October 15th - Halloween H20 / AMC Cut 🎃🔪

 

"MICHAEL!!!!"

Scream 2 on the television set.

Yeah, in some ways I prefer Halloween H20 (1998) to Halloween (2018), but I see why this one is so much less preferred and is often sited by franchise fans as a weak entry. I still hold onto the opinion I had back in the summer that H20 is a better Laurie Strode film than it is a Michael Myers film. And I continue to feel this just isn't an effective seasonal entry, either. Watching Halloween 4 (1988) here and there, where that Midwestern autumnal feel just takes me right into 1988 Halloween time, nothing about H20 feels Halloween at all besides some decoration and dialogue telling us so. But even if Curtis talks about this as a paycheck film, I think I only enjoy watching it because of her portrayal of Laurie 20 years after the experiences of Halloween (1978) and Halloween II (1981). I like her adult scenes with Adam Arkin, still. They are mature, feel unique to the franchise. I realize that besides Loomis talking about "the dark inside ourselves" and plot development dialogue, too often what is missing is emphasis on people talking about anything else but "Michael is near and you must stop him or else". The exhausting discussion on trauma and how Curtis maximizes the topic in conversation to prove its value to her troubled Laurie for Halloween (2018), I think it just remains better emphasized in H20. Or at least to me, I like all of Curtis' scenes before Michael and her inevitably lock eyes through a window-glass porthole to a door to a cafeteria building. She's working through it, still seeing him in places she shouldn't...until she really does see him and decides it is high time Michael is conquered once and for all. I think while the film might eschew the typical flavors of a Halloween film, at least it comes to a conclusion that truly feels final. Just excise Resurrection (2002) from the conversation and leave it out there to fade into the ether, allowing ourselves to truly accept Laurie looking directly at her brother as he is stuck to a tree by a flipped van, her ax with one last blow to assure herself that he is gone forever. Whatever the aftermath, Laurie exorcised that demon once and for all. 

That said, where was Michael for 20 years? And with Michael Myers seemingly unscathed by the explosion in Halloween II (1981), with no burn scars or damaged eyes, it begs to question why that is the case. Or perhaps those details weren't of much importance in the writing stage. Just let Michael emerge one last time in Laurie's life, white mask (or is that masks?) and butcher knife. I think, along with Resurrection, this film has the worst Michael Myers. He's just not intimidating much at all. Again, this just feels like a Laurie film. When I think of it from that perspective, H20 is a success.