A Major Disappointment

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

To say "Halloween The Curse of Michael Myers" is a jumbled up, muddy, watered down mess is an understatement. Gone is the intense claustrophobia and the merciless tension of John Carpenter's original, and instead we have a completely half baked attempt to explain Michael Myers backstory and lame, heavily edited jump scares. The film opens with Jami Lloyd from the previous two films being held captive by a cult. It's here that we find out that Jami has now birthed a child that is the last in the Myers bloodline and Michael and the cult are trying to off the baby. Why they couldn't have just gotten on with it and killed Jami is beyond me, but this is Halloween 6 logic I guess. So, Jami escapes and is then immediately chased by Myers. She leaves the baby in a bathroom sink cabinet so Myers can not find it. But it's OK, Michael just kills Jami.The next day Tommy Doyle (remember that super minor character from the first film) finds the baby in the bathroom and takes it under his wing. Doyle does some investigating and finds it's related to Myers and that Jami must have been killed. The rest of the film is just Tommy Doyle and Kara Strode (a far removed relative of Laurie's) trying to find out the origin of Michael Myers in order to stop him and the mysterious cult of Thorn.The main problem with the film is that it's a complete, incoherent mess. The subplot of Michael being a pawn for a cult makes the once terrifying killer, a poor, tragic soul under the command of a faceless cult and whenever the film tries to make sense of the plot it just digs itself deeper into a hole. Donald Pleasance returns (for the last time) as Dr. Loomis, and it's nice having him here, but he has absolutely nothing to do. Instead the film focuses way too much on Tommy Doyle, who the audience has no connection with other than he was a very minor character in the first film. The only decent parts that can be found in the film are Donald Pleasance's impassioned speeches every once in a while and occasionally the film will be creepy. But, only occasionally does it do these things. Supposedly the film went through rewrite after rewrite, resulting in a different cut of the film known as "The Producers Cut". And having seen the infamous "Producers Cut" I can say it's an improvement over the original. Donald Pleasance is not completely wasted and it does manage to be genuinely scary in places. But, it's still INCREDIBLY flawed-proving that, whichever cut you watch, "Halloween The Curse of Michael Myers" is an unsalvageable mess of a picture.

