Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

“Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers,” released in 1995, is a mess in storytelling, but director Joe Chappelle does do an agreeable fall savoring to this otherwise ordinary fifth sequel. Set six years after “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers,” 15-year-old Jamie Lloyd, now played by J.C. Brandy, has disappeared, having been scared off by Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur) and his friend, the mysterious Man in Black (Mitchell Ryan). After giving birth, Jamie runs outside in a rainy night (it’s Halloween night, obviously) with her newborn, succeeding in secretly hiding him away after getting impaled on a farm tool. Having heard Jamie’s voice on the radio begging for help, an adult Tommy Doyle, played by Paul Rudd, locates the baby at the Haddonfield bus stop the next morning. In a sudden twist (or just poor writing), Tommy coincidentally lives across the street from the Myers house, now housed by the dysfunctional Strode family, relatives of Laurie’s parents. Despite everything, single mother Kara (Marianne Hagan) and six-year-old Danny (Devin Gardner) – not to mention Kara’s mother (Kim Darby), father (Bradford English) and brother Tim (Keith Bogart) – have no idea of their home’s dark history. Dustin Putman stated, “Did I mention Haddonfield is gearing up to celebrate Halloween for the first time in over half a decade?” “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” pays respectful honor to the original the entire time – Danny, like Tommy, drops a pumpkin as he walks home from school. Kara and Danny run across the street and start knocking on the door to be allowed inside as Michael is closing in behind them – but the film is taken down by a ridiculous planning involving warlocks, druids and Thorn that don’t even belong in a movie about a villain who is supposed to be “purely and simply evil.” Donald Pleasence, in his final screen role before he passed, reprises one last time as Dr. Sam Loomis, but gets a disrespectful send-off in the movie’s final act.

Here’s a special note Putman put at the end of his review, “A controversial Producer's Cut (or P-Cut, as it's called by those in the know) of "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" has been bootlegged around for years. This was to be the released version until the powers-that-be chopped it all up. Having seen the P-Cut myself, I can say that it is no better than the theatrical version, with a much-changed climax that nonetheless is still a disaster of story holes and asinine writing. If anything, the theatrical cut is slightly better, with a cool, moody rock-tinged music score of the well-known original themes and peppier pacing. Both, however, leave a lot to be desired.”

I have heard about the Producer’s Cut when I saw James Rolfe’s review on this film a few years back. I have only seen the Theatrical Version, so I have no idea what goes on in the Producer’s Cut. Although I do hear that it’s probably worse than the Theatrical Version, so I think I might be better off not knowing what goes on when watching the Producer’s Cut, even though certain questions are answered, but more are asked.

Anyway you look at it, “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” is a mess. This, in my opinion, started the downhill slope when it came to the franchise. People like to call this the “Thorn Trilogy,” which it can be, but I also like to call this the “Jamie Trilogy,” because it focuses on her. However, this is first in the series that I say to skip because you will not like this one at all. You will instead be asking what you’re watching and ashamed that they made the series go this bad.

Well everyone, just look out tomorrow when I look at the installment that came out on the 20^th Anniversary of the first film that actually would have been nice if they left it off there in the continuation of “Halloween-a-thon” in this year’s “Halloween Month.”