Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (Dimension Collector's Series)
List Price:
Our Price: $3.59
You Save: $6.40 (64%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.03 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jamie Lee CurtisBrand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 86 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-10-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Dimension
Movie Reviews of Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (Dimension Collector's Series)
Movie Review: Nixes Continuity Completely; Somehow It's Great Anyway
Summary: 5 Stars
I avoided seeing this movie for years, appalled at the unpecedented way it just acted like nothing from "Halloween II" onward ever happened. It's certainly not without precedent for a series to get its continuity mixed up after a number of sequels, but to actually try and delete several whole movies from the timeline?!? It was only that trailers for "Halloween Resurrection" looked so good that I finally had to capitulate and take up the series again, finding to my shock that "H20" is actually one of the best chapters in the entire run, and, ironically, better than "Resurrection" would turn out to be.
I was never against Jamie Lee Curtis returning to the series as Laurie Strode, but I don't think it was necesary to skip over the several preceding entries. As it is, there are now two seperate Halloween continuities - well, actually three because "Season Of The Witch" is out there on its own with no real connection to any of the others (it's kind of a shame they even called it "Halloween III"; it was a great movie on its own that probably would have been much more appreciated if everybody hadn't been understandably befuddled about the abscence of Michael Myers et al.). There's Halloween 1 & 2 plus 4 through 6 (released as "The Curse Of The Michael Myers" without a "Part Six" marker) and then we have a second timeline, again starting with Halloween Parts 1 & 2 but not picking up until H20 and those that follow it. If anybody ever manages to stitch this all back together into a coherent single line God bless them. To be fair, the H20 makers do make a bit of an acknowledgement to the 'skipped-over' installments - Laurie Strode faked her death in a car accident in this new continuity. Those who remember the old continuity will recall that in Part 4 (which I believe may be my personal favorite) it was revealed in the opening minutes that Laurie was absent because she died in a car crash. Couldn't they have gone one step further, made some referrence to Michael Myers copycat killers over the years between Part II and H20 and left us with the impression that the Thorn Cult arranged for things to be covered up so that everybody would believe Michael was dead and his appearances in 4-6 were somebody else (viewers would know better of course)? But then that would have left the question of why Laurie left her daughter behind when she took up a new identity and life. Maybe they just really had to go this way to tell this particular story that they wanted to tell.
And that story picks up twenty years after the night on which both Halloween and Halloween II took place, with Laurie, under her new name, well settled into a new life, with a teenage son and a job at a college, but still haunted by the irrational fear that someday Michael is going to return and track her down despite neither hide nor hair (nor Part 4, 5 or 6; but I guess I'm beating that point to death now) of him having been seen in two decades. And after all those years, he does indeed once again Come Back. Removed from most of the previous sequels, they've gone back to a Michael Myers not significantly more powerful than he was on the original Night, stronger and more unstoppable than any human should be but not to the extent he'd achieve in the later sequels; this plays well - in both H20 and Resurrection if he was still the force he was by Chapter 6 he'd carve through anything in his path like a hot knife through butter, both movies taking place (especially Resurrection) in a more confined envirornment. Here that envirornment is an almost deserted college campus when just about everyone is off on an extended break, and because of his still formidable but much lesser power level the other side actually has a realistic fighting chance against him.
Fine cast and fine cast of characters: Jodi Lyn O'Keefe in particular stood out for me. (While I'm on the subject of O'Keefe, one of horror's best actresses, can some distributor out there PLEASE release "Red Rover", which stars her,William Baldwin, Brenda James (aka Brenda Lynn Klemme of "Cutting Class" and "The Channeller"!) and Charlie Rhindress either theatrically or on DVD? It debuted in 2003 at film festivals, apparantly impressed both horror fans and non-horror fans, and it's still without wide distribution? Don't let this be another Sector 13, which we're Still waiting for, after all these years...If Sector 13's copyright holder is listening?....still waiting, it's not too late.....still waiting......waiting....) Back to H20, the characters are all Likable, and all add to the movie with their own personalities.
