Review of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) by Justin A — 21 Oct 2014

For this review, I watched the Producer's Cut that is available on the blu-ray box set. It's supposed to differ from the theatrical cut a lot, so keep that in mind.

After parts 4 and 5 basically give us the same formulaic Michael Myers movie, here we are with The Curse of Michael Myers, which deals with incest, cults, runes, and sacrifice. I wanted something different and they certainly delivered.

I was actually thrilled to be getting something different. I liked some of the ideas and the direction they were trying to take the series. Some of it was, admittedly, silly (like the stones and Dr. Loomis bearing a symbol at the end), but it was fresh. So why am I giving this movie one star?

Because it was boring. It was REALLY boring. There is no moment of tension, scares, or dread. Even the "thrilling" chase scenes are boring and I am putting blame completely on the direction, acting, and editing. The acting is really dull in this movie. It's sleep inducing. Even when they're in peril I'm falling asleep. I don't need everyone screaming and flailing their arms, but it wouldn't hurt to show some panic.

The director seems to do things a bit by the books. Nothing creative, the action doesn't flow well and the camerawork is basic. It got a bit better by the end when they were running down the hallways of the sanitarium, but that lasted all of maybe 30 seconds. The only somewhat tense moment may have been when the mom from Better Off Dead was killed in the backyard. That worked fairly well, but that was early in the movie and we get nothing like it throughout the rest of the movie. Most of the middle of the movie is just the characters sitting in Tommy Doyle's room or Tommy walking around a Halloween festival where nothing really happens.

I also need to ask: Why were the Strode's living in the Myers' house? Did I miss something? That seems incredibly odd and makes no sense in any context.

So what did I get out of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers? Well, it struck me as a movie where the screenwriters had a ton of creative ideas, yet a movie that was destroyed by a crew of filmmakers who probably had little interest in the project to begin with. I get the feeling no one wanted to be apart of this film, and considering it went through many cuts and didn't get the greatest theatrical run, that says to me the movie had a lot of problems.

So is the legendary Producer's Cut really all it's cracked up to be? No. It's boring. The screenplay was probably amazing, but it certainly didn't translate to the screen.

You can skip this movie and forget about it. The filmmakers certainly did.