H20 is a BRILLIANT Thriller, i remember when it first hit the cinema in the 90s & it was the biggest film around, i couldn't wait to see it but was too young at the time so had to wait to buy it on video aww the good 'ol days. H20 is so well made & so well acted especially by Jamie lee curtis who gives the best performance of her career in my opinion as the older & more troubled Laurie strode. The music is Fantastic,a nice new score mixed wuth carpenters classic theme & the cinematography is really gorgeous & slick looking a real Thriller look. Josh Hartnett is great in this film as Laurie's fed up troubled son John. Now i love Halloween '78 of course it's a classic but i didn't really like H2 '81 as i thought it was stupid & unnecessary especially making myers her brother!!! There is some fun kills & the creepy hospital setting is really well used But the silly "brother" twist was silly but it had to happen for the brilliant H20 to exist so gotta take the bad with the good. Anyway loved H20 ever since watching it hundreds of times on video & it's one of the only BRILLIANT films in the troubled Halloween franchise the greats are HALLOWEEN (1978), HALLOWEEN 2 (1981),HALLOWEEN 4 (1987),HALLOWEEN 3: SEASON OF THE WITCH (1982) & HALLOWEEN H20 (1998), these are all fantastic Halloween films but the rest are silly & boring except the very good Rob zombie reboots

John Carpenter's 1978 'Halloween' is wholly deserving of its status as a horror classic. To this day it's still one of the freakiest films personally seen and introduced the world to one of horror's most iconic villainous characters Michael Myers.Which is why it is such a shame that not only are all of the sequels nowhere near as good but that the decline in quality is so drastic. Ok, the original 'Halloween' is very difficult to follow on from, but most of the sequels could at least looked like effort was made into them. The exception however is 'Halloween H20: 20 Years Later'. It's not perfect and nowhere near as great as the original, but it's the only sequel that's above average, let alone good and by far the best since the original. It does a great job breathing fresh life into a series that had gotten stale as quick as one can down a can of coke gone flat and such a welcome addition after the badness of the fifth and sixth films. 'Halloween H20: 20 Years Later' has its flaws. It is too short and at times erratically paced, sometimes rushed and then taking a bit of time to get going after the opening. There is not enough breathing room for development of characterisation, which generally is shallow apart from the central relationship and the script tends to be weak (not unexpected, though actually it's far worse in the previous sequels, at least it sounds complete).On the other hand, 'Halloween H20: 20 Years Later' 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. The editing is coherent, it's not shot too darkly and there is an eeriness to the setting which can be properly appreciated as a result. The music is a welcome return to being an asset than a drawback like in the previous two sequels. While not quite a character of its own like in the original, it adds to the atmosphere and enhances it.Luckily there's nowhere near as much unintentional camp, out of place humour or bizarre subplots or idea that muddle the story. Instead much of the film is fun and there is a tension, creepiness and suspense, even poignancy at times, that the previous sequels were sorely lacking in. The deaths are the most creative and shocking since those in the original, while the opening scene is unsettlingly tense and the ending is creepy and touching. The central relationship is handled quite well. Although the characters are underdeveloped, none of them are annoying and they do have enough personality to stop them from being too dull. The direction is in control of the material and is at least competent and often well above that, especially in the second half when the film really does come alive. Of the sequels, 'Halloween H20: 20 Years Later' is by quite some way the best acted, Jamie Lee Curtis' wonderful performance being the film's best asset.In summary, the best of the sequels/follow ups and worth the wait. 7/10 Bethany Cox

First, after Laurie tells her boyfriend at the climax about her past and who she is, he asks her how old she was when all that happened. With a horrified realization in her eye as she looks at her son's 17th birthday card on the mantle, she tells him 17. He turns around, sees it, and cluelessly goes, "What?" What does he mean "What?" We all see the interesting connection there. Very annoying how he plays stupid. Second, after Laurie bonks Michael on the head with the fire extinguisher, she shouldn't just run away but stay there and keep whacking the snot out of him, even use his own KNIFE. Last, that is so stupid how Rodney comes into the scene to stop Laurie from ultimately putting the nail on his coffin after he falls onto the table, insisting there's no need to because he's allegedly dead. She shouldn't've been so cooperative back with him, knowing her brother way too well. She'd try to fight him away so she could go ahead and do it.

As the title of the movie suggests, H20 takes place twenty years after the events of the original movie and is a direct sequel to the first two movies ignoring the 4th, 5th and 6th instalments of the franchise. Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her role as Laurie Strode, who unable to cope with the memories of her ordeal on Halloween 1978, faked her death, changed her name to Keri Tate and became the headmistress of a private Northern Californian school.As Halloween approaches she becomes increasingly anxious which affects her relationships with new love interest and counsellor at her school, Will Brennan and her seventeen year old son, John (Josh Hartnett).John is tired of his mother's stifling, overprotective ways so when she forbids him from going on a camping trip with his friends, they instead decide to stay behind and have a private party of their own inside the school on Halloween night.The people around Keri are quick to dismiss her fears and write them off as paranoia, but little do they know that Michael Myers has come out of hiding, found out Laurie's new identity and is making his way from Illinois to California to finish what he started twenty years earlier...H20 came out post 'Scream' which was the movie attributed to the revival of the 'slasher' style horror movie, after it's decline in popularity in the early nineties and the influence is definitely there. From the opening scene that throws you into the heart of the action, it's willingness to defy/revamp horror clichés and it's vaguely meta/self-aware approach.