Pick for the Weekend: Halloween H20 (1998)

– Halloween H20 is the movie for the weekend. In this section every Saturday or Sunday Celluloid Dimension picks a movie for the weekend. The selections are preferably underrated movies or neglected movies that we think should get more attention. Have fun with these recommendations. –

Halloween H20 (1998) Directed by Steve Miner

More a marketing anniversary product than a movie per se, but when it comes to lousy sequels you can’t ask for much, and at least this attempt to put an end to the Michael Myers mythology is shockingly good, about as decent as a Halloween sequel can aspire to be. 20 years after the ominous Halloween night in 1978, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is now a respected headmistress of a private boarding school and mother of a 17-year-old boy (Josh Hartnett). After the tragedy, Laurie was forced to fake her death and adopt a false identity to avoid being found by the evil incarnate, Michael Myers. For a story told in a modest 86 minutes, it’s rich in nineties self-awareness and ridiculously entertaining when it pretends to be more of an emotional catharsis for our traumatized heroine than when it plays like a humdrum slasher routine. Mercifully, there’s more of the former than the latter. Kevin Williamson’s surreptitious involvement in the story is so pervasive that at times the dialogue is more reminiscent of Scream than Halloween. Nonetheless, this remains my favorite Halloween sequel; the sundrenched Californian weather as a setting for a Halloween movie is a delightful oxymoron that I think is functional for Steve Miner’s kinetic filmmaking. There is a brooding atmosphere in this combination that is vitally seductive. And the finale, a flirtation between nostalgic pathos and campy excess, leaves a satisfying feeling that no Halloween sequel has ever left me with.