Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

I normally don't get hung up on franchise timelines or whether something is "canon", but seen today 1998's HALLOWEEN H20: 20 YEARS LATER seems more frivolous than ever.  It updates the life of a woman named Laurie Strode, who changed her name and moved away from her hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois, the site of multiple knifings by her brother.  Michael Myers killed their sister when he was only six.  After fifteen years in an institution, he escaped and came home.  Several unfortunates met their ends.   

Director Steven Miner's film picks up twenty years later.  There were seven films between the original  HALLOWEEN and this one, and it ignores the events of parts two through six.  Laurie, who now goes by the name of Keri Tate, (Jamie Lee Curtis) faked her death, had a kid, and became headmistress at a posh private boarding school in California.  Her attempts at moving on still leave her wracked with nightmares and pill and alcohol addiction. Worried that Michael will one day find her and finish the job. 

Indeed, Michael will find his way out to Hillcrest Academy on October 31st.  Still the same slow moving homicidal maniac, though his mask looks like a bad imitation of the one he wore in 1978.   Will Laurie's son Jimmy (Josh Hartnett) and his friends find the business end of the knife? What about the school shrink/Laurie's boyfriend Will (Adam Arkin)? Or the guy at the school's guard gate, aspiring novelist Ronny (LL Cool J)?

Will Laurie face her brother? You betcha.  And their final scene is a whopper. Where this series should've ended.  It's so perfectly executed.  Too bad Miner, no stranger to this genre, doesn't make the rest of this film as vivid (or scary).  He and cinematographer Daryn Okada do little to create anything cinematic.  It really does feel like a made for syndicated TV retread.  Something about Arkin's presence just cements this feeling.  

Some viewers called this a SCREAM-ification of the HALLOWEEN series.  This was in fact released by Dimension, a division of Miramax, who released Wes Craven's hit.  The teens in the cast, which include Michelle Williams and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, come off as if they wandered in from a SCREAM sequel.  

Jamie Lee is as invested as ever.   There are a few amusing movie references, including nods to Alfred Hitchcock.  JL's mom Janet Leigh plays her secretary and drives a car identical to the one in PSYCHO.  There are probably at least one too many jump scares, mostly fake-outs.

David Gordon Green's reboot trilogy picked up forty years after the first movie and brazenly ignored HALLOWEEN H20.  Leaving this movie to feel like a throwaway.  One might consider it a dream Laurie had.