Halloween H20 (1998)

The headmistress (Jamie Lee Curtis) of a posh boarding school is a neurotic, functioning alcoholic and a single mother of a 17 year old boy (Josh Hartnett). Her condition stems from an incident 20 years earlier when her insane brother (as a child, he murdered his older sister) escaped from a mental institution and slaughtered her friends and unsuccessfully attempted to kill her. Now, 20 years later, he returns. Normally sequels made 20 years after the fact don't work very well but ignoring the four sequels that followed HALLOWEEN II, director Steve Miner (FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2) whips up a fairly decent horror film and a strong central performance by Curtis cements the essence of the original 1978 John Carpenter classic. That doesn't mean that the film's screenplay isn't often needlessly sloppy and illogical though as when a character pumped full of bullets is later seen feisty and vibrant with only a bandage around his head! The film has some wit to it such as the casting of Janet Leigh (Curtis' real life mother) as her secretary, who in final scene drives off in the same car she drove in PSYCHO. With Michelle Williams, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Adam Arkin and LL Cool J.