10 Things You Learn Rewatching Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)

Making the choice to ignore the four previous films in the franchise was a bold one, considering that it was really the first real fracturing of the franchise's timeline. This mercifully allowed them to not even address the entire Cult of Thorn scenario or any of the dangling plot-threads from The Curse of Michael Myers, but it also meant that Danielle Harris' Jamie Lloyd was erased from continuity completely.

In her place is Josh Hartnett making his feature film debut as John Tate, Laurie Strode's son. Hartnett delivers a solid performance but ultimately gets saddled with some fairly unforgiving material. But, he absolutely shines in his early scenes with Jamie Lee Curtis' Laurie Strode.

From the get-go, their dynamic is real and believable. Their introductory conversation in the kitchen as John asks for Laurie to allow him to go on a school camping trip is emotionally-charged in an unexpectedly affecting way. It's a touching portrayal of a toxically dependent parent/child relationship that is handled shockingly well.

In a better world, H20 would have focused much more on these two alone. In the actual film, they probably only have about ten minutes of screen time together and the third act pretty much just forgets John ever existed or mattered.

But the time they do get together is great.