Movie Info
Movie Name: Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Studio: Dimension Films
Genre(s): Horror/B-Movie
Release Date(s): September 29, 1995
MPAA Rating: R
Gee….I hope Jamie Lloyd has better luck this movie. Guess not.
Jamie Lloyd (J.C. Brandy) has escaped the cult holding her and Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur) for years. With her newborn child, Jamie returns to Haddonfield to hide the baby from the cult and Michael seeking to kill it. Survivor Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd) and Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) realize that Michael is coming back and the family living in his house could be in danger. Kara Strode (Marianne Hagan) learns that her son Danny (Devin Gardner) is having visions, and the curse of Michael Myers could continue!
Directed by Joe Chappelle, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers also goes by the title of Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers and Halloween 666: The Curse of Michael Myers. Following Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers from 1989, the film was reworked after testing poorly with audiences. The original print was later released with forty-five more minutes of footage and an alternate ending. The film was poorly received.
I learned axes are fun from my friend Jason
The last two Michael Myer Halloween films were developing a true story with continuing plots and characters…and then nothing. It took over six years for the sequel to Halloween 5 to come out and wrap-up the bizarre ending including the mysterious cult which was introduced…and it was too little too late.
There are far too many stories going on in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. You have the Tommy Doyle story, the Kara Strode story, the baby story, the cult story, and Michael Myers…and all in under ninety-minutes. The links between these stories are forged but feel pretty weak. It seems like the future serial killer Danny could have been eliminated and the ties between Michael and the cult should have been more developed. It just feels like a mess.
The film is primarily known for two acting aspects. It is one of the last roles of Donald Pleasence (it was released after his death), and (kind of) the first film of Paul Rudd. The movie took so long to come out that Clueless was released before it. Both actors are burdened with a film with little feel or range. Pleasence’s Loomis character looks beaten and weak while Rudd’s Tommy can’t decide if he’s the creepy serial killer or the hero for the Kara character.
Hey, Donald…want to get out this movie and go somewhere else…anywhere else?
Michael also is let down in this movie. In the other Halloween films, Michael Myers is a force to reckon with. He is powerful and dominant and even his appearance strikes fear. Here it seems like he just is there to propel the other aspects of the plot. I do think they did a better mask in this film than the previous two entries.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is an ending, but it is a weak ending. The movie ends with a “is he dead moment” (which was radically different than the original ending). There was an interesting potential building in Halloween. In the reference to the cult, the filmmakers had a great opportunity to tie-in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (aka the oddball one) by having the druid worshipping characters be tied to the cult. Unfortunately, they didn’t…and you get this movie instead. It is this weak entry which makes sense that the series was relaunched for Halloween H20 in 1998 which retconned the films following Halloween II out of existence and brought back Jamie Lee Curtis as the lead (though that film was later retconned by Rob Zombie’s Halloween and the 2018 Halloween again).
Related Links:
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
