Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

Halloween 6
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joe Chappelle
Written by	Screenplay: Daniel Farrands Joe Chappelle (uncredited) Based on characters created by: John Carpenter Debra Hill
Produced by	Moustapha Akkad Malek Akkad Paul Freeman
Starring	Donald Pleasence Paul Rudd Marianne Hagan Mitch Ryan Kim Darby Bradford English
Cinematography	Billy Dickson
Edited by	Randolph K. Bricker
Music by	Alan Howarth
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release dates	September 29, 1995
Running time	Theatrical cut 88 min. Producer's cut 131 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5 million
Box office	$15,116,634

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is the 1995 sequel to the popular horror film Halloween. It stars Donald Pleasence (in his last film as Dr. Sam Loomis) and Paul Rudd. The original music score was composed by Alan Howarth. The film was marketed with the tagline "Six times the terror... Six times the fear... Six times the thrills..."

Plot

For seventeen years, the town of Haddonfield, Illinois has been haunted by a night when evil roamed the street. Everyone knows his name. Now, everyone will know the truth!

It's now six years since the last Halloween celebration in Haddonfield. Michael Myers, his niece Jamie, and the mysterious Man in Black all disappeared after the explosive end of Part 5. Everyone assumes them all to be dead...but actually, Jamie has been captured by the Man In Black, who has her impregnated. The baby arrives on Halloween eve, and a kind woman named Mary helps Jamie and her baby escape. However, Michael Myers is close behind her, and Jamie dies shortly into the movie, gutted with farm machinery.

Meanwhile, Tommy Doyle (the child Laurie Strode sat for in the first film) has his eye on a family who's moved into the old Myers house. Tommy has become obsessed with Michael Myers. After hearing Jamie screaming for help on a radio show, Tommy finds her baby and hides him. The people living in the Myers' house are relatives of Laurie Strode...included is Kara Strode, and her illegitimate son, Danny - who "hears the voice" that Michael heard. Michael stalks each of the Strodes, trying to get to Jamie's baby. Across the street, Tommy reveals that Michael has been cursed with Thorn, where a young man must wipe out his entire family for the good of civilization. The plot takes a turn when the Man in Black reveals himself to be a major character. He has been experimenting with pure evil all these years...and kept it all secret at the Smith's Grove sanitarium. Tommy and Dr. Loomis follow this madman to the sanitarium, where an all-out battle occurs with Michael. It is revealed that some form of genetic research has been happening at Smith's Grove, with test tubes and DNA charts lying around. The film concludes with everyone getting out safe, except for Loomis, who walks back inside to "take care of unfinished business." Now some teenagers travel to Haddonfield, Illinois for summer vacation, not knowing that Michael Myers is not dead, although that is what the town believes.

Cast

• Donald Pleasance as Dr. Sam Loomis
• Paul Rudd as Tommy Doyle
• Marianne Hagan as Kara Strode
• Mitch Ryan as Dr. Terence Wynn
• Kim Darby as Debra Strode
• Bradford English as John Strode
• Keith Bogart as Tim Strode
• Mariah O'Brien as Beth
• Leo Geter as Barry Simms
• J. C. Brandy as Jamie Lloyd Carruthers
• Devin Gardner as Danny Strode
• Susan Swift as Mary
• George P. Wilbur as Michael Myers

Production

Filming of Halloween 6 had started in October, 1994 and had wrapped a couple months later. Donald Pleasance was the only actor who had returned from Halloween 5. Danielle Harris was in talks to reprise her role, but she and Dimension could not come to an agreement, so J. C. Brandy got the role instead. In early 1995, after filming and editing was completed for what was to eventually become the famous "Producer's Cut", Halloween 6 was given a test screening which, as described by Marianne Hagan, "consisted primarily of 14-year-old boys". During the Q & A afterwards, one of them had expressed great displeasure at the ending. So, the movie was rushed back into production, this time without Daniel Farrands, who had moved on to another project and who was the writer of the film, and Donald Pleasance, who had died on February 2nd of that year. The latter was a significant cause of the major reconstruction of Halloween 6. The makers wanted to not only reshoot and re-edit the film because they took to the advice of one of the test screening viewers, but to also make the ending so that it leaves the door open for another sequel. This was because the original ending clearly showed Donald Pleasance's character living, and they wanted to make it so that they'd close the book on his character, but not necessarily the series.

Continuity

The following film in the series, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, seems to effectively ignore the continuity established in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Halloween 5 and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, because of characters in the film hinting that Michael Myers disappeared altogether after Halloween II. However, since no parts of H20 take place in Haddonfield, it may be that the characters of H20 have not been informed of any of Michael's previous activities, and are therefore ignorant of the events of the three previous films. While not considered canon to the film series, the Halloween comic book series attempts to bridge the continuity between The Curse of Michael Myers and H20, in 2001, but in doing so made the plot of Halloween: Resurrection (unreleased at the time) impossible. Halloween: Resurrection, however, made few references to Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.

