Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers DVD: Review By slysnide

So after Moustapha Akkad & company acknowledged the cinematic failure that was "The Revenge of Michael Myers" (1989) they revealed two things: 1) BOR doesn't matter to them as much as fans do, and 2) They're willing to take time away from something that's not working to rethink it before retackling it...though that doesn't necessarily means this was much better.

Six years after the predecessor, a whole new terrible spin was put on the series, which was the attempt to explain away Michael's deranged evil. This is always a franchise killer of sorts, and Freddy & Jason had already tried and failed at this, so there's no excuse for the failure of Halloween Part 6, so to speak.

The first given of the film was the return of Donald Pleasence as Sam Loomis, the most beloved character of the series for his constant dedication to stopping the forces of evil. (I know it sounds like some thirties serial commentary right?). Unfortunately, the decision to make this Donald's final film is unclear as to whether this was attributed to his death that February, or trying to resalvage 'the lost climax.' Either way, Pleasence's succ*mbing to evil was inevitable as that was sort of his destiny, the same which he escaped four times before. Plus it increases the unstoppable aspect to Michael Myers whom we believed would never actually get Loomis in the end. (Yeah, since this is a DVD review I included spoilers, but there's not much to spoil here).

As if they hadn't learned from the harsh reaction to Rachel's death in the predecessor, they made the same mistake again in #6 when they killed off Jamie Lloyd in the same way they killed Rachel--as a cheap shot. Though that opening chase was the only appealing aspect of the film as the lighting and setting was great for the scene. But given her death, the knowledge that Donald Pleasence had passed away, and the notion of explaining Michael's evil were all intact by the end of this first scene, then the film hadn't much going for it after that.

So once again, the film centered around half-assed wannabe actors being killed rather than stalked by Michael Myers rather than the Shape. But what can we expect on the sixth go round? Or technically the fifth depending on how you look at it. The leader being Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd) of the original film. For whatever reason, the original actor who was of age by now wasn't available to play the role. But Paul Rudd makes it seem so lackluster that it makes you wonder if it's his acting or the script. And given his lengthy career, I think it's safe to say it was Daniel Farrands' script.

Marianne Hagan, Kim Darby, and Bradford English portray the Strode family consisting of Kara, Debra, and John respectively. They were actually okay actors, and by this point, Laurie is out of their lives, though I can't recall if they even bothered to explain that. I think they did. But the killings of the Strode parents were actually good. My favorite close up being of Michael holding the axe in the backyard.

The problem sets in when an ancient Druid curse is used to explain away the method to Michael's madness. How they came up with this I don't really want to know, but director Joe Chappelle insists that the climax was different, and made more sense, thus making it sound like some lost classic as the directors of Chainsaw 2 & 3 did when the studio screwed with their vision, but at least Tobe Hooper was trying to make a comedy rather than a real horror flick like these guys were. The climax being a gory attack by Michael in an OR which is reminiscent of similar scenes from "Independence Day" (1996), and "Spider-Man 2" (2002). But they filmed that as the precursor to whatever great lost ending it was that Chappelle had in mind, meaning that he gets zero sympathy points here.

An interesting point however was the inclusion of the mysterious man in black who made a short appearance in the predecessor. While he had no dialogue while in the black trench coat, he assisted in Michael Myers' escape from the jailhouse in "The Revenge of Michael Myers" and appeared more or less like a child molester stalking the streets of Illinois than a mad doctor on the loose, which he most certainly was this time around.

Overall it was the climax to what I call the 'Halloween Trilogy' which follows the same family & characters throughout all three with little to no references to the original two films as each director tried to make it their own movie, which given the examples of previous failures of this nature garners no respect for these attempts, at least for 5 & 6. So unfortunately, while Moustapha Akkad had the right idea to step back and take a breather from the series for six years to do better projects whilst supposedly reevaluating the failure of #5, he ultimately failed dismally at delivering the redeeming goods for #6, and given this installment's number in the franchise, then I can't say I'm surprised. But all three movies featured three failures, being Jamie's turn to evil at the end of #4, Rachel's death in #5, and Jamie's death in #6 [The latter two were both universally rejected by fans and the few critics who actually liked these past two installments], so that's just more to add to the failures of the 'Halloween Trilogy' which started out on terra firma, and ended up a creek without a paddle to save them.

So if you haven’t gotten it already, then with the same type of vics set-up to die, then this is just another failure at explaining away the mystery of the franchise monster; an attempt which has yet to be mastered. While it once again only cost $5,000,000 to make, it profited an extra $10,116,634. That once again seems to contradict the failure, but the diehard fans once again were disappointed with this take on the legend that will never die. And maybe that can actually be a bad thing.