Halloween H20: By: Matt Rusell
After Jamie Lee Curtis realized that 1998 marked the twentieth anniversary of her feature film debut, she decided to push for an anniversary sequel! She confided in Kevin Williamson, (famous for writing SCREAM) to pen the script, and FRIDAY THE 13TH veteran director Steve Miner to helm the film. In the weeks leading up the film's release, Jamie repeatedly said that the film would be a great tribute to the long time fans of the series. What did we end up getting? Well, lets see...
The seventh film of the HALLOWEEN series was released on August 5, 1998. Hmmm, not a very good release date for a HALLOWEEN film is it? Then again, me being 12-years-old at the time and having been a fan of the series since I was about 3, I was pleased with the early release because that meant that I wouldn't have to wait so long to see it. Well, I went to the theater to see the first showing on opening day. Sequel-wise, the film does good, with some boo-scares, and nice images. Michael is back, pissed, and he's now back to his normal size and color (No longer being played by a huge stunt man to look like Jason, and is now back to wearing the original dark navy blue coveralls). Michael also sports two different masks in this film! This was because Jamie urged many reshoots with a better looking mask, feeling that the mask they were originally using didn't pay respect to the original's (Thanks Jamie!) However, with its great sequelness, how does the film do as a tribute to the original? Well, in my opinion, it fails! First off, we get a nice montage of newspaper articles to remind us of the original HALLOWEEN while we hear a voice over from Dr. Loomis taken from HALLOWEEN, but guess what! It's not Donald Pleasence, but a voice actor who in my opinion does not sound at  all like Donald! I thought that the montage of newspaper articles was the best opportunity to run through the entire series, but instead, it only shows articles on the events of the first film. Another thing that makes this film a bad tribute is the fact that HALLOWEEN's 4-6 are all disregarded and not even mentioned! What the hell!? I later read a scripted scene that was filmed but later cut, which featured a montage of scenes from the previous HALLOWEEN films during a student of Laurie's presentation on a book entitled, "The Haddonfield Murders." I found out that it was cut because the filmmakers felt it would confuse newcomers to the series (I thought this was supposed to be a tribute to the hard core fans!) However, we do get a great scene of Michael and Laurie seeing each other face to face for the first time (in fact, if u watch the original teaser trailer and the actual scene in the film, u can see the difference between the two masks used for the film!) But overall, this film is in truth, just a commercial horror film with big teen stars made to cash in on the SCREAM phenomenon and not a tribute to long time HALLOWEEN fans!
This can be proved by three things: 1) It's release date is obviously aimed for summer for popularity instead of setting the atmosphere for the film with releasing it in October like the previous sequels, 2) It's big star cast: LL Cool J, Michelle Williams, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, (Josh Harnett was unknown at the time, this was his feature
debut) and 3) It's one-sheet American release poster which "TOTALLY!" rips off the SCREAM poster (Like all the horror films of the past six years have done!) So, is this one really bad? No. Is it good? Yes. Is it a good tribute? HELL NO! So, overall, I think of this as just a sequel and forget about the tribute part.

The acting in this film is good. Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode/Keri Tate) is great as she is in everything she does, Josh Hartnett (John) does fine in his feature debut. Him and Curtis really work great together. Michelle Williams (Molly) is cute and screams and cries very well! Adam Arkin (Will) goes well as the boyfriend of
Curtis and acts out the scene of the revealing really well. Jodi Lyn O'Keefe is super good-looking and she does have a great death scene. LL Cool J (Ronny) is the comic relief of the film and he does it well. Chris Durhand (Michael) is the best Shape since Nick Castle and Dick Warlock! I LOVED HIM! That mask really helps
him too!

The soundtrack is mostly recycled SCREAM music. I'm DYING for the 2-disc Special Edition DVD to hear the original soundtrack recorded for the film. The newly reworked HALLOWEEN theme that plays over the opening titles isn't bad, but the highlight is the great version played at the end of the film. CREED's "What's This Life For" plays over the closing credits and it's a great song, but doesn't belong anywhere near a HALLOWEEN film!  Steve Miner does great with this film (Hey, the guy directed FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 & 3, how can he fail?) He does great with the lighting and really builds up tension. I LOVE the opening ten minutes. Made me jump a few times as I remember! I don't know if it was because the film was so well directed, or if it was just me
being so excited to see Michael on the big screen for the first time! He does great! Like I said, think of this film more as a sequel, rather than a tribute (I keep saying this because that is the reason why many fans dislike this film). Get past the shitty title and poster, the big name cast, and just enjoy watching Michael chase Jamie! I do dislike this film mostly because so many kids have seen it and yet, it's the only film of the series they have seen and think they know everything about the series! I remember when I was in grade school, I was the only kid in the school who knew who Michael Myers was. The only people the other kids knew were Freddy and Jason. Now, everyone knows who Michael is which is in a way good, because the more people know about him, the more people will go to see HALLOWEEN 8, and if more people go to see the upcoming sequels, more sequels will be made! So, I'll close this LOOOOONG review with: BRING ON HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION !!!!!!