To date, "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" is the worst critically received Halloween film to date. Earning a mere 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, it's often regarded as the franchise's ultimate failure by fans and critics alike. I'm here to tell you that, in my opinion, they couldn't possibly be more wrong. Apart from a couple minor goofs, (And, contrary to popular belief, nothing that clashes with canon) I found "Curse of Michael Myers" to be the best acted, best characterized, most atmospheric and, most shocking of all, scariest film in the whole franchise and one of the most underrated slashers of all time."Curse of Michael Myers" was released in the mid 90s, a time when many popular horror franchises had descended into pure camp and borderline obnoxious self parody completely devoid of character development or even a hint of depth, let alone scares. ("Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare", "Jason Goes To Hell", both noxious) How unexpected it is then to find that "Halloween 6" is not only a dark and serious slasher film, but remains the darkest franchise entry to date. Michael's kills here are more than just brutal, they're truly painful and sadistic in nature. They're the kind of kills that had me tensing up before they even began and outright cringing when they were executed. More frightening still, the film makes it clear nearly right off the bat that nobody is safe from Michael's wrath here; EVERYONE is fair game to be grotesquely murdered at a moment's notice. When Michael is on screen, the film makes a real note to have him often be unseen by his victims, his appearance briefly shown in lightning or flashes of light. Add in George P. Wilbur's frightening and imposing screen presence as The Shape and you have a genuinely frightening ride. Even the atmosphere of the film is significantly darker than the other "Halloween" entries. It's hard to describe, but there's a real sense of evil in the air throughout the production that really made me uneasy and just generally uncomfortable. Maybe it's the heavy use of dark blues, maybe it's the unnatural and ominous music. Either way, more than any series entry, "Curse of Michael Myers" has that Halloween FEELING. The creepy, off-putting nature of the film is greatly boosted by the performances. Paul Rudd is criminally underrated as the tortured Tommy Doyle; the constant trembling of his voice and his twitchy facial expressions do an excellent job portraying the character's disturbed and haunted nature. Particularly impressive is a scene near the end where he confronts Michael in a hospital, the unimaginable stress and horror of the scene causing him to almost laugh out of pure shock. Donald Pleasence has never been better as Dr. Loomis, giving nothing short of his all in the final acting role before his tragic death. Janice Knickrehm's performance as Mrs. Blankenship has been tragically overlooked by fans of the franchise. While her screen time is limited, her almost babying vocal delivery when describing Myers' origins and the cults intentions is downright bone chilling. Particularly frightening and disturbing are her interactions with the young, impressionable Danny Strode; the faux motherly sincerity combined with her sadistic intentions for the child make their scenes together scary as Hell.The social commentary in the film is incredibly well done as well. The main theme of "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" seems to be individual and community reactions to tragedy. Michael Myers has almost become a celebrity in this film; a boogeyman to most, an icon to some and even, in one of the film's few light hearted and comedic moments, a sex symbol to a few. The common connection between everyone seems to be the focus on Michael rather than his victims. Tommy Doyle's mental and emotional scars run deep from witnessing Michael's horrific rampage as a young child in the original "Halloween", to the point of severely stunted emotional and social development. Yet, despite all the trauma and pain he suffered, the town of Haddonfield is less concerned with the well being of the victim then they are in their borderline worship of Michael, even going so far as to dismiss Tommy as a "creep." Most concerning of all, despite Haddonfield's borderline obsession with Michael, they don't even remember Doyle was one of his victims. This kind of celebrity treatment of mass murderers over the innocents whose lives they destroy is as prevalent and relevant to American media today as it was back in 1995, if not moreso.The biggest criticism that I constantly hear people bring up when discussing "The Curse of Michael Myers" is the revelation of The Shape's origin; that Michael was raised and helped by the mysterious Cult of Thorn rather than simply killing on his own. First of all, the Mark of Thorn already made a physical appearance in "Halloween 5", along with a scene involving Dr. Loomis explaining that once Michael completed his task he would be destroyed by the rage inside him. Second, there are multiple scenes in nearly ALL previous Halloween movies where Michael pulls of teleportation like escapes and seemingly impossible cheats of death downright impossible without outside help. In the end, the only real retort "Halloween" fans seem to have to that point is "He's evil, he's a shadow, he's a Shape!" Yeah, after 6 movies, that already BS excuse to explain illogical events in the "Halloween" universe begins to grow from annoying to insufferable. On every level that matters, "Curse of Michael Myers" is leaps and bounds above its predecessors and successors in the "Halloween" franchise. I may have been able to understand if the film had mixed reaction, but for it to be the most hated film in the series baffles me (Seriously? Critics thought Halloween III and Resurrection were better than this? Wow...Words escape me.) Don't listen to the critics. "Curse of Michael Myers" is truly the gold standard of "Halloween" movies.

This is where things get weird. The 6th film in the franchise tries to explain why Michael is the way he is. He's being controlled by a cult who gives him the Thorn curse. (The Producer's Cut is a much better film if you want to make any sense out of it. The theatrical version is too watered down and difficult to understand at times) Tommy Doyle is back, and he fears for the people living in the Myers house, who happen to be related to the Strode family. When Jamie Lloyd is found dead and her newborn baby turns up, Dr. Loomis comes out of retirement to try to find and kill Michael for one final time. He teams up with Tommy and Kara Strode. Dr. Loomis is baffled when he comes face-to-face with the man who has been controlling Michael all these years. This film is a lot better than part 5. I highly recommend HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS!!!

For years, I could never figure out why this sequel was so strange and flawed in a lot of ways. But I recently listened to audio commentary by Daniel Ferrands and I found out how ambitious and dedicated he was to making this a worthy sequel... Until the suits came in and raped what was once his vision (Jamie living until the end and dying in a fight with Michael, more Loomis for the fans, a bit lighter on gore, a classic score from Alan Howarth, etc). It was only implied that Steven was Michael's child, rather than confirmed... Which was a good choice for such a bizarre subplot. What takea me out of this flick is J.C. Brandy, she just wasn't Jamie to me. And Paul Rudd having more screen time than Donald Pleasance was disappointing. H6 is one of the more mean spirited entries and as far as spirit, it looks and feels like Halloween. The performances are strong, Kara Strode being the most grounded next to Loomis, and Michael is the most bad ass we've seen up to this point. This movie was genuinely scary either version, but I would've preferred what was planned on paper.