A Nightmare from Friday to Halloween - Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

The three most prominent American horror franchises (Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street) have influenced American cinema even beyond the horror genre. As of 2021, there are exactly 31 movies across all three franchises, and I am going to attempt to watch all of them, for this Halloween, one per day.

I gotta say, I really missed Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode. I’m glad that she didn’t get stuck making these movies, one bad sequel after another, though it seems like that’s changed somewhat in recent years, but by God it’s good to have her back. Halloween H20 is one of the better sequels by far because of her. Michael doesn’t appear for much of the movie in person, as usual, but if you know what Laurie has been through, then his presence feels much more threatening than it did in almost every other sequel in this franchise so far. Curtis plays the trauma and the paranoia of her character really well, and even when she is being too protective and controlling, you forgive her because...well, it’s a Halloween movie after all. It’s interesting to see how the movie had a bunch of hot young talent (Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams) and how a couple of them actually hit after this movie, whereas the rest are pretty forgettable. Curtis still remains the main draw here and even if we know the ending isn’t the ending by a long shot, the fact that Laurie gets a victory is pretty gratifying.