Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998) / Halloween: Resurrection (2002)

 

 

 

             It's our favorite time of year again. Time for the things that go bump in the night and for a certain someone with a butcher knife to start slashing his way through more than just Jack o'Lanterns. Yes kids, Michael Myers is back, but not in Haddonfield. Nope. Nope. Nope. He's travelled all the way to California to terrorize a certain blood relative who was believed to be dead for the past twenty years. Oh Laurie dear, HAPPY HALLOWSCREAM!!!

 

PLOT

   On Halloween night, 1978 in the small mid-western town of Haddonfield, Illinois, Michael Myers murdered a total of sixteen people.  After that terrifying night, Michael Myers' only living relative, Laurie Strode, was killed in a car accident.  Haddonfield has been peaceful and quiet for twenty years with no sign of Michael Myers.  Now, in October of 1998, Michael Myers returns. He begins by breaking into Marion Chambers Whittington's (Dr. Loomis' nurse from the first two films) house to find out that Laurie Strode is really alive and had faked her death.  Michael kills two high school guys who live next door as well as killing Marion.  It turns out that Laurie Strode is now residing in Northern California with her teenage son John, has changed her name to Keri Tate, and is the head mistress at a private school.  Laurie has been having nightmares of her brother returning to kill her and her son.  John has been taking care of his mother and is sick of her overprotection and paranoia.  So, John, his girlfriend Molly, and friends Charlie and Sarah decide to stick around on campus to have a private Halloween party since mostly everyone else has left on a camping trip . Meanwhile, Michael finds his way back to Laurie and kills anyone who gets in his way.  This leaves John and his friends in grave danger and forces Laurie to face her fear head on by taking on Michael in a shocking finale that would have and should have been a great closing to the HALLOWEEN franchise.

 

REVIEW

   John Carpenter changed the horror genre forever when he made HALLOWEEN in 1978. The film has gone on to become a horror classic that has been talked about for three decades.  HALLOWEEN was followed by four sequels in the '80s.  In the mid '90s, Miramax had bought the rights to the HALLOWEEN franchise under their Dimension wing.  In 1995, Dimension and HALLOWEEN's executive producer Moustapha Akkad released the franchise's sixth installment titled HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS.  The film disappointed fans and was a confusing mess thanks to serious re-editing to please some snobby fourteen year old kid who thought the producer's cut sucked.  Also, the franchise's main star Donald Pleasence who played Dr. Sam Loomis had passed away shortly after completing additional dialogue for the film.  Since Loomis was originally intended to return for a seventh film, the ending was redone to not feature Loomis, making the film even worse.   The future of the franchise was at a standstill.  Jamie Lee Curtis noticed that it was approaching the twentieth anniversary of the original HALLOWEEN and wanted to make a HALLOWEEN film that would reunite herself, director John Carpenter, and possibly P.J. Soles (Lynda). Both John Carpenter and P.J. Soles turned down the offer. However, executive producer Moustapha Akkad liked the idea of bringing Jamie Lee Curtis back as Laurie Strode for a twentieth anniversary film. 

 

       The horror genre was resurrected in 1996 with the clever slasher hit SCREAM, which was written by at the time an unknown writer named Kevin Williamson and directed by horror veteran Wes Craven.  SCREAM made horror films hot again. We got slasher hits such as I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER and URBAN LEGEND.  Akkad decided that this new HALLOWEEN film should ride on the coattails of the new wave of teen horror hits that SCREAM started.  Kevin Williamson was hired to oversee the script and to produce the new HALLOWEEN film. Williamson said in interviews that the original HALLOWEEN is what made him want to be a screenwriter and was his main influence while writing SCREAM. In fact, there's sequences in SCREAM where John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN is playing in the background on the television.   Jamie Lee Curtis had seen HALLOWEEN 3-6 and hated them, so she wanted this new film to play out like a direct sequel to HALLOWEEN (1978) & HALLOWEEN II (1981).  In the late summer of 1998, HALLOWEEN H20: TWENTY YEARS LATER was released to theaters. With a hot young cast, Laurie Strode, and a surprising shocker of an ending, HALLOWEEN H20 was a pretty decent hit and breathed fresh air into a dead franchise.

 

    HALLOWEEN H20 was actually the first HALLOWEEN film that I was able to see in theaters and I had a blast.  The audience I was with  seemed to enjoy it too since they were all jumping, screaming, cheering, and laughing.  Now I know there's a group of people out there that hated the mid-late '90s horror trend of self awareness, but most of it didn't bother me that much unless it was the extremely low budget straight to video films or some not so good sequels. I guess the reason they don't bother me is because I grew up with them. To be honest, I was exposed to these types of horror films before I really got into the older and more classic films.  The first actual horror film that made me a fan was the original HALLOWEEN and then SCREAM came out and I got hooked. I didn't really have much knowledge of the genre back then like I do now.

