The film's poster.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later is a 1998 American horror movie directed by Steve Miner. It stars Jamie-Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, Josh Hartnett as her son John Tate, Adam Arkin as her boyfriend Will Brennan and Chris Durand as Michael Myers. It is the seventh movie in the Halloween franchise but it is a direct sequel to Halloween II, completely ignoring the events of the fourth, fifth and sixth movies in the series.
The premise of the movie is that Laurie Strode has never really recovered from the events of Halloween and Halloween II and lives in fear of her murderous brother coming after her again one day.
The film was rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for terror, gory violence and bad language. The movie was made on a budget of $17,000,000 and earned more than $55,000,000, making it one of the highest-grossing movies in the Halloween series.
Four years later a sequel, Halloween: Resurrection was released. The movie was originally going to be the last film in the series, but due to its success, the series was continued.
Plot[]
The movie begins twenty years after the events of Halloween and Halloween II. On Thursday October 29, 1998 there is a break in at the home of one of Dr. Samuel Loomis' colleagues. All the people in the house are killed and the file on Laurie Strode is stolen.
Laurie Strode has faked her own death and is living under the name of Keri Tate. She is the headmistress of Hillcrest Academy High School, a private boarding school in Northern California. She has a son John Tate, who is a student at the school, and a boyfriend Will Brennan. Although her life appears to be happy, Laurie has been left emotionally scarred by the events of twenty years earlier. She thinks that her brother Michael Myers is probably still alive and may attempt to kill her again.
Michael Myers uses the stolen file to track Laurie down. On Halloween night, he finds Laurie's son John having a small party with some of his friends. Michael murders most of John's friends. Laurie and Will eventually arrive. John and his friend Molly are rescued. Laurie, Will, John and Molly escape from the school grounds but Laurie and Will return, determined to challenge Michael to a fight to the death. Upon seeing the school's security guard, Ronny, Will mistakes him for Michael and shoots him down. Michael then arrives and kills Will.
Brandishing an ax and a firehose, Laurie eventaully forces Michael to fall off a balcony. She goes down to the place where he is lying, intending to finish him off, but Ronny, still alive, stops her from doing anything else to Michael, who he thinks is already dead.
Michael's body is put in a body bag and is about to be taken away in an ambulance. Laurie, knowing that Michael is hard to kill, takes the ax and a pistol and steals the ambulance. While she is driving, Michael emerges from the body bag and tries to kill her again. Laurie hits the brakes hard, throwing Michael out of the windshield, and tries unsuccessfully to run him over. The ambulance tumbles down a hillside, pinning Michael between it and a tree. Laurie gets out of the ambulance and approaches Michael with the ax. Michael seems to be reaching out to appeal for compassion from his sister. Momentarily, Laurie appears to consider forgiving her brother but she then strikes him with the ax. Michael's head, still wearing his famous mask, rolls down the hill, as the sirens of police cars are heard approaching from the distance.
External links[]
- Halloween H20: 20 Years Later on the Internet Movie Database.
- Halloween H20: 20 Years Later on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Halloween H20: 20 Years Later on AllMovie.
- Official website of the Halloween movie franchise.