The one with the weird cult!

With Jamie and Michael kidnapped at the end of the previous film (yes, serial killer Michael Myers gets kidnapped) we discover that several years later Jamie has been forced to give birth to a child by a nefarious cult.

The biggest issue by far for the film is the cult, which we discover now control Michael using a silly magical rune and want to pass his power onto a child once he has killed the remainder of his family. Discovering that Michael can be controlled removes any threat and malice his character previously had. The cult has no backstory or reason to continue this curse except that they are evil.

To my surprise, this was also the first credited appearance in a film for Paul Rudd. A shame then, that his character is terribly written; a weird loner that at first seems to be evil and mysterious but then is just a regular guy who wants to help the Strode family. Rudd's performance is not exactly great, which probably explains why he never returned to this genre. The other usual teens for Michael to kill are present again here and, as per the last few films, are annoying and pretty awful.

The film is bad. Like silly and boring bad, but not even funny-bad. Just really bad. Who's idea was it to bring in a cult? 3/10.

(Thank god they ditched this timeline in the next film)

They continue to get worse, as impossible as that seems. _Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers_ is undoubtedly the worst yet, in every possible aspect. Storyline, acting, dialogue...there was just nothing good about this. Even the kills - although a bit more violent - were still dull as dirt. And after...what? seven of these?…I still have no idea why Michael Myers killed his own family and/or why he's still so hellbent on killing the few remaining members. It's one thing that is never made clear, from the original all the way to this one. (Whether it ever _does_ get revealed is yet to be seen; I don't know if I'll be able to sit through any more of these.) This particular film was as disjointed and discombobulated as any movie you'd ever be forced to sit through, and the conclusion makes absolutely no sense. The acting is some of the worst ever and it's hard to watch Paul Rudd and realize he went on to star in a MCU movie the magnitude of _Ant-Man_ . I'm only watching these because it's nearing Halloween 2023 and I just thought it would be cool to finally watch the entire franchise. I don't know if I'll get there or not. This was just awful.

You know when a movie series has been going on for so long, creating endless unanswered questions and plot holes that they have no other choice but to create a movie just to answer all your questions? Yeah, that’s what Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is. The only problem with that is this is the 6th movie in the franchise…so there’s a lot of unanswered questions at this point…so you can bet this is a random mess of a movie as they struggle to right all their wrongs. So…let’s get into it!

I will give you the two most interesting elements of this film – Paul Rudd and Donald Pleasence. Ironically, this is Paul Rudd’s first performance and simultaneously Pleasence’s final performance – as he died shortly thereafter…but it does go beyond that. Paul Rudd puts on a performance that surprised me because it was incredibly unlike him to pull such an honestly serious character – I’d have to say acting wise, this actually might be one of his best roles, so I was impressed. Also, Donald reprised his role as Dr. Loomis again, and thank god, he wasn’t acting like a loony toon. His demeanor was much calmer, so I had a better time watching him this time around. The rest is garbage.

The explanation for why he keeps surviving up to this point was simply put – there’s something supernatural at work. This movie attempts to explain what that supernatural force was, and I wasn’t a fan of the explanation. I really liked the mysterious man in black introduced in the end of the fifth film, but I didn’t care for his character in this movie. It’s as if they simply tried way too hard to explain everything and they got lost in themselves. The story just isn’t there. The kills are boring, even the kills that should be game changers in the beginning.

Now, I did like the overall tone and atmosphere that the film began with. Being the first film in the ’90s, it greatly felt like ’90s cheese, which was acceptable after so many movies taking place in the ’80s, but that atmosphere mostly dwindles back to what it was before, so it doesn’t really make a big difference in the end.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers isn’t only pointless, but its entire purpose is to tie up loose ends, which in effect dismantles whatever magic and mystery the franchise had up to this point – it also sets up more plot holes if they wanted to make more (which they do). So as a movie, I’d say this one is mostly skippable if it weren’t for the fact that they might talk about events and characters in the next one…so there’s that.

I like the idea of bringing back Tommy Doyle as an adult. I don't like every other idea this movie had. But Mikey's got some decent kills, so it's bearable at a stretch.

_Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product._

***A mess of a sequel***

Six years after Michael Myers previously terrorized Haddonfield, Illinois, ‘the Shape’ returns in pursuit of his niece, Jamie Lloyd, who has escaped some shadowy Druid cult with her newborn. Marianne Hagan and Paul Rudd play the main protagonists while Donald Pleasence returns for his last portrayal of Dr. Loomis. Mitchell Ryan and Kim Darby are also on hand.

“Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” (1995) is also known as “Halloween 6,” but it’s actually only the fifth movie featuring Michael Myers seeing as how “Halloween 3: Season of the Witch” (1982) is totally disconnected from the Michael Myers story arc.

I’m a fan of “Halloween 4” (1988) and “Halloween 5” (1989), especially the former, as it was actually better than the original movie (1978) and is one of the finest examples of 80’s slashers. Naturally I was expecting a quality sequel but, wow, this installment lacked any sense of cinematic finesse whatsoever.

The entire opening act is a tortuous mess and the story didn't even start to get interesting until past the 50-minute mark. Unfortunately, it failed to build on what little interest it mustered, trading it in for conventional horror thrills at a hospital à la “Halloween 2” (1981). But the characters are too weakly developed to care about; it’s like the ‘writer’ had no concept of how to establish characters or even tell a compelling story. Meanwhile the sudden-shock scares that kept surfacing were eye-rolling hackneyed and anything but scary.

This installment was the equivalent of Conan the Barbarian picking up an expensive guitar and trying to play for a classy prog band like Opeth.

The movie runs 1 hour, 27 minutes and was shot in Salt Lake City, Utah.

GRADE: C-