Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Time: 1h 28mins
Director: Steve Miner
Quick Summary: Laurie Strode, now the dean of a Northern California private school with an assumed name, must battle Micheal one last time, as the life of her own son hangs in the balance.
Did I accidentally start playing a Scream film?
This is the best-looking of the sequels, the first half, in particular, being close in style to the autumnal look of the original, something that none of the previous sequels did. Honestly, I didn't realise I was missing that in the others and it was really nice to have it back. The editing is pretty good too, it's not shot too darkly and there is an eeriness to the setting which a lot of the previous ones were missing too.
This does a great job of breathing fresh life into a series that had gotten stale, and it was so nice to see Jaimie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode. This is fun and there is tension, creepiness and suspense. The deaths are the most creative and shocking since those in the original, the opening scene is unsettlingly tense.
It does ooze the 90s and really does feel like a Scream film to me, as well there are a lot of false jumpscares. Which wouldn't be bad but there are so many of them. Honestly, this at times does feel like a random slasher with Micheal thrown in the mix for fun. The sound effects are really bizarre at times, really hamming up the knife-slashing sounds and cartoonish twangs are added for moments like when Laurie hits Micheal over the head with a fire extinguisher.
Now there are a lot of problems I personally have with this but I'm not kidding when I say that almost an hour passes without a single kill, a single moment of suspense, or any sort of interesting storyline. For some bizarre reason, this focuses almost entirely on Laurie, now character building is fine but I would like other things to be happening to hold my interest, at least give Micheal a few kills in between him and Laurie finally meeting up once again. The last twenty minutes are probably the most interesting part of this as this is THE final showdown with the two.
Honestly, I don't actually remember any of the kills from this, so they couldn't have been that impressive.
I think this is an okay sequel, not the greatest, but not the best either. Compared to what we've had, this is alright. Still, this is nothing compared to the first two either.
5/10
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