Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
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| ♥ | This article is dedicated to Donald Pleasence who played Dr. Sam Loomis (October 5, 1919 - February 2, 1995, at 75 from complications of heart failure), and Mitch Ryan who played Dr. Terence Wynn (January 11, 1934 - March 4, 2022, at 88 from heart failure). May they both rest in peace. |
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 Michael Goes To Hell: The Final Halloween, might of been a better title.
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Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (also known as Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, and Halloween 666: The Origin of Michael Myers) is a 1995 American slasher film directed by Joe Chappelle and written by Daniel Farrands. The film stars Donald Pleasence in his final film appearance, Paul Rudd and Marianne Hagan. It is the sixth installment in the Halloween film series and concludes the "Thorn Trilogy" story arc established in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. Set six years after the events of Halloween 5, the plot follows Michael Myers as he stalks the Strode family, cousins of Laurie Strode, to kill his last surviving relatives, while Dr. Sam Loomis pursues him once more. The film also reveals the source of Michael's immortality and his drive to kill.
Shot in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1994, it underwent a series of reshoots after it performed poorly with test audiences. The film was distributed by Dimension Films, who would go on to distribute the rest of the series until 2018's Halloween. It was released on September 29, 1995, but was a box office flop, grossing $15.1 million at the domestic box office on a budget of $5 million, and was panned by critics upon release. Donald Pleasence died on February 2, 1995, nearly eight months before the film was released. The film was dedicated to his memory.
After the film's home media release, the original workprint of the film, which featured 45 minutes of alternative footage and a different ending, was discovered by fans of the series. This version, dubbed The Producer's Cut, developed a cult following, with bootleg DVD copies sold on eBay and online petitions targeting for an official release of it. In 2014, the Producer's Cut was officially released on Blu-ray.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was followed by Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998, which ignored the entire "Thorn Trilogy" storyline of the previous three films and is instead a direct sequel to Halloween II (1981).
Plot
Michael Myers' niece, Jamie, gives birth to a child while imprisoned by the mysterious Cult of the Thorn, and then manages to escape and go on the run. The cult sends Michael after Jamie and he eventually catches and kills her, but not before she manages to hide her baby, who is eventually found by Tommy Doyle, who as a young boy encountered Michael during his first killing spree. Meanwhile, Michael goes after other members of the Strode family, who adopted his sister Laurie as a baby, and are now living in his former family home.
Why Terror Rests In Peace
- Incredibly messy, yet convoluted story which tries to tie together to the "Samhain" plot elements from Halloween II, the druid curse from Halloween III: Season of the Witch, the "Man in Black" from the previous film, and even what happened to the kids who Laurie Strode was babysitting in the first original film. This ends up making for a storyline that's completely incomprehensible to anyone unfamiliar with the series and is pretty tough to follow even for Halloween fans.
- Donald Pleasence barely even appears in the film and doesn't do much of importance in the scenes where we do see him. To be fair, this is partly because the studio demanded heavy re-shoots, and Pleasence died before they could take place, but there was still plenty of usable footage of him from the original shoot, as the producer's cut demonstrates.
- They tried to reinvent the minor character of Tommy Doyle from the first film into the same sort of rival to the killer that Tommy Jarvis was to Jason Voorhees in several of the Friday the 13th films. While this could potentially have been interesting, the way they go about it is pretty dull and unoriginal.
- Jamie, a popular and endearing protagonist from the fourth and fifth films, is recast and unceremoniously killed off early on in the film. Note that the fifth film had itself been heavily criticized for killing off Jamie's adoptive sister, Rachel (a likewise popular co-protagonist in the fourth film), meaning the producers should have known this wouldn't go down well with the fans.
- For the most part, the characters are unlikeable and impossible to root for, therefore making it even more obvious than usual who's going to get killed. Kara Strode is okay (if a little bland), but the rest of her family is not as interesting to root for, John Strode is a complete jerk, and Tommy comes across nearly as crazy as the Thorn cultists.
- It's implied, and made clear in the producer's cut, that Michael is the father of Jamie's child, meaning that said child is the result of the Thorn cultists forcing Michael to rape his niece! Even for a horror film series, that's just nasty!
- Overly stylized editing and camera work, which can make it impossible to work out what's going on in some scenes.
- The acting ranges from bland in the case of Paul Rudd and Marianne Hagan, to overly hammy in the case of the rest of the Strode family. Mitchell Ryan and Donald Pleasence are both pretty good, but their screen time in the theatrical version is limited.
- The Cult of the Thorn repeatedly talks about having some grand plan that Michael and the baby both fit into, but exactly what they're trying to do never really gets made clear before Michael suddenly turns on and kills them all, making the film feel like a waste of time.
