Original Vs. Remake: Halloween H20

I’m a big fan of Catie Rhodes and Tiffany White’s Original Vs. Remake blog series! Every month they review a classic film and its modern remake. Since they both know how much I LOOOOOOOVE Halloween, they let me play along!

I may have reacted like this…

Anyway…

Tiffany kicked us off reviewing the original, John Carpenter’s Halloween, and Catie will be reviewing the Rob Zombie remake.

So, what am I talking about?

Halloween H20:  Twenty Years Later (1998)

Assuming a fake identity, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is now headmistress at a private boarding school, still haunted by her nightmarish past. When her psychopathic brother, Michael, escapes the asylum, Laurie’s greatest fears become reality once more. And this time, her son’s in danger too.

Reprising her role as the “Scream Queen,” Jamie Lee Curtis comes back as the female lead, Laurie Strode. Other recognizable faces include her mother, Janet Leigh (Psycho), Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor, Lucky Number Slevin), LL Cool J (Deep Blue Sea, NCIS: Los Angeles), Michelle Williams (Dawson’s Creek, My Week With Marilyn), Jodi Lyn O’Keefe (Nash Bridges, She’s All That), Adam Hann-Byrd (Jumanji) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock From the Sun, 50/50). 

The storyline of H20 takes place as if all the sequels after Halloween II, never happened. It picks up from the second one. I gotta admit, I felt really sorry for Laurie Strode. Twenty years after her brother murdered her sister and came after her, she’s still suffering from insomnia, nightmares, living under a pseudonym, working in a gated private school, and raising her son as a single mother.

Does Laurie EVER get a happy ending???

The film is what I would describe as 80% camp-factor, meaning it’s pretty cheesy and all could’ve been well had a nurse not kept her patient files in her HOME and had Laurie Strode hired a security guard who didn’t spend all his time on the phone reading his romance novel to his girlfriend.

Yep.

Seriously, LL. It’s time to get off the phone now.

Fun Facts:

• Several of the original cast and team were set to come on board, but low budget and tentative timelines caused many to drop out. John Carpenter, the original director, was one of them.
• There’s a seen with Janet Leigh where she stands in front of her car from the movie Psycho. The music from Psycho also plays here.
• Sound editors added in music from several of the Scream movies as well as the original Halloween.
• In the scene where the girls are watching a movie, it’s Scream 2, however that was edited in post-production. Originally, the girls were watching So I Married an Axe Murderer – the joke being the fact that inside the Michael Myers movie, was a Mike Myers movie.
• The original’s line “Everyone is entitled to one good scare” makes a reappearance in this film.
• Michael Myers can be seen wearing two different masks. Too far into production, the director changed his mind on the mask and they had to CGI edit it in production.
• The teenagers in the beginning are watching Plan 9 From Outer Space – voted worst movie ever made so many times, it’s no longer allowed in the running.  (P.S.  I’ve watched it.  It’s pretty bad.)
• Chris Durand, the actor who played Michael Myers, was a stunt double in Scream 2, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, and Armegeddon.

So Laurie is living out her life in fear. Her son grew up with that and is desperate to hang out with friends like a normal teenager. Against his mother’s wishes, he and his pals sneak out for a Halloween party. Meanwhile, Michael is on the loose. He’s watching Laurie at the school, at her home, and he knows where her son is too.

Cuh-reeeeepy!

Run for your lives!

Halloween H20 has its moments, but it doesn’t compare to the original. Nothing beats the original Halloween!

What do you think? What’s your favorite Halloween movie? Have you seen this one? What life would you have given Laurie 20 years after that fateful Halloween night?