For people of my age, Halloween H20 holds a special place in their hearts.
Especially in the UK, this was the first big-screen escapade of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode that we could attempt to sneak into cinemas to see.
Unluckily, or luckily I looked was too young at 14 to be even considered for entrance at my local Odeon.
I had first heard whispers of a 7th Halloween movie the year before reading the pages of SFX Magazine, and a film that was then known as The Revenge of Laurie Strode. Expectations were tempered given the state the franchise was in after The Curse of Michael Myers.
The emergence of Scream and its sequel brought Halloween back into mainstream consciousness, and given the slew of teen slasher horrors coming, such as Urban Legend and the I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Shape’s return seemed inevitable.
I had recognised the name of Steve Miner as director of Friday the 13th Parts 2 and 3, and didn’t know his career trajectory had transitioned into more TV, including the hit series Dawson’s Creek; which was one of my guilty pleasures (and still is).
The first look at H20 for me was in Fangoria with the shot of Laurie and Michael at the door. My first impression was a bit of puzzlement with Michael’s mask, which I know has a story that could fill a documentary.
In the UK we also had Shivers Magazine which carried H20 as its cover story, which immediately jumped off the shelf and into my hands immediately after seeing it.
I was so desperate to see the film after reading Total Film’s four-star review that I asked one of my friend’s older brothers to go and see it and I would pay for the ticket; all to find out what happened. I’d like to feel like I was committed.
This Total Film was a cover issue for H20 featuring Jamie Lee Curtis and Michelle Williams, which showed me critics at least were giving the film a chance where other sequels may have been consigned to wholly genre magazines such as Fangoria. The magazine had also previously had a cover story on Scream 2, which endeared me to it, up to present day.
When recording a film late night I also managed to record a 13-second TV spot for H20, which I played on loop on VHS until the tape wore out. Those 13 seconds had some shots not in the trailer which fascinated me; including a van falling down a cliff – what was this film?
Alas, my bribery didn’t work and in early 1999 I saw an advert for imported VHS copies of Halloween H20 that would play on my TV/VHS player combo. I shelled out £30, which was big money in my world, then and now and waited a month for it to arrive.
I can still remember the day it arrived in the post, I grabbed it from the bottom of the stairs, tore the packaging off and took it straight upstairs to watch at around 10am on a Saturday morning. I didn’t move from my bed until the shocking final reel when Michael Myers lost his head (or so we thought).
I still consider this one of the boldest and most shocking conclusions to a slasher film. The other vivid memory was of a chill going down my spine as Laurie hunted Michael in the school grounds after acquiring an axe and that little sprinkle of the Halloween theme; pure cinema magic.
The issues with the mask didn’t bother me at the time, I just thought it was the lighting and/or the quality of my imported VHS. As I transitioned from VHS to DVD, I stupidly got rid of this VHS, and I’m now onto Blu-Ray, with a Steelbook 4K looking very tempting.
Halloween H20 still holds a special place in my heart, and thousands of Halloween fans worldwide.
Mister Sandman did indeed bring me a dream.
Bloody Flicks 