After the crazy ending for the fifth movie, we had to wait six years to find out what happened and who the man in black was. Was the wait worth it? Was Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers the movie with all the answers? No, no it wasn’t…
Short nitty-gritty plot description from IMDb is as follows: Six years ago, Michael Myers terrorized the town of Haddonfield, Illinois. He and his niece, Jamie Lloyd, have disappeared. Jamie was kidnapped by a bunch of evil druids who protect Michael Myers. And now, six years later, Jamie has escaped after giving birth to Michael’s child. She runs to Haddonfield to get Dr. Loomis to help her again. Meanwhile, the family that adopted Laurie Strode is living in the Myers house and are being stalked by Myers. It’s the curse of Thorn that Michael is possessed by that makes him kill his family. And it’s up to Tommy Doyle, the boy from Halloween, and Dr. Loomis, to stop them all.
I think that no matter what this movie did, there was no way it could’ve lived up to the hype that was built for it. Six years is a long time and in the those six years, fans built up this expectation on what this movie was going to reveal. Who is the man in black and why did he kidnap Michael and Jamie? Will it be something amazing? Not really, as it turns out, Michael is possessed by a druid cult, run by the man in black and Michael must impregnate Jamie to have the curse live on. Wowza!
Dr. Loomis is back, but he’s a little laid back compared to his crazy antics in Halloween 5. Tragically this would be Donald Pleasence’s last role and it’s a shame that he wasn’t in a much better Halloween movie. That’s not to say he is bad in this one, he isn’t, but the story he is placed in is the culprit. Paul Rudd also shows up to take on the role of Tommy Doyle, the little boy Laurie Strode babysat in the first movie. Tommy has gone a little crazy since that Halloween night and is obsessed with Michael and as we all know, Paul Rudd does a great job at being slightly unstable. I am a little disappointed that Danielle Harris wasn’t back to reprise her role of Jamie Lloyd. Instead, the producers decided to recast, which only goes to hurt the film more.
Let’s talk a little about Michael Myers. For the first time in the series, an actor returns to don the mask. George P. Wilbur, from Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, does just as good of job as he did back then and he knows how to do a menacing walk and how to really effectively swing an axe, although he looks a little more hefty in this movie. The mask is also once again drastically different, but I do have to say I like it a lot better than the one from Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a fairly gory movie, with several kills that stick in your head. I enjoy the scene of the little girl dancing in the “red rain”, when in fact, it’s the blood of the dead person strung up in the tree. Also, you can’t forget the amazing and crazy head explosion kill! No amount of violence can make up for a plot that is disjointed as this one. Having a family buy the old Myers house, is a great idea and I love that they brought back an old character, but the cult idea is too wacky and the movie was heavily re-tooled, with several different scenes re-shot and a completely different ending. There is a cut of the movie out there called “The Producer’s Cut,” which was the original intended version and it seems to have a more coherent plot, with a much better ending, instead of the hack eyed scene we get, that only goes to ruin the character of Dr. Loomis.
Okay, I understand it looks like I hate this movie, but I don’t. In fact as you can see by all my reviews for this series, I don’t hate any, even if there are plenty of faults. These are movies I hold dear to my black little heart and this one is no different. However, I won’t admit that this movie is great, it’s far from it. It has plot problems, pacing issues and a truly awful ending. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a far cry from the earlier films and slightly on par with Halloween 5, but I still think you should lower your expectations and give it a chance. Hell, you might come out liking it.
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