Title

Some early trailers employed the title Halloween 666: The Origin of Michael Myers. Writer Daniel Farrands has stated that this came before the title was ever decided upon and that the title used in the trailers was a combination of a title from a script named The Origin of Michael Myers from a writer before Farrands was brought in, and his own, which was simply titled Halloween 666. Finally, Moustapha Akkad asked Farrands for a title. Due to the troubled production, he suggested The Curse of Michael Myers. Although Farrands was half-joking, Akkad took the name to heart. Farrands also adds that this coincidently made the subtitles similar to those in The Pink Panther films series, which also used the Return, Revenge, and Curse subtitles.

Reception

Halloween 6 was released on September 15th 1995, and brought in a $8,581,000 opening weekend gross. The film grossed a total of $15,116,634.

Miscellaneous

• In 1995, the sequel rights were sold again, this time to Miramax Films (via its Dimension Films division). Miramax/Dimension then released Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, which partially told a back story on Myers' origins. Joe Chappelle directed, but once again studio interference caused the re-editing of the film and the re-shooting of certain scenes, thus the film's final subplot (involving Dr. Loomis) was eliminated, but still leaving the door open for another sequel.

• Copies of the original version of the film (known as the "Producer's Cut"), without the changed ending, have long been floating around in bootleg/collectors' circles. While featuring a different ending which was intended to keep Donald Pleasence's character in the films, it also features longer scenes in several parts of the movie, as well as different music at times. Unlike the somewhat confusing ending in the officially released version of Halloween 6, the original ending was more logical, the whole movie itself did a better job of explaining much of the Halloween movies "Mythology," and many Halloween fans prefer the producer's cut over the officially released theatrical cut of the film.

• Originally, the script included a cameo of the movie Halloween III: Season of the Witch. When John Strode comes home, he finds the TV playing the scene from the movie where Little Buddy Kupfer was killed by the mask. Some fans believe the cult portrayed in Halloween III: Season of the Witch to be the Cult of Thorn, though this has never been officially verified.

• Danielle Harris was willing to reprise her role as Jamie Lloyd, but Dimension Films wanted her to take less money than she made on "Halloween 4" and "5" as her character died in the first act. Danielle also disliked the way in which her character was killed, although in the screenplay (unlike either the theatrical or producer's version) her character did not die until the final ten minutes of the film. Killing Jamie off in the first act was the idea of the director and the studio, who did not want to pay Danielle as a featured character.

• In the "Producers Cut" Jamie Lloyd is not killed by Michael's attack in the barn; she is wounded only to be killed later on in the film by the "Man in Black" after having a dream about how she was imprisoned in Smith's Grove and impregnated with Michael's child.

• In the screenplay, Jamie escapes from the hospital before the Man in Black (aka Dr. Wynn) finds her, only to turn up at the end of the film in the Smith's Grove tunnels where she leads the way for Tommy, Kara and the children to escape. Mortally wounded, Jamie asks them to save her baby. As they run for safety, she turns to face off with Myers in one final fight to the death, ultimately sacrificing herself but saving the others, including her own child.

• In the scene where Tommy confronts Michael about the baby, you can see Michael's eyes through his mask. This is the only scene in Halloween 6 in which you can. In Halloween and in Part 4, you cannot see his eyes at all while he is masked.

• The names of the towns for the bus route "Serving Northern Illinois" are Chicago, Oak Lawn, Romeoville, Joliet, Braidwood, Gardner, Dwight, Smith's Grove, Haddonfield, Pontiac, Funks Grove, Bloomington, Lincoln, Elkhart, and Fancy Prairie. There are three continuity flaws with the bus route- (1) According to the goofs of Halloween 6 on IMDb.com, there is no scheduled bus running from Pontiac to Dwight. (2) Funks Grove in real-life should be placed between Lincoln and Bloomington, not between Bloomington and Pontiac. (3) In the first Halloween, Dr. Wynn says that "Haddonfield is 150 miles away from here" [Smith's Grove]. The route as seen in the bus depot places Haddonfield and Smith's Grove between Pontiac and Dwight. The real-life distance from Pontiac and Dwight is only 21 miles. Smith's Grove does not belong on the bus route map to begin with. This fictional town is set in real-life Warren County, Illinois in the western part of the state. Also, according to the map, Haddonfield is set in real-life Livingston County, Illinois.

• The character of "Minnie Blankenship" in Halloween: The Curse Of Michael Myers is actually mentioned in one scene of Halloween III: Season Of The Witch.

• This would be the last Halloween Dr. Loomis would be in, and the last movie Donald Pleasence would be in due to his death in February 1995, until he was portrayed by Malcolm McDowell in the 2007 remake of Halloween.

• It was rumored that Quentin Tarantino originally wrote a draft for Halloween 6; this is untrue. Tarantino merely suggested his friend Scott Spiegel as a potential writer for the film. Spiegel's pitch for 'Halloween 6' was rejected and Tarantino was never involved in the project.

• John Carpenter's idea for 'Halloween 6' was to send Michael Myers into outer space. The screenwriter of 'Halloween 6' made reference to Carpenter's idea in the scene where one of the crazy callers on the radio show says, "The FBI couldn't control Myers, so they packed him in a rocket and sent him into space."

The Producer's Cut

The producer's cut of the film features 43 minutes of alternate footage and takes. It is a better version, so find it if you can.

External links

• Official site
• Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers at IMDb
• Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers at AllMovie