PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Where does one even begin to write about Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers? Well, I guess that says it all. When I watched this movie as a child, I had no idea what was going on. It seemed to be all over the place. It was not a film I had wanted to revisit. It has literally taken 21 years to figure out actually what the hell transpired throughout this movie. On that note, let’s get into why this movie, out of all of the whole Halloween franchise, had me perplexed for so damn long.
Directed by Joe Chappelle and a screenplay by Daniel Farrands, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers dropped into theaters September 29th, 1995. On a five million dollar budget, it ending up grossing over $7 million opening weekend, being the first film out of the franchise to beat out Halloween II’s box office opening total. It ended up grossing over $15 million. The numbers are kind of funny considering it has the lowest ranking out of the whole series on Rotten Tomatoes at a whopping 6%.
The movie plot is rather eccentric. Obviously, it took me having to write this review to figure the whole thing out. It feels more like a made for TV movie than a film with a budget of five million dollars. Anyway, last time we saw Jamie Lloyd and Michael Myers was in 1989 being taken from a police station. In the beginning of part 6, we soon see Jamie giving birth to a baby boy! (Wait that’s not Danielle Harris! More on that in a bit.) Moments later she escapes and is being hunted by her uncle once again. Clearly, as you can tell she meets her maker and Michael shows no mercy to his niece. What about the baby? Well, remember Tommy Doyle from the original? Last time we saw him on the screen he was running down to the Makenzie’s with Lindsey to call for help. After all this time I thought those two crazy kids would have gotten hitched. Nope! Tommy Doyle (now played by Paul Stephen Rudd, yes he dropped the Stephen after this film), has been obsessed with Michael ever since he was a child and believes he has figured out why Michael is “The Shape”. It didn’t take long for this movie to make me go huh? Well, apparently the reason why Myers is so damn strong and can do all the things he can is because of some cult. He has what they call “The Curse of the Thorn”.
Oh my gosh, there is seriously so much going on in this movie. From Michael being taken to a lab to be studied for his curse to Tommy and Dr. Loomis figuring out that Michael is only super-human because of this curse, and then there is also the fact that there is a whole other Strode family in this film that is living in the Myer’s old house. This movie hurts my brain. Maybe I made it more complicated than it needed to be, but this whole curse bullshit really bugs the fuck out of me. It’s like they tried to make Michael Myers a fucking science project in this film. Not to mention they killed Jamie in the first five minutes…ugh. We’ve all seen this terrible 6% rating of a film and to be quite frank, I don’t think I can muster explaining anymore of this confusing thrown together dumb plot, so let’s get into some fun facts shall we?
1. The movie was originally titled Halloween: 666 The Origin of Michael Myers.
2. They wanted Brian Andrews who played Tommy in the original to play him again, however, they could not find him so they went on a casting search.
3. Danielle Harris, the one and only Jamie Lloyd, wanted to reappraise her role, however, they didn’t offer her enough money and she didn’t like the fact that she would be killed off in the opening sequence so she dropped out of the role. I don’t blame her!
4. Before knowing they had to do reshoots, Donald Pleasence passed away, the movie is dedicated in memory to him.
5. There is actually a producer’s cut with a more in depth explaining of the curse and alternate ending! Check it out below!
https://youtu.be/DOjLciaWe0U
Final Thoughts:
They should have taken more time with this film. I believe that they should have used the producer’s cut. However, the first time Donald makes an appearance in the film, my heart did get full. For fact that he reappraised his role as Loomis makes this Halloween story at least worth one watch. Usually, I like movies that I have to figure out, but holy shit this one was just plain silly. All the movies are fun to watch because even though some of them are silly they are all a part of the Halloween Franchise, but I’m glad the next installments did not go in this direction and we were blessed with getting Jamie Lee Curtis and Danielle Harris back in future films. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers ranks number 9 out of the 10 films in the franchise for me, however, it will always have a special place in my heart. R.I.P. Donald Pleasence.
