Halloween 5 came and went at the box office. Although a better movie than part four, it didn't perform as well at the box office. Audiences it seemed, were tired of the slasher genre of films. The last Friday the 13th (Part 8) and Nightmare on Elm Street (Part 5) had bad performances at the box office too. After 11 years it appeared that the slasher film was dying out.
As the 90's rolled in there were few slasher films to be seen. Friday the 13th seemed to have ended and the Nightmare series claimed to finish itself off in 1991 with the sixth film, Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. Horror was taking on new (or at least different) ideas and the successes at the cinema screens were vastly different than the slasher films that dominated the 80's. Misery and Bram Stoker's Dracula were 2 of the biggest successes of the early 90's but in short, horror just wasn't pulling in the numbers.
In 1993, Jason goes to Hell: The Final Friday was released and was poorly received by both critics and audiences. The lack of horror movies and the lack of box office gold for horror movies seemed to have put a dent in the plans of Moustapha Akaad in regards to the Halloween franchise. Halloween 5 ended with lots of mystery and intrigue and, even more so than the first four films, was begging for a sequel to continue the story.
Thus production began many years later and on September 29th, 1995, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was released. It continues the story of Jamie and Michael Myers, and answers who 'the man in black' was. It brings back Tommy Doyle, the boy that Laurie Strode babysat in the first Halloween and it ups the gore to levels never yet seen in a Halloween film.
But Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is also the worst film in the series. It is terribly directed, has even worse editing and for the most part the acting is terrible. The cinematography is terrible and Michael Myers doesn't even look right. It feels rushed and choppy and really has no ending.
Other than Paul Rudd (in his big screen debut) and Donald Pleasance (in has last performance), the acting in Halloween is sub par. The girl who plays Jamie (formerly Danielle Harris) is a terrible actress and many of the supporting roles are so stiffly acted that it's a wonder that Rudd and Pleasance come off as good as they do. Michael Myers too, is terrible in this film. He seems shorter, and has a pot belly. He walks and acts differently and the thing that is most off is his mask. It just doesn't look the same as it always has; and with all those changes Michael Myers comes off as an un-scary, pale impostor of the real menace from the previous films.
The look of the film is terrible too. For the most part it is to dark and things can't be seen well enough. It has shaky and badly choreographed photography and abismal editing. For no reason at all, and in impossible and stupid ways, there is an abundance of gore that makes absolutely no sense. Gore works well when it's done right, but to have a head explode, in glorious detail, just because, doesn't work. In fact, virtually every death in this film is very un-Michael Myers like.
Coming out of part five, the filmmakers attempted something very ambitious with this film, but ended up failing more often than not. The resolution of 'the man in black' story is rather weak and disappointing. It was a great idea to have Tommy Doyle back, older and wiser, who states over and over again that he knows how to kill Myers. In the end, he beats him up and runs away, again very weak. There is a scene where Loomis and a cop are looking at a murder scene. There is a large (re-occurring symbol burned into some haystacks. The cop asks what it is and Loomis says 'it's his mark', referring to Myers. This makes no sense in the context of both the previous films and this film.
The whole first hour of this film seems to be building to something. Although badly shot, badly acted and badly edited it is somewhat watchable. Then as the resolution to the film begins it starts to fall apart. By the time the end rolls by the editing and story both become incomprehensible. There is actually no ending to this film. It just ends. The last 15 minutes of The Curse of Michael Myers is so badly edited and put together it almost feels like the filmmakers just gave up and never finished their film.
Other than Paul Rudd and Donald Pleasance (who isn't even utilized enough), the only other merit to this film is the fact that, unlike part five, the Myers house is actually the Myers house. The last film used his house in the storyline but used a house that looked nothing like the house from the original films. This film at least brought back the original house, which turned out to be the scariest thing in the movie.
Although slightly enjoyable for the first hour, with uncharacteristically great murders, and a little bit of nudity thrown in for good measure, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a big mess that is a complete waste of time. With high ambitions it had the potential to be great, instead it is a muddled heap of confusion and incomprehensibility. There is really no reason to watch this film, unless you are ploughing through the Halloween series and if you are, when this film ends you will be left with a very strong feeling of sadness. Sadness for Donald Pleasance, who's great career ended on such a poor and utterly terrible note.
Film Rating: 36%
Breakdown (How Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers scored 36%):
Production Design: 5 out of 10
Cinematography: 3 out of 10
Re-playability: 4 out of 10
Originality: 3 out of 10
Costumes: 3 out of 10
Directing: 3 out of 10
Editing: 3 out of 10
Acting: 5 out of 10
Music: 5 out of 10
Script: 2 out of 10
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