Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
[Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers]
Director: Joe Chappelle
Starring: Donald Pleasance, Paul Rudd, Marianne Hagan
Synopsis:
Held captive by a pagan cult, Jamie gives birth to a son to serve as the final sacrifice of Michael Myers.
Impressions:
I was planning on stopping at 5 this year (and possibly permanently as I don't enjoy this series much), but I decided to round out the Thorn Trilogy. For whatever reason, Jamie was recast, not that her screentime would've much warranted Danielle Harris returning. An ailing Donald Pleasance was spared extra time in the makeup chair with a throwaway line about plastic surgery to dispense with the already understated scars left from Halloween II and bless him for putting in the work one last time, even if this film isn't the highest note to end his storied career. We also get Paul Rudd in an early role as the obsessive Tommy JarvisBoyle (who apparently was never told how to pronounce "Samhain"). There were some hints at the Cult of Thorn in the previous movie that ties in with bits and bobs that had been sprinkled in since the first film tying Michael Myers to old Celtic traditions. We'll just ignore the fact that the thorn rune is Saxon rather than Celtic (though if someone had really done their homework, it could've been interesting if the Cult of Thorn was the product of syncretic blending of Celtic and Saxon cultures). I apparently must've seen part of this film ages back because I could remember Tommy's explanation of the thorn tradition. Too bad all the cult stuff feels rather half-baked and the efforts to try to tie everything in is wasted. There are two cuts of this film: the theatrical and the producer's cut. I happened to see the producer's cut, which seems to be the preferred version. I'm certainly not going to go out of my way to watch the theatrical cut just to compare, but from a little poking around, it seems that there's better establishment in the producer's cut and a better ending (though it sets up a plot that will ultimately never be realized). Either way, there's not much to recommend here, so I'll just say pass on this one.
Rating:
Avoid It