October 2018 AKA horror movie season, marks the 40th anniversary of one of the most loved and respected horror films of all time: Halloween, the movie that made actress Jamie Lee Curtis and writer/director John Carpenter household names and introduced a new boogeyman, Michael Myers, AKA The Shape, to the cinematic lexicon of horror baddies. The William Shatner-masked psycho killer who just might be evil incarnate would come back for eight more sequels, establishing a monetarily successful franchise.
None of the sequels, however, managed to repeat the same wallop as the 1978 original, largely due to the absence of John Carpenter (only a minor player in the development and production of Halloween II and Halloween III: Season of the Witch before leaving the series altogether), too-infrequent appearances by Jamie Lee Curtis, a subplot that attempted to explain how Michael Myers seemingly cannot be killed (cult magick, in short), and a pair of rebooted films by Rob Zombie that featured yet another attempt to “explain” Michael’s evil, an abundance of white trash characters, excessive gore, and little else.
All that will reportedly change with the release of Halloween, a new film from writer Danny McBride and director David Gordon Green. John Carpenter served as executive producer and provides the score (his music being another sorely missed feature of the sequels, though all featured his main theme in some capacity). The film is said to be a return to the original film’s roots, relying less on graphic violence and supernatural elements, focusing instead on psychological terror and suspense. Perhaps most exciting of all, it marks the triumphant return of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode. If early reviews are reliable, this new film—which retcons all other Halloween sequels out of existence—is a fitting anniversary gift for fans of the series.
And yet—for better and for worse—we’ve been down this road before. In 1998, Dimension Films released Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later, which brought back Jamie Lee Curtis in perhaps her most famous role, ignored Halloween 4 through The Curse Of Michael Myers, and attempted to return the series to its psychological, suspenseful roots. On that latter count, the film does succeed, though not as admirably as it could have. Kevin Williamson, the man behind Scream—a movie that, arguably, reignited the mass population’s interest in horror films—wrote an early treatment for H20, and acted as a script doctor for the completed screenplay by Robert Zappia (who also has a story credit for the film) and Matt Greenberg. In a contemporary article from the Los Angeles Times by Amy Wallace, Williamson stated his joy at working on H20:
‘I really wanted to do it,’ said Williamson, who is credited as an executive producer. ‘Halloween is my favorite movie of all time. Scream was a love letter to the entire movie—a homage, a tribute. And this [Halloween: H20] is a total celebration of the original. I connected Halloween to Scream to Halloween: H20. It’s like a mirror looking into a mirror.’
This handling of the material creates a film that, overall, feels a little more in the Scream family than a proper continuation of the Halloween series, given the numerous meta-moments: casting Jamie Lee Curtis’s mother Janet Leigh as Norma the secretary, who dresses identical to and drives the same car as her character from Psycho; Adam Arkin’s character Will Brennan dying in the exact same fashion as Jill the nurse in Halloween II; Laurie Strode telling her son and his girlfriend (Josh Hartnett and Michelle Williams, respectively) to “run to the Beckers’ house” for help, a simultaneous reference to the original Halloween and Scream (Drew Barrymore played Casey Becker in the latter film); and numerous others.
For her part, Curtis expressed dissatisfaction with the final product, having signed on because the script dealt with alcoholism and the horrifying effects of trauma. But these issues really only play a part in the film’s first half, and mostly drop off once The Shape’s reign of terror begins in earnest. Laurie’s struggles with addiction and her over-protectiveness toward her son could have seriously impacted the action in the second and third acts, but instead, the proceedings become more action-oriented (much the way Halloween II plays out). Fortunately, it does seem as though the new Halloween film aims to correct these mistakes and give audiences a film that prioritizes psychological exploration over kills and fight scenes.
