Halloween: Ranking Every Movie From Worst To Best
6. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
The original anniversary sequel that got Jamie Lee Curtis to return to the role of Laurie Strode, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later has a basic concept and some killer sequences but manages to keep getting in its own way.
The entire reason for this film's existence was that Jamie Lee wanted to get the band back together and do a twentieth-anniversary film to give Laurie Strode a chance to face-off against Michael one last time. When the film remembers that this is what it's here to do, it is great. The entirety of the third act is genuinely electrifying, as Laurie turns the tables on Michael and becomes the stalker herself.
Seeing Jamie Lee turn Laurie into such an active protagonist is thrilling and the final moments of the film, as she chops off Michael's head with an ax and Carpenter's original Halloween Theme cues up, are some of the best moments in the entire franchise.
It's just a shame that audiences have to wade through an hour of dull subplot to get there. The first two acts of the film focus primarily on Laurie's son, Josh Hartnett's John, and his friends as they are hunted down by Michael. In these sequences, writer and producer Kevin Williamson's fingerprints show a bit too much, as it all just feels like another boring '90s retread of Scream.