Halloween H20

We kick off Halloween week two with 1998’s Halloween H20 (“H2O”), the franchise revival that leans hard into the late-’90s slasher wave (Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer) and largely ignores the earlier sequels.

We talk about why the movie feels so different from Carpenter’s first two films—more jump scares, more comedy, and a less-mystical Michael Myers—while still appreciating Jamie Lee Curtis’s return as a traumatized, alcoholic Laurie Strode living under an assumed name.

We break down the opening with Loomis’s nurse, the tense rest-stop sequence, the teen cast (Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams), the Janet Leigh cameos and Psycho nods, and the finale Laurie vs. Michael, including the controversial “definitive” ending and how the next sequel undermines it.

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Halloween H20 (1998)

Episode 509, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw Horror Movie Review Podcast

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Halloween week two, baby.

Craig: I know. I’m excited.

Todd: Yeah, me too, man. You chose this week, and we chose Halloween H2O. Or as I learned when I was looking it up online, it’s H2 zero. Get it? ‘Cause it’s 20 years later. This came out in 1998.

You know, when the original Halloween came out in 1978. This one was, like, a pretty big revival of the franchise, which I think, uh, had ended with, what, the fifth one? Was it The Return of Michael Myers? I think- Sixth one. Oh my God.

Craig: I think it was The Curse of Michael Myers, I think. Yeah.

Todd: Was that even in the ’90s?

Maybe very early ’90s, wasn’t it?

Craig: I don’t remember.

Todd: But this one without… N- none of the rest of them except for, I think, the first two, right, involved John Carpenter?

Craig: Right.

Todd: Obviously, the third one involved him. He produced it and, uh, did he direct that, too? I don’t think he did. No,

Craig: he didn’t

Todd: direct

Craig: it. No. Mm-mm.

Todd: He produced it, but they were planning on going on, like, a, you know, Halloween is the theme of the series, but they were gonna have more of an anthology bit. And then it turned into, like, the people just wanted to see Michael Myers again, so then they just made, like, what, three more, I guess. And then they laid it to rest, ’cause it was kinda getting stale, I think, and a little weird.

Craig: And it wasn’t doing well. The last ones hadn’t done well.

Todd: Yeah. You know, Michael Myers, he’s a guy who, for me, I was never that into. I’m more into him now as an adult than I was as a kid. As a kid, I didn’t see the hook. You know what I mean? Jason had his hockey mask. His hockey mask and his machete. I mean, technically he didn’t always, but you know, when I was a kid.

Jason had his hockey mask and his machete, and he’s this brutal, hulking guy who just appe- I mean, you know, there’s a whole language to that film that ended up developing, and it went in some fun directions and played with it a little bit, but it was mostly the same thing over and over and over again, which is why I’ve said before I was never really that into Jason, either.

Michael Myers was even less because for me, it’s just a guy in a white mask. Even less of a hook. I don’t know. It just didn’t have the pull that Jason did. I didn’t really get the fascination with him. I saw the first one. I thought it was scary. Had no interest in seeing all the rest of them. Now as an adult, I see it psychologically different, and I have a strong appreciation for the first movie.

First movie’s just a work of art. John Carpenter’s so skilled at creating and maintaining tension there, and there is a language in that film, and I think the one after it- That he developed that I think just kinda got lost through the rest of the series. And you know what, God, now s- then, uh, H2O came in 1998, and we were all like, “Oh, the return of Michael Myers.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a Michael Myers movie.” I know I saw this. I don’t think I went to this theater to see it. I think I saw it when my friends rented it. I was in college. And, eh, I thought it was interesting. It was very much in the flavor of all of the slasher movies that were becoming revived at this time, right?

Scream, and I Know What You Did Last Summer. It was just the late ’90s became horror revival slasher time. And so at the time I was excited to see this, but I remember watching it and I remember just being eh about it. And all these years later, I hadn’t seen it again, I didn’t really remember why I was so eh about it.

So, uh, it was fun to watch it again and be able to discuss it this time around. What’s your history with it, Craig?

Craig: Yeah, I was excited about it, too. It was, it- I think that it was really smart to jump on that Scream bandwagon because the plot or, you know, or, or the characters fit so easily into that mold.

I mean, Scream really is, is, uh, very much like Halloween, where you’ve got a quiet masked figure stalking teenagers.

Todd: True.

Craig: And those… And, and it was wildly popular and made tons and tons of money, and they were making sequels, and they were doing well, and I think it was really smart Jamie Lee Curtis, you know, she’s spoken about it differently.

Of course, when it came out she was very positive about it. Well, she was promoting it. But in later interviews she’s less kind in talking about it, and says it would’ve been better if she would’ve produced it. And it really sounds like she, uh, she’s said that she wanted to come back and do it at the 20-year mark as a gift to her fans.

She’s also said outright that she did it for the money, so whatever. I’m sure it was some combo. Both, I guess. Right, exactly, right? Like-

Todd: A gift to my fans with a big fat paycheck.

Craig: Yeah, sure. Why not? Who cares? But, but she was willing to come back. The last ones hadn’t done very well. I saw them and I didn’t…

They were fine, but they were… I, I felt like they were trying too hard with the world building. Like-

Clip: Oh …

Craig: it, it, it became that Michael Myers was the conduit for some cult, like some ancient Celtic cult or something. And-

Todd: I didn’t even get that far …

Craig: it was this centuries-long thing, and it had all been building up to him, and they were all very invested in him, and, ugh, it was a whole big, it was a whole big cult thing.

Todd: Sounds, sounds like some serious retconning going on there.

Craig: Yeah. Well, and they killed Laurie off offscreen, and like gave her a daughter, and then they killed off the daughter, and then there was a granddaughter. And like there were things that I l- there were things that I liked about it, like Danielle Harris wa- starred in two of them, I think.

I don’t remember if she was Laurie’s daughter or granddaughter, I don’t remember. But I like her, and they were decent, fine slasher movies, but they were getting a little silly. So when Jamie Lee wanted to come back, that’s what I was excited about For whatever reason, I don’t agree with you that Michael Myers is just a guy in a white mask and doesn’t have his thing.

I think there’s a l- a lot going on with him.

Todd: Oh, no, no, no. L- let me correct that. I, I said wh- when I was a kid- You felt that way … that was what I thought. Yeah. Nowadays as an adult, I have a stronger appreciation for him. I see what makes him special now.

Craig: Well, I, to be fair, w- much like you, I was not as into him as I was the others.

I still watched the movies, but I wasn’t as excited about them as I was, you know, when sequels to those other franchises would come out. But this one I was excited because Jamie Lee Curtis was coming back, and at that point in time she was doing pretty well. You know, her- Yeah … she was doing very well and, and she had successfully branched out into …