Review of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) by Eric C — 05 Oct 2008

I don't really know how to review this film. I have the 5 disc fan made DVD set with 4 versions that have never been released in any format. Should I review them as a whole or just the theatrical edition? Should I review the theatrical and make a short mention of the others?

Here goes;.

Dimension Films while being owned by Disney had purchased the rights to the Halloween franchise back in the early 90's, but hadn't made a film in 6 years. Suddenly production went forward using a pretty interesting script, which would eventually go through editing hell.

Donald Pleasance is the only one to return to the franchise, Dimension were cheap skates and would not pay Danielle Harris the money she was owed to star in a 3rd film, just because of her characters fate. So they got JC Brady a young actress, who didn't do too bad. She just had the unfortunate job of replacing a scream queen that was well liked. George Wilbur who played Michael Myers in Halloween 4 does make a return here and once again owns the role.

The atmosphere is great, its dark and creepy and very much like it was in H4. The story is interesting and could have been pulled off if it wasn't for the producers deciding to re-edit half the film and replace scenes, taking out scenes and even taking out an entire subplot(which is only briefly hinted at). Paul Rudd replaces Brian Andrews as Tommy Doyle, the kid from H1.

I do tend to think this is an underrated film, but the evidence is clear that there was problems with the studio, a trend Dimension would continue with Hellraiser 4 and The Crow: City of Angels. Fortunately this faired better than those two.

2 out of 5.

The other versions available on the 5 disc fan made set consist of:

Producer's Cut(most popular).

Rough Cut(unrated Producer's Cut version).

Director's Cut(unrated theatrical version).

TV Cut(obviousloy TV Version aired on UPN).