- The Cult of the Thorn keeps making stupid mistakes throughout the movie, making them impossible to take seriously as villains. For example, after Jamie Lloyd escapes with the baby they don't insist on sending security after her and they even let Dr. Loomis and Tommy Doyle (the only two people who can sabotage their plan) live.
- Abrupt, unsatisfying ending in both cuts:
- In the theatrical cut, Tommy beats up Michael with a lead pipe (which causes him to bleed green slime for some reason), but Michael somehow recovers just in time to kill Dr. Loomis off-screen, after which the film ends. At least, that's presumably how it's supposed to end, since they didn't have a shot of Michael killing Loomis, and so just edited in the sound of him screaming to imply that he died.
- In the producer's cut, Tommy traps Michael in a circle made of stones, which ended up immobilizing Michael, but Michael curses Dr. Loomis bypassing the symbol of the Cult of the Thorn onto him, making Loomis laugh in madness as the film ends.
- Perhaps this was an attempt to bring Donald Pleasance back, but even that doesn't make sense because the filmmakers knew he was dying.
- Several continuity errors, such as Ms. Blankenship saying she was watching after Michael during Halloween in 1963 when in the first film it clearly shows his sister, Judith, watching after him.
- Much like the other sequels after Halloween II, the film tries too hard to humanize Michael by saying he’s evil because he’s under the influence of a cult.
- The symbol of Thorn does not represent death, evil, famine, or illness. But it represents "Discipline", "An Omen for Good" or "All Evil can be Overcome". This shows that writers didn't do any research for Celtic symbols.
- So many stupid, irritating, and unnecessary strobe lights.
- The flash cuts in between scenes are not only absurd, but also summarize the movie: a film that basically stitches up the scenes in an attempt to make a movie, has the filmmakers fighting over it, and has flashy strobe lights in between it.
- Many moments make the film feel like an unintentional comedy.
- Because of the bad reviews it got, it is considered to be one of, if not the worst installment of the Halloween film series, and could have turned the holiday-themed genre into a dead horse.
- Too many plot holes and stupid moments.
- Why did Jamie call the radio station for help instead of the police?
- How did Jamie know how to drive when she has been kidnapped at nine years old?
- How did nobody notice the blood and the abandoned baby in the bus station?
- What was the point of Tommy leaving the hospital without having a baby treated?
- Why did Danny not get mental help?
- Bad direction by Joe Chapelle.
Redeeming Qualities
- Some of the kills, including Jamie's and John Strode's, are actually pretty creative.
- It was a good idea to bring back and develop some of the side characters from the first film, even if the actual execution of that idea was a bit lacking.
- Creepy, yet neat soundtrack.
- The producer's cut is slightly a marginally better version, with footage added back in, a score that makes the movie feel like the original, and more character development.
- Michael Myers' mask is much better and more faithful to the original than the previous 2 films.
- JC Brandy gives a decent performance as Jamie.
- Dr. Loomis returns to being a likable character after he's out of character-like personality from the previous film.
- Also, Donald Pleasance still gives out an amazing performance with his character, despite how old he was at the time before his unfortunate death shortly after filming.
- As mentioned earlier, the film has a lot of unintentionally funny moments.
Reception
Box office
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was released on September 29, 1995 in the United States, and brought in a $7,308,529 opening weekend gross, coming in second to serial killer thriller Seven, being the first film in the series to be on par with Halloween II's opening weekend gross (both Halloween 4 and 5 had earned under $7 million). The film went on to gross a total of $15,116,634 at the U.S. box office, from an estimated $5 million budget.
Critical reception
The film was not screened in advance for critics. The film scores 4.8/10 on IMDb. It has a 9% approval rating and an average rating of 3.52/10, based on 35 reviews, on the internet review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The site's critical consensus states "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers trades the simple, brutal effectiveness of the original for convoluted mysticism, with disastrously dull results." On Metacritic, the film holds a 10/100 based on 13 reviews, signifying as "overwhelming dislike".
Videos
Trivia
- Lead actor Paul Rudd (who would later be known to play Marvel superhero, Ant-Man in the solo film of the same name) has been strongly critical of the film, though admitted that his own performance was poor, and attributed this to "trying too hard" because of his inexperience at the time. Despite this, Rudd was approached to reprise his role as Tommy Doyle for the direct sequels Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends, and only turned the offer down because he was too busy working on Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
- Lead actress Marianne Hagan and writer Daniel Farrands have criticized the studio's handling of the film, particularly the treatment of Donald Pleasence, and re-shooting the film to appeal more to teenage audiences despite it being released with an R-rating.
- Threezero, a toy company produced a 1/6 scale figure of Michael Myers, while Trick R Treat studios produced that as well.
External Links
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers at the Internet Movie Database
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers on Rotten Tomatoes
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers on Metacritic
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers on Letterboxd
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