 

    I do however see the flaws in this film now that I didn't see back in 1998. Before I get into those, I would like to talk about what I enjoyed about HALLOWEEN H20.  The screenplay written by Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg is pretty good. I happen to love Kevin Williamson as a screenwriter and you can definitely tell that he had a lot to do with this film as well as with the screenplay. One thing that I've always enjoyed about Williamson's writing aside from cool stories is very well written characters.  The man writes teen dialogue well in my opinion. He may throw in a lot of references to films that he loves, but what film geek doesn't? When I wrote HALLOWSCREAM, I named the two teens Fred and Jason and made them BEST FRIENDS as well as combining the titles of the first two horror films that made me a fan of the genre together!  Kevin Williamson was another inspiration for me growing up. He's a great writer in my opinion and I want to be a great writer too.  Anyways, this post isn't about me, it's about my opinion of HALLOWEEN H20.  

 

     The characters were great.  I liked the direction they took Laurie where she is taking a lot of medication, is a bit of an alcoholic, paranoid as Hell, and vastly overprotective of her son John.  John is tired of being hand cuffed to his mother and just wants to be a regular teenager and spend time with his girlfriend Molly and his two best friends.  I also kinda liked Laurie's boyfriend Will, who's a guidance counselor at the private school.  He just wants to spend time with her, but she won't let him get too close.  The security guard Ronny was also pretty cool.  And I liked the other teen characters. The characterization is the strongest part of HALLOWEEN H20 for me. 

 

     When the shit hits the fan and Michael begins terrorizing them, Laurie faces her demons and makes the choice to stop running from her Boogeyman and to fight him head on.  I liked that she became a stronger character in this film. 

 

I also really loved the opening with a small appearance by Marion Chambers from the first two HALLOWEEN films.  The opening credits sequence was cool too except for that silly Donald Pleasence dubbed voice over.

 

  The kills in this movie are pretty cool for the most part.  My favorites are when Michael kills this teen who is a hockey player by shoving his ice skate blade right between his eyes and when one guy gets his throat cut with a corkscrew.  We also get a really cool decapitation.

 

    The music by John Ottman is okay. I heard that Ottman wasn't pleased with what they did to his music in the final film.  I did love the "Mr. Sandman" song at the beginning, which was used at the end of HALLOWEEN II (1981).

 

   The ending fucking rocked. It totally had people gasping in the theater including myself back in 1998. Akkad and Dimension had balls to do that, but then those balls turned blue, green, and dissolved into a raped pussy drizzling blood when HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION was made.

 

I do have a few issues with the film though. Well, most people don't like that this film was made in the tradition that SCREAM started, but that actually did not bother me.  I didn't like the fact that HALLOWEEN H20 ignores HALLOWEEN 4-6 though. What's the point in watching those when this film just skips over them? The only bit from HALLOWEEN 4 actually mentioned is that Laurie was supposedly in a car accident and was dead. Here, it explains that she had faked her death and changed her name.  Other than that though, no mention of Jamie Lloyd or anything related to HALLOWEEN 4-6.  Now, I can hear some of you saying that FRIDAY THE 13TH: JASON LIVES ignored FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING. Well, that was for a very good reason, that film fucking sucked. It didn't skip over three films either, just one terrible film and treated it like a bad dream.   Another issue I have is with the eight different Michael Myers masks. I didn't dig the look of the mask in this film.  I also didn't like that this film takes place mostly in Northern California instead of Haddonfield, Illinois like all of the other HALLOWEEN films did (except for obviously SEASON OF THE WITCH).  And there's a few bits that look kinda campy, especially when Michael stabs Sarah in the back with his butcher knife very slowly.  Aside from those things though, I really liked the film.

 

The direction by Steve Miner, who also directed FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2 & PART 3 was actually really good for the most part. 