But despite its mistakes (and there are more than those outlined above), H20 is definitely one of the better sequels in the franchise, setting right what went so horribly wrong in previous entries, particularly Curse. As mentioned before, the film does not attempt to explain Michael’s power and prowess. Just as in the original film, Michael is, as Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) puts it, “purely and simply evil.” This absence of a backstory or past that drives Michael to kill extends even to his very re-emergence in this film, after two decades of ostensible slumber (it is explained that authorities never found his body following the events of Halloween II). Numerous characters ask the question, “Why now?” And the only apparent answer is, “Why not?” And thus, like the boogeyman he is, Michael simply reappears, already clad in his iconic coveralls and pale white mask. Where did he get these clothes? Where did he obtain another mask, identical to the one we see burn up in the hospital? Either, like Dr. Loomis, it never actually burned, or—and this is more likely, and more sinister—it just doesn’t matter. This is simply The Shape’s true form.
H20 nails the look of The Shape as well. Stuntman Chris Durand plays Michael here, and his height and physique fit the character perfectly. He’s nearly an identical match for the slender yet imposing Nick Castle, who played Michael in the original film—a welcome departure from the bulky statures of George P. Wilbur and Don Shanks, who appeared as The Shape in Halloween 4 through Curse. Durand also masters Michael’s trademark head tilt, and his overall movements while stalking and attacking takes the viewer right back to 1978.
Concerning Michael’s mask, there are several problems here. Director Steve Miner shot quite a bit of footage with Durand wearing a mask with “almond” shaped eyes, which appeared in the film’s trailer. However, producers were unsatisfied with the look of this mask—and rightly so—and thus Miner reshot several scenes with a new mask. The issue here is, several quick insert shots of Durand in the “almond” eyes mask remain in the film, which are fairly noticeable; furthermore, in one instance, the special effects team used CGI to digitally alter the mask’s face—and they did so quite poorly.
These continuity and bad effects issues aside, the final Shape mask used in H20 stands out among its brethren. It is leaps and bounds closer to the original film’s mask than the previous three sequels, recapturing the menacing blankness, the colorless indifference to suffering that made John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s first iteration of the character so terrifying.
But most importantly, H20 returns Michael to his trickster roots. Aside from a brief moment in Halloween 5, when the character disguises himself as Tina’s boyfriend (as he did with Lynda in the original film), the previous installments mainly depicted Michael as an unstoppable killing machine who dispatches his victims without savoring the kill. But in H20, we see The Shape once again toying with his victims, stalking them silently and setting up real bodies as gruesome “funhouse” scares to ratchet up their fear before offing them. It is this aspect of the character that sets him apart from Jason Voorhees and the other, far more mindless slashers that proceeded him. Removing this characteristic made him run-of-the-mill; restoring it made him, once again, a formidable and devilishly clever killer.
Though mastering Michael Myers is perhaps the film’s greatest achievement, it is certainly not the only one. The plot, while simple, moves along admirably, with enough surprises to keep both genre fans and horror newbies engaged. And while Jamie Lee Curtis may not have been invested in her role as much as she would have liked, her performance reveals no dissatisfaction whatsoever. The character’s inner turmoil, while eventually forgotten, colors every decision Laurie makes. And this, despite her best efforts, consistently mars her relationship with her son, John, even after she switches from paranoid alcoholic to effortless badass. One wonders what might have been had Halloween: Resurrection been a true direct sequel to H20, and not rushed send-off for Laurie Strode, followed by a tedious reality TV-inspired plot packed with annoying characters and mind-numbing leaps in logic. What would Laurie and John’s relationship have looked like following the events of H20? What would Laurie’s mental state have been, especially considering the twist revealed in Resurrection and set up in its predecessor—that it was not actually Michael that Laurie decapitated. We’ll never get the answers to these questions, but there was plenty of potential to answer them, at least.
As October 31st approaches, and as the entire Halloween franchise reappears on television and movie screens once again, pay extra attention to H20, and give it the fair shake it deserves. While it is certainly not a perfect film, its achievements definitely outweigh its missteps.
