled Michael Myers: Lord of the Dead. The story would have opened immediately after the events of the previous film and involved Tommy Doyle discovering that the entire town of Haddonfield was involved in a conspiracy to control Michael Myers. Farrands compared the story to The Wicker Man, The Hitcher, Rosemary's Baby, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery," and Dennis Etchison's rejected screenplay for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Farrands later decided not to continue with the series "since I honestly could not bear to watch another one of my scripts turned into a debacle – especially another Halloween."
Another idea pitched after the Farrands treatment was Halloween 7: Two Faces of Evil, written by Robert Zappia. Originally intended to be a direct-to-video film, this would have involved Michael Myers stalking an all women's boarding school. The plot eventually also revealed a copycat killer, causing many fans to compare such a twist to The Silence of the Lambs. The pitch itself was changed a couple of times, changing the title to Halloween: Blood Ties as they brought Laurie Strode into the storyline, before scrapping the idea entirely.
The screenplay was based on a story by Kevin Williamson, with the original working title for the film being Halloween 7: The Revenge of Laurie Strode. Williamson was initially hired to write a script, and the story was to be a sequel to the previous six films, thereby keeping the timeline's continuity.
When Williamson first outlined Halloween H20, he created the storyline in which Laurie Strode has faked her own death and taken on a new identity as a specific way of retconning the character's death in Halloween 4. In Williamson's original treatment, there are scenes in which a Hillcrest student does a report on Michael Myers' killing spree, mentioning the death of Jamie, complete with flashbacks to 4–6 mentioned in the text. "Keri"/Laurie responds to hearing the student's report on the death of her daughter by going into a restroom and throwing up.Williamson, Kevin. "Halloween 7 treatment
In the film, the voice of Dr. Loomis is heard giving the same speech that he gave to Sheriff Brackett when they were inside Michael's abandoned childhood home in the original film. The original monologue from Halloween was initially considered for direct sampling, but was unable to be separated from the preexisting soundtrack. As a result, instead of the voice of Donald Pleasence himself, sound-alike voice actor Tom Kane provides this voice-over.
John Carpenter was originally in consideration to be the director for this particular follow-up since Curtis wanted to reunite the cast and crew of the original to have active involvement in it. It was believed that Carpenter opted out because he wanted no active part in the sequel; however, this is not the case. Carpenter agreed to direct the film, but his starting fee as director was $10 million, so he demanded a three-picture deal with Dimension Films. Carpenter's bargain was denied by the Weinsteins, and therefore no deal took place. Carpenter rationalized this by believing the hefty fee was compensation for revenue he had never received from the original Halloween, a matter that was still a contention between Carpenter and Halloween producer Moustapha Akkad even after twenty years. When Akkad balked at Carpenter's fee, Carpenter quit the project and therefore refused to continue his involvement once again. Steve Miner was hired to replace him. Curtis later regretted doing the film, saying in a 2018 interview: "Now, to this day, I regret that I didn't say to everyone, if Debra Hill's not the one producing this movie, I'm not doing it".
Scream writer/producer Kevin Williamson was involved in various areas of production. Although not directly credited, he provided rewrites in character dialogue and helped make alterations and sketches of the script. He also came up with the paramedic storyline that explained how Michael survived the ending, which was partially filmed the day after principal photography ended and later utilized in the film's sequel. The writers of Halloween H20 were left with a dilemma when Curtis wanted to end the series, but Moustapha Akkad had a clause that legally wouldn't allow the writers to kill Michael Myers off. According to the Blu-ray released by Scream Factory, Curtis almost left the project just weeks before filming, until Kevin Williamson came up with the paramedic storyline and presented it to Akkad. Curtis finally agreed to be a part of the film under the condition that no footage hinting toward a sequel would be presented by the film, and that the audience would believe that Michael was dead until the inevitable sequel was announced. Halloween: Resurrections first shot of Michael in the paramedic uniform was filmed the day after H20s principal photography ended, according to H20s editor, Patrick Lussier.
The film features an in memoriam tribute to Donald Pleasence in the closing credits, but misspells his last name as "Pleasance."
Filming Filming began on February 18, 1998 and ended on April 20, 1998. The filming location of the Hillcrest Academy private school was filmed at the Canfield-Moreno Estate located at 1923 Micheltorena St. in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. Marion Chambers's house along with Jimmy Howell's house was filmed in Melrose Hill, Los Angeles. The town of Summer Glen was filmed in La Puente, California. The Hillcrest Academy entrance was filmed in Chatsworth, Los Angeles. The ending of the film was filmed in Canoga Park, Los Angeles.
Music