 

The acting was pretty solid in HALLOWEEN H20. Jamie Lee Curtis returned greatly back into the iconic heroine of Laurie Strode and made her a strong woman hellbent on killing her evil brother and protecting her son.  Newcomer at the time Josh Hartnett was great in his first acting role as Laurie's son John (named after John Carpenter).  I could tell back in '98 that this guy was going to be a star and I was right.  Hartnett would later star in the teen sci fi/horror/thriller THE FACULTY that was written by Kevin Williamson.  DAWSON'S CREEK star Michelle Williams was great as Molly, John's girlfriend.  Adam Arkin was decent as Will.  I really liked LL Cool J as the security guard Ronny.  Jodi Lyn O'Keefe was great as Sarah. O' Keefe is probably best known for playing a stuck up and popular high school bitch in films such as SHE'S ALL THAT and WHATEVER IT TAKES. Adam Hann-Byrd was cool as Charlie.  I also loved the return of Nancy Stephens as Marion Chambers from the first two HALLOWEEN films.  There's a great cameo by Jamie Lee Curtis' mother Janet Leigh as a woman named Norma. I love that they gave her the name of Norman Bates' mother from Alfred Hitchcock's classic PSYCHO, which Janet Leigh played Marion Crane who gets stabbed to death in the infamous shower scene.  Chris Durand was alright as Michael Myers. And last, but surely not least, we get a great cameo by a young Joseph Gordon Levitt at the beginning of the film. Levitt has gone on to play in such films as 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU and this past summer's block buster hit INCEPTION. Just to be a Batman fanboy here, I hope that Joseph Gordon Levitt gets a role in BATMAN 3. I will seriously go crazy in excitement if he gets casted as The Riddler. That would be so badass!

 

Overall, HALLOWEEN H20: TWENTY YEARS LATER is a pretty good sequel in the franchise. It's not as good as HALLOWEEN II (1981) or HALLOWEEN 4, but it's the last good film in the franchise until Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN (2007).

 

Don't you just love it? Twenty years and he still catches up to her! When they said that everything would come to a head in the end, they really meant it!  HEHEHEHAHAHAHA!

 

RATING

2.5/4 STABS

 

 

 

 

 

 

     He was shot six times and fell off a balcony.  He was burned to a crisp. He was shot into a mine shaft by a firing squad. He was beaten with a pipe. He was even decapitated.  Then why the Hell is Michael Myers back this time? To get karate chopped by Busta Rhymes on MTV!

 

PLOT

   It's been three years since Michael Myers reunited with his baby sister Laurie Strode. That night, Laurie decapitated Michael. BUT, it turns out that she decapitated the wrong man. See, before the paramedics loaded Michael's "body" into the van, Michael attacked one of the paramedics, crushed his vocal cords, and decided to play dress up by switching costumes.  And so Laurie unaware that it was really a paramedic, chopped the guy's head off. Now, Laurie is locked away in some mental asylum. Michael makes his way to the asylum, kills off two security guards and chases down his sister one last time to the roof where he finally kills her after all of these years.   Meanwhile, a group of annoying as fuck college kids are going on some hack job reality show ran by Busta Rhymes and Tyra Banks where they have to spend the night in the old Myers house, which happens to be planted with plastic skeletons to scare the shit out of them. Michael returns to his home only to find these jackasses in his house.  He then proceeds to kill them off one by one. This leaves final girl Sarah and Busta Rhymes left.  Busta goes up against Michael Myers with his karate chops as if he is on DEF JAM and results in the HALLOWEEN franchise being yet again, dead and buried but this time with the dog Jason's extra piss fire for flavor.

 

REVIEW

 In 1998, the HALLOWEEN franchise was revived with HALLOWEEN H20: TWENTY YEARS LATER. The film did really well at the box office and was mostly approved by fans for the really awesome final ending that could and should have laid the HALLOWEEN franchise to rest with a satisfying conclusion.  Well, when money flows, bullshit shows.  In the summer of 2002, the eighth installment titled HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION was unleashed from horror cinema Hell into theaters everywhere and took possession of our money and our brain cells.   This is definitely not the first time Moustapha Akkad has pussied out of a great ending. HALLOWEEN II (1981) ended with Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis burning to death. HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS ended with Michael's evil legacy being passed on to his niece Jamie Lloyd.  And HALLOWEEN H20 ended with Laurie Strode chopping off Michael's head with an axe.  This would have been a great place to end. The problem is that it never ends and judging by modern Hollywood, I don't think icons will ever truly end.   I remember being really pissed off back in 2002 when I saw the trailers for HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION.  I mean, Michael was definitely dead. I fucking watched his head detach from his body and roll off god fucking dammit!  He's dead! He's dead! To quote Malcolm McDowell from Rob Zombie's H2....

"Let me make things nice and sparkling clear! Michael Myers IS dead! D-E-A-D!!!

 

Yeah, sure, that film was a big disappointment, but that line certainly goes along with how I feel about the ending to HALLOWEEN H20 and this RESURRECTION bullshit.   With all of that said, how did I feel about HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION aside from it being TOTALLY unnecessary? Well, I fucking hated it.  I do admit that the first like fifteen minutes aren't that bad except for a boring opening credits sequence, a bullshit reason for Michael being still alive, and him actually killing off Laurie.  I liked the look of the asylum, the scene where Michael kills the two security guards, and the one mental patient who is obsessed with serial killer and is wearing a clown mask. 

