Review of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) by Jay Z — 10 Jun 2017

As a way to reboot the franchise in a refreshingly campy, 90's way, Halloween H20 soars. It's so admirable that, 6 films in, the franchise can somehow become actually good again. Halloween: H20 is definitely the best sequel of all in the Halloween franchise. It's a solid, innovative, smart, thrilling, atmospheric, and funny movie that does what it should, which is erase the memory of the most recent, subpar Halloween movies. In doing so, it gives a great, different turn of events coming off of Halloween II.

Unlike most of the other sequels, Halloween: H20 actually contains a plethora of external character conflicts and relationships, resulting in much more characterization than you'd expect from a Halloween sequel. And, yeah, since it's a Halloween sequel, obviously the major conflict is gonna be the exact same as literally ALL of it's predecessors, to run, hide, and get slaughtered by Michael. However, impressively, there's a twist to the not-so-original conflict. This time around, Laurie has more than something to fight for. She despises Michael, he's still affecting her life to this day, and may affect her loved ones as well. She's willing to fight back, which makes for great entertainment and a more sophisticated and original conflict that's also totally driven by characterization. Brilliant.

And, when it comes to mistakes, Halloween: H20 has its fair share. The movie almost feels too short and unfulfilling when compared to Halloween. Halloween: H20 manages to establish a great, unsettling plot, realistic, distinguished characters, amazing performances, clever thrills, and a truly festive, Halloween-like atmosphere. Yet, it doesn't really come up with an explanation of Michael's whereabouts since Halloween II, or some kind of a real explanation of why Michael is the way he is. Seemingly, Halloween: H20 isn't that far from being as good as Halloween, mainly due to the fact that it fails to mimic the unexplained evil radiating from Michael, especially because we have no idea where he's been for the passed 20 years or why he still cares about Laurie.