Saturday, March 16, 2019

Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) Review:

Watching the deterioration of a franchise that began so strong is quite disheartening. John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) and following sequel of Halloween II (1981) were films that told a tense but gripping story. After the flop that was Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), producers wanted to turn back to the Myers story, thus leading to Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) and Halloween V: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) revolving around Laurie Strode's daughter Jaime. Unfortunately, the attempt wasn't enough with the last two having a bunch of continuity issues and other subplots being introduced without exploration. This entry really doesn't conclude that.

Paul Rudd as Tommy Doyle
It's six years later and viewers see that after the events of the last film, Jaime Strode (J.C. Brandy) is back but now with a newborn child. With the same cloaked villain from the last entry on the chase, she flees to get away from not only them but Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur) himself. Meanwhile, more Strode relatives such as Kara (Marianne Hagan) and her son Danny (Devin Gardner) move into the house that belonged to Michael Myers, however they don't know that. Next door is Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd) who ever since the first film has been studying Michael to understand him better. At the same time, Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is requested from colleague Dr. Wynn (Mitchell Ryan) to come out of retirement.

Written by Daniel Farrands, the screenplay to this sequel tries to make sense of the confusion but fails in almost every way. While the story itself did go through several re-edits, it still suffers from lack of clarity. The unknown cloaked man is touched upon now as well as the new thorn tattoo that was featured in the last film. But this doesn't really solve the haphazard story. Kara's son Danny sees visions of the cloaked figure but the reason for them influencing him isn't explained. Nor was it really explained as to why exactly Michael Myers is involved with all this. It's just very muddled and adds unnecessary complexity to it all. The film was directed by Joe Chapelle, who has had no experience with the franchise prior to this. Sounds about right.

Of the characters, the only two to come out seeming somewhat likable was obviously Donald Pleasence as Dr. Loomis since he's been at it since the beginning, and Paul Rudd as Tommy Doyle. Everyone else from Marianne Hagan, Devin Gardner and even George P. Wilbur don't really don't stand out. They're just actors playing characters that feel highly remote to the story at hand. It's actually more surprising Paul Rudd even has a role in this film considering where he is now being Ant-Man and all. The fact that his and Donald Pleasence's role have a connection to the beginning is what makes it more interesting. Yet, that's really all the audience has to go on because everything else is so remarkably dull.

"Hmmm,....it needs a little straightening"
For a horror film, it too is a bumbling mess. The violence and gore is fine if weren't chopped up so much by editor Randy Bricker. Having all kinds of flashing lights and random scene cuts is annoying. Hopefully his skills improve. The cinematography by Billy Dickson isn't that great either. Having much more experience filming for TV movies, his camerawork isn't that special nor does it even try to emulate past DPs from other sequels. Thankfully music is a slight bit better. While the re-edited score contains guitar rips from Paul Rabjohns (most likely), Alan Howarth returns once more to score the film. And while it's not as great as his past scores, it still manages to hold up.

With the second story timeline coming to a close for the silent killer, this entry in a string of sequels neither concludes all of the questions from the past film nor answers the new ones it creates. While the gore, music, Paul Rudd and Donald Pleasence remain the highlights, the rest of the cast is boring, the cinematography is uneventful and the editing is obnoxious.

Points Earned --> 4:10

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