 

The direction by Rick Rosenthal who also directed the WAY better HALLOWEEN II (1981) did a decent job directing. The film looked good and was definitely running at a decent pace.

 

Where HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION really falls to pieces is with the story/script by Larry Brand and Sean Hood. The characters were also pretty fucking annoying and lame.  I have to admit that there are a few parts that I liked though.

 

   I loved the design of the Myers house and the stuff revealing how fucked up Michael was. There's some coloring books with disturbing stuff drawn in them, a high chair with restraints, creepy dolls, and a room under the house where apparently Michael stays when he isn't killing anyone and eats rats.  I also really dug the look of the mask for the most part. 

 

    The whole reality show bit was lame though. I've seen movies where it worked a lot better such as WRONG TURN 2: DEAD END. It just didn't belong in a HALLOWEEN film.   The worst part for me though was the characters. I hated just about all of them.  Sarah just didn't do anything for me as the final girl. I mean, sure, she was hot, but that didn't mean she was sympathetic.  Freddie was the most annoying of any of them though. Probably because he was played by rapper Busta Rhymes.  I just hated this character from beginning to end. All he did was try to act all gangsta and badass, but he just looked like a fucking idiot. Karate chopping Michael? FUCK THAT!  What really makes me mad is that it looked like Michael was actually afraid of him. I demand a rematch. Busta Rhymes VS. Tyler Mane. Now, Mane would have mutilated this douchebag and hung him up as a Halloween decoration like he did to Annie's boyfriend Paul.  Most of the annoying lines that came from this guy was stuff like...

 

" Trick or treat MUTHA FUCKA!"

" Lookin' crispy Mikey. Extra fried MUTHA FUCKA!"

" Hey Mikey, Happy Halloween! MUTHA FUCKA!"

 

Oh would you shut the fuck up!  I think I would rather listen to  Ronnie White talking shit to Michael's mother or that ambulance driver saying "fuck" about thirty more times. That would be more fun than watching Busta Rhymes trying to act.   The only characters that honestly didn't annoy me really was Rudy and Myles aka Dekkard.  Sarah's friend Jen was annoying. Thomas Ian Nicholas' character was annoying. I don't recall all of these character names and quite frankly I don't care either.  

The acting was pretty bad too. Some are decent actors with a terrible character/script to work with and others are just terrible actors period.  I liked the short appearance of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode at the beginning. Too bad her character died.  Brad Loree was okay as Michael Myers.  Bianca Kajlich was hot, but pretty uninteresting as Sarah.  Sean Patrick Thomas was actually decent as Rudy. Daisy McCrackin was uninteresting as Donna. Katee Sackhoff was annoying as Jen. Luke Kirby was annoying as Jim. Thomas Ian Nicholas from the first three AMERICAN PIE films was annoying as Bill. Ryan Merriman was probably one of the better actors in this film as Myles/Dekkard. Merriman is a decent actor in my opinion and deserves far better work than this movie. I liked him much better in FINAL DESTINATION 3.  Tyra Banks was horrible as Nora. All she did was talk gangsta and shake her booty. She should just stick to modeling. And Busta Rhymes, fuck you! That's all I have to say on the acting.

 

Another thing I don't like about this film is that all of the other characters that Michael should be after are all dead. Jamie Lloyd is dead. Laurie Strode is dead. Dr. Sam Loomis is dead. So in other words, this film should not exist.  Michael isn't Jason or Leatherface or Freddy. He doesn't just kill anyone. Well, he does, but there is usually a purpose.  Here, there is no purpose other than they are in his home and he apparently doesn't like it.  

 

Overall, HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION is the worst of the franchise in my opinion. It is the reason we got a remake in the first place.  It's a shame that this film had to be the last HALLOWEEN film that executive producer Moustapha Akkad made. He was killed in 2005  by a terrorist bombing while in Amman, Jordan.  Without him, there probably would have never been a HALLOWEEN franchise.

 

I would like to take this time to remember some fine people who made the HALLOWEEN franchise what it is today and it truly is a shame that they are no longer around.

 

RIP

Debra Hill, Co-writer/Producer of HALLOWEEN '78

Joseph Wolf, executive producer of HALLOWEEN II & III and did advertizing for HALLOWEEN '78

Moustapha Akkad, executive producer of HALLOWEEN '78-HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION and also the investor on HALLOWEEN '78

 

It seems that every story must come to an end. But, not an icon of horror! Legends live on, which is why Michael Myers is reborn by rocker Rob Zombie in a more brutal and unique take on horror cinema's greatest Boogeyman! Until the next screaming, have a nice fright! HEHEHEHEHAHAHAHA!!!!

 

RATING

0.5/4 STABS

 

 

 

 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) / Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)

 

 

 

 

It's Hallowscream again in Haddonfield. You know what that means? The Boogeyman is back to raise some more Hell! Too bad this Hallowscream,  the pumpkin got smashed before it could even be carved.

 

PLOT

   After being shot with about a hundred rounds of ammunition and falling into a mine shaft, Michael Myers slides down a water stream. He ends up collapsing at some old hermit's house out in the middle of bum fucked Egypt.  The old hermit for some fucking reason lets Michael sleep at his place for an entire year. Halloween Eve comes around, which causes Michael to wake up from his year coma and put on a shitty looking blank white mask. He kills the old hermit guy and heads to, you guessed it, Haddonfield to finish stalking his niece Jamie Lloyd. Jamie is now in a clinic for mentally disabled children. She hasn't spoken a word since she stabbed her foster mother with a pair of scissors the Halloween before and is now sensing and seeing what Michael sees.   Everything seems quiet and everyone involved with last year's Halloween encounter with Michael such as Rachel, Jamie, and Dr. Loomis are paranoid that Michael will return to finish what he started.  Michael returns, kills off Rachel, and proceeds to stalk Rachel's annoying as fuck best friend Tina and her three high school dumbass friends.  It is up to both Loomis, Sheriff Meeker, and Jamie to stop Michael for good. Meanwhile, a mysterious man has appeared in Haddonfield too that has the same mark on his wrist as Michael. Will Michael finally be stopped or will things take an unexpected turn for the worst for little Jamie Lloyd?

 

REVIEW

  In 1988, executive producer Moustapha Akkad brought Michael Myers back to Haddonfield in the franchise's fourth entry, HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS.  The film did so well at the box office and made the fans very happy to see Michael back as well as the awesome twist ending that gave everyone a nice surprise.  Fans were curious where Akkad and company would take the fifth installment with a great twist ending like that.  I'm sorry for spoiling the ending of HALLOWEEN 4 for any of you who haven't seen it, but since I'm reviewing the sequel to it then I can't skip over talking about what it was. HALLOWEEN 4 ended on a high note with Jamie Lloyd picking up a pair of scissors and stabbing her foster mother as she was about to give Jamie a bath. It ended with Jamie standing at the top of the stairs wearing her clown costume and holding up the bloody scissors as Loomis starts to scream, "NOOO!!!!!! NOOOO!!!!!! NOOOOO!!!!".     It was implied that when Jamie touched Michael's hand near the end, that his evil was passed on to her and that she would pick up possibly where he began at six years old back in 1963. Unfortunately for us Halloween fans, none of that happened.  Instead of working off that idea for the fifth film, Akkad rushed HALLOWEEN 5 into production before the screenplay was even completed.  Exactly a year later in 1989, one year after the release of HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS, HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS was released to the theater. Most fans left the theaters unhappy and majorly disappointed back in 1989.  HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS also didn't do that well at the box office.

 

I will say it now. I hate HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS.  Now, I wouldn't say that it is the worst of the franchise, but in my opinion, it is the second worst. HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION takes first place as being the absolute worst with HALLOWEEN II (2009) in third place and HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (theatrical cut) in fourth place.   Let's start out talking about the script. Wait, there's a script for this? Yes, someone actually wrote this. Oh, not someone, three someones wrote this film.  Michael Jacobs, Dominque  Othenin- Girard, and Shem Bitterman wrote this thing called HALLOWEEN 5.  I will give them some credit for not having Michael karate chopped by rapper Busta Rhymes, but that however does not excuse writing  the most giggly annoying and fucking unbearable swat named Tina.  Oh my God!  I would rather watch Spongebob Squarepants run around in his whitey tighties laughing like he just inhaled Helium than to watch this bitch on screen for one second!  While Tina is the worst part of the film for me, yes, there's other people and things that leave this toilet backed up and ready to overload into a fucking shit Fountain of Youth.  There's some annoying stuttering kid named Billy, who is probably related to Jake from FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING.  The only good part about him is when his stupidity gets him hit by a car.  We get two goofy cops that do nothing except act like idiots and get killed by Michael. If I wanted to see goofy cops acting like idiots in a horror film then I would simply watch THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT '72 thank you very much!

 

     We get introduced to Tina's boyfriend  and two of their friends, who I could really care less about.  All I can remember about them is that the one chick looked like Tara Reid dressed in a Devil costume. The only characters that are back from HALLOWEEN 4 are Rachel, Jamie, Dr. Loomis, Sheriff Meeker, and of course Michael.   Another thing that I absolutely hated aside from shitty new characters is that Rachel gets killed off. A character that I and the other Halloween fans came to love in HALLOWEEN 4 gets killed in the first like 10-15 minutes. Wow, what a big fuck you!  Oh well, the same thing happens with Jamie in the next installment and again with Laurie Strode in HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION.  If you are going to kill off characters, kill the supporting characters or the super annoying ones. NOT THE HEROINE OR HERO! That would have been like if they killed off Tommy Jarvis in one of the FRIDAY THE 13TH sequels.   That's just one thing I absolutely hate about many horror movie sequels is killing a character I have come to love and enjoy watching.  The only time that it didn't bother me was in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS because then we already had a new heroine (Kristen), but then she got killed off in the next film.  Only do this if you have set up a good new hero/heroine for the villain to battle or it serves good purpose to the story.

 

     Jamie is mute for a great portion of the film. I didn't really like that direction either even though I think I know the reason why. Michael went totally silent after killing Judith, so it is either to be similar to that case or that she was just in a bit of catatonic shock from what happened.  The Michael Myers mask looked like shit. Definitely the worst mask in the franchise. 

 

    The whole bit at the beginning with Michael sliding down the stream made me laugh because it looked so ridiculous.  I'm surprised since he fell into a mine shaft that he didn't try to find his buddies Harry Warden or Jason Voorhees for help.  Dr. Loomis seemed a bit more crazy than usual in this film. Probably because Donald Pleasence realized how much the writers and director suck ass.   I still find it funny that the old hermit dude at the beginning let Michael sleep in his house ALL YEAR LONG! How could he survive not eating or drinking anything for a full year? Oh yeah, I guess Human needs don't apply to Boogeymen.  The whole man in black part and the flag sign on the wrists of both the mystery guy and Michael were weird. We do discover what all of that means in the next installment though. 

 

   The special -FX were alright by KNB. I heard the film got butchered by the MPAA and had to cut some stuff out.

 

The music by Alan Howarth was pretty blah. Definitely the worst by him. I don't blame Howarth though, I blame the shitty director.

 

The direction by Dominque Othenin- Girard was horrendous. That's what you get when you get the hack director from OMEN IV: THE AWAKENING to direct your movie. I saw some interviews with this guy on the HALLOWEEN 25 YEARS OF TERROR documentary and he is such a hack and doesn't know shit about what makes a good horror film. I also heard how he treated special-FX artist Greg Nicotero on the set of making this film. Nicotero suggested an idea for a specific FX and this hack job told him, "What do you know? You're just the make up-FX guy."  You know what Dominque Othenin-Girard? FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! And...FUCK YOU!  I haven't worked in the actual film business, but have made short films. But, if I had some ass clown like this on my set, his ass would be fired and thrown to burn in the pits of Hell.

 

 The acting ranges. The actors returning such as Danielle Harris as Jamie Lloyd, Ellie Cornell in a small return as Rachel, Beau Starr as Sheriff Meeker, and Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis were the best they could be considering they had a shitty script and director to work with. We wouldn't see Danielle Harris back in the Halloween franchise until 2007 with Rob Zombie's remake where Harris plays Annie Brackett. The new actors however were pretty terrible. Wendy Kaplan as Tina was annoying and too giggly. I'm not sure if it was the actress too or just the shitty director and script. I've never seen this actress act in anything else.  All of the other actors were just forgettable and annoying as Hell. I thought Don Shanks was "okay" as Michael Myers, but his mask looked like shit. I also HATED the fact that Michael actually cries at a point in this film. I'll take him wearing a dusty Santa Claus beard and screaming "DIE!" to Loomis before I would have him crying like a baby.  

 

Overall, HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS is a terrible movie. It may not be the absolute worst of this franchise, but like I mentioned before, it comes in second place in between HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION and HALLOWEEN II (2009). 

 

Wow, am I happy that's over!  Looks like Hell is about to take over Haddonfield and Michael's evil is finally unraveled in the next chapter, HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS.

 

RATING

0.5/4 STABS

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome back to Haddonfield. It seems that Michael is under the influence of Thorn and out to kill Jamie Lloyd's son and some Strodes who happen to be living in his home.  Halloween is the curse of Michael Myers!

 

PLOT

 Ever since the Halloween of 1989, both Jamie Lloyd and Michael Myers have disappeared. Now, in 1995, it is revealed that Jamie Lloyd has been held prisoner by a Satanic cult known as Thorn. She is now about fifteen years old and gives birth to a baby boy. One of the nurses unties Jamie, hands her the baby, and helps her escape Thorn's secret hide away. Michael tracks Jamie down and brutally kills her, but she has hidden her son away in a safe place. The next day, a now adult Tommy Doyle who has been studying Michael Myers for years, finds Jamie's son and contacts a retired Dr. Loomis.  Tommy now lives across from the old Myers house, which is now fixed up and some relatives of Laurie Strode's foster parents are now living there consisting of Kara, her mother Debra, her abusive bastard of a father John, her brother Tim, and her eight year old son Danny. Thorn's leader has now chosen Danny to be the next unstoppable being in Thorn's legacy of evil since Michael is almost finished killing off the rest of his family to complete his destiny.  Will Tommy and Loomis be able to protect the Strode family and Jamie's baby from Michael and Thorn?

 

REVIEW

   In 1988, HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS brought the horror fans what they wanted, Michael Myers.   The film did so well with fans and at the box office. A year later in 1989, Moustapha Akkad released the awful HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS that destroyed any great possibility that HALLOWEEN 4 could have lead to.  After HALLOWEEN 5 failed at the box office and was poorly received by fans, Akkad and company struggled to figure out a way to apologize for their screw up back in '89.  It was a really tough time developing a sixth installment to continue where HALLOWEEN 5 left off.  Several different screenwriters were considered to write. Quentin Tarantino was actually in talks at one point and even wrote a first draft that was turned down.   It took about five years, but Akkad finally found a good screenplay written by a long time fan of the franchise named Daniel Farrands.  Farrands explained who the man in black was from HALLOWEEN 5, what happened to Jamie Lloyd, and ultimately, what happened to Michael Myers that turned him evil and made him unstoppable. Nobody had dared to go into detail with what happened to him, so this was a bold move on Farrands' part. 

 

      The screenplay by Daniel Farrands is actually pretty good if you watch the producer's cut of HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS.   Before I go any further, I must explain why there are two VERY different cuts of this movie.  Back when HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS wrapped filming, it was written for actor Donald Pleasence (Dr. Sam Loomis) to be in the next installment.  Right after completing additional dialogue for the film though, Donald Pleasence died. He was even sick in the making of this movie and you can tell by the way he looked and sounded that he was ill.   Since he died right after completing the film, the filmmakers felt that it would be too wrong to have it set up for the next film the way the film had originally been cut.  That is not a good excuse though. Hell, THE DARK KNIGHT set it up where Joker was originally planned to take part in BATMAN 3 and Chris Nolan didn't just change the film around just because Heath Ledger was no longer around.  So, that right there was a wrong move.  Then, the film was test screened for a bunch of fourteen year old boys, where some snobby fourteen year old boy told the filmmakers that the ending sucked. Wow, you are seriously going to take the kid's word for it and change up the ENTIRE fucking movie just to please one snobby movie goer? Fuck that! Let the little fucker complain! I make my films the way I vision them and would not let some kid tell me how to make my fucking movie.  It's one thing to hate something, but at least back up your answer with a logical reasoning.     So, the filmmakers took the kid's complaint to heart and made a sloppy edited mess that they actually released to theaters.

  When the internet age finally came around, bootleg copies of a producer's cut version of HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS were found on Ebay that people were buying left and right.  This producer's cut was actually how the film was originally intended to be seen that was both dark, cool, and made sense. What was released to theaters in 1995 was a confusing mess of a movie and disappointed many Halloween fans.   Since I've seen both versions, I will discuss both of them.

 

  Regardless of which version you watch, there is still two complaints I have for the film. The first was killing off Jamie Lloyd as well as recasting her.  The way she went out in the theatrical version was so fucked up! Even though I hate that she was killed off, I have to say that the producer's cut way she dies was more satisfying.   The second is the whole Thorn bullshit. I didn't need a reason behind Michael's evil. Although, we are at the sixth film now so I guess no explanation by this point would make the films become boring. 

 

  I will begin with discussing the theatrical cut that anybody can see.  This version leaves many many many questions left unanswered. Who is Jamie's baby's father? Why is Thorn holding Jamie prisoner?  Whatever happened to Dr. Loomis at the end? The ending in this version sucks big time.  Maybe this was the ending which that snobby kid was talking about because the producer's cut ending was fucking awesome and could have lead to an interesting story if Pleasence hadn't died after filming wrapped.  Also, there's a lot of quick cuts, lightening flashes, scream echoes, and electric guitar music that feels totally trippy and out of place.  Don't get me wrong, I like trippy sometimes, but when the film doesn't make sense in the end, I can't forgive the trippy look of the film.  I did find the scene where Michael mutilates a lot of doctors really trippy and kinda intense in how it was structured. Some of the film felt very nightmarish, which I do admit to liking a bit. The problem was that the narrative was totally out of place.  One of the kills looked really silly where a guy gets electrocuted to the point where his head actually explodes. 