H20 and all that follows are not a replacement for Halloween Parts 4-6; they exist In Addition to them and I've realized you don't have to choose one or the other. Anybody still holding off on seeing this because of the continuity issue, don't keep making the mistake I made - this is a great movie no matter what the continuity. And any newer fans who've Only seen 1 & 2 plus H20 and Resurrection, skipping the others because they're not part of the current timeline, you might want to consider going back and checking them out. There's not a clunker among them, whether or not they ever end up linked back into the newer movies. Same for Part III - a great movie that deserves to be judged on its own merits and not summarily dismissed because it's unconnected to the rest.
Summary of Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (Dimension Collector's Series)
This smart and suspenseful thriller scares up a bone-chilling good time with original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis (TRUE LIES, HALLOWEEN I&II) and a hot cast of hip young stars! Now the headmistress of a private school, Laurie Strode (Curtis) is still struggling with the horrifying, 20-year-old memories of the maniacal killer Michael Myers ... when he suddenly reappears with a vengeance! And this Halloween, his terror will strike a whole new generation! Laurie's rebellious son (Josh Hartnett -- THE FACULTY), his girlfriend (Michelle Williams -- TV's DAWSON'S CREEK), and the school security guard (LL COOL J -- WOO, B.A.P.S.) will become Michael's newest victims unless Laurie can conquer her greatest fears and put evil in its place once and for all! The time has come again for you to experience the frightening fun of HALLOWEEN -- the motion picture series that totally redefined terror!Halloween is one of the great modern horror films, but as a franchise its track record has been spotty at best, painfully bad at worst. Halloween H2O: Twenty Years Later, directed by horror vet Steve Miner (Friday the 13th parts 2 and 3, House), won't displace John Carpenter's original but it might help you forget the films in between. Miner certainly has: the film begins as if sequels 3 through 6 never happened. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, reprising her role for the first time in almost two decades) faked her death and is now a single mom and headmistress of an exclusive California private school. She's also a secret alcoholic who lives in fear of her homicidal brother-bogeyman Michael Myers. Guess who decides to show up for a family reunion? The film begins with classic horror-movie exposition (the deserted college campus, Michael's escape, Laurie's waking nightmares) accomplished with some humor and style, but it's all setup for the second half, a driving roller coaster of stalk-and-slash thrills. There's little of the self-conscious genre referencing of Scream and at times the film is a little far-fetched--it is a slasher movie about a knife-wielding homicidal maniac who won't stay dead, after all--but Curtis transforms Laurie from a shrieking victim into an empowered, determined horror-movie heroine who's learned a thing or two from the previous films. Adam Arkin, Josh Hartnett, and TV cutie Michelle Williams (Dawson's Creek) costar, and the script received uncredited polish from Scream writer Kevin Williamson; Curtis's mom, Janet Leigh, pops up in a cameo. --Sean Axmaker
Similar DVD Movies
Artist Not Provided - Halloween II / Halloween III - Season of the Witch (Double Feature)NBC Universal; Release date: 2007-08-14; DVD
Best price: $7.76
Price in other shops:
Halloween - Unrated Director's Cut (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)Wellspring Media INC; Release date: 2007-12-18; DVD
Best price: $2.44
Price in other shops:
Halloween II (Unrated Director's Cut)SON; Release date: 2010-01-12; DVD
Best price: $4.27
Price in other shops:
Halloween III - Season Of The WitchUniversal Studios; Release date: 2003-10-07; DVD
Best price: $3.34
Price in other shops:
Halloween 5 - The Revenge of Michael Myers (Divimax Edition)STARZ/SPHE; Release date: 2006-07-25; DVD
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Halloween - ResurrectionBuena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2002-12-10; DVD
Best price: $3.87
Price in other shops:
Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael MyersRelease date: 2011-04-26; DVD
Best price: $2.64
Price in other shops:
Halloween 4 - The Return of Michael Myers (Divimax Edition)Fox; Release date: 2006-07-25; DVD
Best price: $4.69
Price in other shops:
Halloween IIUniversal Studios; Release date: 2001-09-18; DVD
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
HalloweenSTARZ HOME ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2007-08-14; DVD
Best price: $4.83
Price in other shops: