Halloween 6: The Curse Of Michael Myers

Halloween 6: The Curse Of Michael Myers (Producer’s Cut)

When it comes to retconned and redone movie franchises (usually in order to force a continuation of the series by sacrificing pure continuity), no timeline has been more tampered with than that of Halloween and that’s not even counting Rob Zombie’s remakes of Parts 1 and 2. Going on the idea that nothing is sacred in terms of various plot developments throughout the sequels was most likely inspired by this release of Part 6 in 1995, the third in the so called “Jamie Lloyd Trilogy” (Jamie being the niece of Michael Myers and the daughter of the presumed dead Laurie Strode as played by Jamie Lee Curtis). Certainly Producer Mustapha Akkad had a lot to live up to in terms of how Halloween 5 had ended back in 1989 with that of having a literal, honest to God cliffhanger that had seen Michael blasted out of jail (where he had been allowed to still wear his mask while sitting in his cell) by the mysterious “Man In Black”, a dark figure with a black hat, black jacket and steel toed black boots whom it turns out (after machine gunning to death all of the cops on site) had also kidnapped Jamie as well even as conventional belief was that her and Michael had both died in the blast. An absolute stunner of an ending it truly was (with both the original writer and director of Part 5 proudly boasting that they had absolutely no idea where they intended to go with this), leaving Akkad with the dilemma of finding somebody who was willing to come up with the answers to these questions. And indeed he did in the form of Quentin Tarantino, a white hot sensation coming off of Pulp Fiction at that time and an unabashed fan of the Halloween series who was more than willing to sign on and make writing and directing Part 6 his official follow up to Pulp (in a move that would have attracted hordes of positive publicity and attention), but unfortunately when Akkad read Tarantino’s script, he found it to be so offensive to his sensibilities that he reportedly threw it in the trash and moved on, so instead of Tarantino as director, we got Joe Chappelle, a nobody then who is a nobody now who was said to have told both the cast and crew that he didn’t even LIKE the Halloween movies but had agreed to do this one so that he could secure a three picture deal from Miramax (who had taken on distribution for the series). Akkad at least had made a decent choice for screenwriter in Daniel Farrands, a guy who was an admittedly massive fan of the films and (knowing that many questions would need to be answered) had pored over the previous films with a fine toothed comb to find elements that could be incorporated into his screenplay to help connect the story together, coming up with a final script that made Donald Pleasence so enthusiastic that even in ill health he quickly signed on to reprise the role of Dr. Loomis and actually went so far as to gush to reporters that this entry would be the “best yet”. Then came the storm of the actual filming, where the journeyman Chappelle excised a number of ideas from Farrands’ script and basically filmed everything as only he saw fit while constantly fighting off the actors, the producers, the studio and Farrands himself who were all aghast at just what a mishmash abomination he was turning everything into. The finish of principal photography saw a disastrous test screening which led into a round of reshoots which most of the cast and crew did under protest (although without Pleasence who had already died), leading to a final theatrical product that most audiences found hard to digest, one where we recognized the characters of Loomis, Myers and Jamie but outside of something about the involvement of a cult, the end result was just an incomprehensible joke where absolutely NOTHING was ever explained about just what the hell was really going on or why, reportedly leaving many audiences actually booing and / or asking for a refund. Fortunately, the producers managed to retain and put together what became known as the Producers Cut, getting it out there into bootleg circulation before an official release a few years ago, cleanly wiping the palette of the incompetent director’s theatrical cut while incorporating a full 70 minutes of new footage into the mix that wipes out most of the hack reshoots. Of course, while still one of the lesser sequels, we can now clearly tell what’s going on and follow the story better (including more scenes of Pleasence whom director Chappelle found “boring”). The one truly unsettling thing about the film is the story arc of the Jamie Lloyd character. As played by Danielle Harris in Parts 4 and 5, she was a sweet yet feisty little girl heroine who was easy to care about and root for against her nasty Uncle Michael, but here as played by J.C. Brandy (with Harris dropping out either because she was unhappy with the character’s direction, she was wanting too much money or she was still too young to portray what happens to her onscreen including a rape), Jamie is depicted as being somebody who has been traumatized so much over the years by the cult (and Michael) that even at the beginning of the film she is obviously just so destroyed both mentally and physically that she might as well be better off dead even after escaping the cult and making her way to Haddonfield on Halloween Eve (an inordinate amount of time here is spent on the 30th) to alert the retired Dr. Loomis that both she and Michael are very much alive and well. Another interesting development here is in the emergence of the character of Tommy Doyle (the little boy whom Jamie Lee’s Laurie Strode was babysitting in Part 1) as being a major player here, portrayed by future A lister Paul (Ant Man) Rudd and depicted as being an obviously messed up yet edgy hero similar to Tommy Jarvis in the Friday The 13th films. Doyle has not only become obsessed with Myers but also with the house he grew up in that is now occupied by the Strodes (the relatives of Laurie’s adoptive family) which includes a blowhard father, mousy mother, teenage son with a hot girlfriend and a very good looking older daughter with a little boy of her own (of which it is implied may very well be the product of incest between her and her own father). Doyle has apparently figured out just how The Thorne Cult derives their power and how they have transferred that power to their “Chosen One”, Michael (along with using that knowledge and power to his own advantage), but Loomis has also come up with a valid theory himself in that he feels it is the actual Myers house (where The Strodes are now living due to the ongoing failure by the real estate agent father to actually sell the place, thus saving money in the process) where the same evil that “possessed” Michael (and compelled him to kill his sister there back in 1963) is literally sourced, thus raising the danger for anybody living there (after Michael finishes his “mission” of killing his own family) to also inherit it and become the next one to carry out a blood sacrifice of their family (and according to The Cult, maintain the balance within the universe). As for The Man In Black (whose identity won’t be revealed here even as the actor who plays him happily outed himself and spoiled the twist during an onset interview that was later published before the film’s release), it appears that he possesses some supernatural powers of his own including the ability to appear in both dreams and waking hallucinations as well in speaking to others as being the voices in their heads. Even as he and The Cult have their own plans for Loomis (whom they fully expected to become involved), Rudd’s Doyle serves as being a nice wild card hero whom they did NOT see coming and ultimately becomes a difference maker in the outcome. We also get a VERY obnoxious Howard Stern type DJ (no surprise since Akkad with his big thinking ways literally offered the role to Stern and was turned down) who comes to Haddonfield for a live broadcast and is literally killed when Michael overhears him talking shit. The other kills are about par for the series at that point (including slightly older victims than usual) but the AMBITION on display here (keeping in mind that Part 5 took a lot of risks but pales to what we see here) is what makes this film enjoyable in its easily understandable, Producer’s Cut form. Not everything works here (and really most of it doesn’t), but after breaking the dams in Part 5, the series finally plays itself out as far as it can go until the H20 retcon and gives a fascinating look at just what might make the legendary Michael Myers tick…

7/10

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