 

     The producer's cut however provides answers for our desired questions and makes the narrative make sense, while still being dark and creepy.   The film felt kinda like if you mixed ROSEMARY'S BABY and THE OMEN into  a Halloween movie.  We find out who Jamie's baby's father is. Can we say serious incest?  We also have a way more satisfying conclusion to all of this madness. 

 

 The characters are actually pretty interesting. Kara Strode made for a pretty decent heroine in this film who just wants to protect her son.  Kara comes from a pretty dysfunctional family. Her mother is sweet and caring, yet her father verbally and physically abuses her. What a fucking prick this man was! We also have her brother Tim and his girlfriend. Tommy Doyle (the little boy from the original HALLOWEEN '78) returns to stop Michael alongside Dr. Loomis and another doctor, Dr. Terrence Wynn.  There's some radio talk show dick named  Barry Simms. Jamie Lloyd is back for like twenty minutes, but gets killed. And there's also the old lady who Tommy lives with named Mrs. Blankenship. 

 

The music by Alan Howarth and Paul Rabjohns was decent in the producer's cut, but pretty meh in the theatrical cut.

 

    The direction by Joe Chappelle is uneven in the theatrical cut, but not bad in the producer's cut.  Chappelle was never interested in the Halloween films anyways, he just wanted to get a three picture deal with Dimension Films.

 

The acting was actually not bad.  I liked Marianne Hagan as Kara Strode. She was cute, sympathetic, and was going through a hard time raising her son and dealing with her father. Paul Rudd (CLUELESS) was good as adult Tommy Doyle. Donald Pleasence was very good in his last portrayal of Dr. Sam Loomis and also his last movie period.  Mitch Ryan was good as Dr. Terrence Wynn. I liked Kim Darby as Debra Strode.  Bradford English was great at playing an abusive and evil bastard of a father as John Strode. I haven't hated a guy this much in the Halloween franchise except for Ronnie White in Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN '07.  Keith Bogart was decent as Tim Strode and I liked Mariah O' Brien as his girlfriend Beth. Leo Geter was a great dick as radio talk show douche Barry Simms. Devin Gardner was really good as little Danny Strode. I loved Janice Knickerehm as Mrs. Blankenship. The best part is when she explains how Halloween came to be.  George P. Wilbur who played Michael Myers in HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS returns and was great. I think he is the creepiest Michael since Nick Castle/Tony Moran and Dick Warlock.  Plus, the mask looked creepy as Hell in this film!  And then we have J.C. Brandy replacing Danielle Harris  as teenage Jamie Lloyd. Originally, Akkad wanted Danielle Harris back, but Danielle couldn't agree on anything with the director and hated the script and the fact that they were killing off the character that made her career as well as a character that everyone loved. As for J.C. Brandy, she was just okay. It's just weird to watch her play the character and not Danielle Harris. That's okay, Danielle Harris will return to the Halloween legacy in Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN '07 and will be in Adam Green's HATCHET II (which I'm fucking dying to see dude!).

 

Overall, HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS can either be a bland or good film depending on which version you watch. Honestly, I recommend checking out the producer's cut if you can find it. It was on Ebay, but now it is even harder to find. The only reason I was able to see it was because a friend of mine made me a copy and mailed it to me.  I'm really hoping that Dimension Films smartens up and releases HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS on DVD/Bluray in the form of the producer's cut. Apparently they have been in talks about it, but that was five or six years ago! Release it already!

 

RIP Donald Pleasence!  The Halloween franchise will never be the same without you running around with a gun like a crazy person and your awesome monologues about evil. In memory of the great Donald Pleasence, I will quote his most famous line of dialogue as Dr. Samuel Loomis in the original classic that made all of this possible.

 

" I met this six year old child with this pale, emotionless face, and the blackest eyes. The Devil's eyes. I spent six years trying to reach him and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I knew that what was behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply, Evil."

 

The evil night of Halloween has come to a close, but will be reborn on the twentieth anniversary. Until the next screaming, have a nice fright!!!! HEHEHEHEHAHAHAHA!!!

 

RATING

THEATRICAL-  1.5/4 STABS

PRODUCER'S CUT- 3/4 STABS