Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

When I cried out for any kind of innovation after the fifth installment, I had no idea what a director's innovative approach could do to this film. Joe Chapelle definitely hasn't studied the history of slasher films because Michael mows people down like any other below-average redneck from routine teen murder movies, i.e., unimaginatively. Instead of darkness, epileptic editing flashes at us from everywhere, supported by industrial music with movement insertions in the form of human screams or moans. You could understand this in the mid-nineties (the times are moving forward), but in terms of infantilism, the script once again trumps the previous film. And if we prefer not to look for logic, at least the filmmakers could have chosen some point of contact and brought this theme to some kind of resolution. Unfortunately, we don’t get even that. This film hit rock bottom because, after this, the next two films (so far) can’t get any worse. Donald Pleasence’s bitter farewell. Amen. (08/02/2007)

Both versions of this film are equally dumb as far as the story is concerned; both take the legend of Michael Myers in directions no one wished for. But if I need to compare them, the producer’s cut (i.e. the original version) is definitely better and more watchable in all respects. At least, it caters to the filmic basics by offering scene continuity, a plot framework, proper editing, a quality musical accompaniment and, mostly, a decent preservation of the scenes with the late Donald Pleasence. The cinema version (reshot and recut) doesn’t have any of this. All it has is more murders, the rest failing terribly due to the stubbornness of the director and the producers. If your film is completed and your main actor dies, you can’t venture into tragic reshoots while giving up on any kind of meaningful ending! The only possible result is a pure insult to the viewer – which the cinema version truly is. Dr. Loomis would have deserved a more befitting departure, for example in H20. (10/26/2018)

"Halloween - The Curse of Michael Myers" is a beautiful example of how to set a series in terms of quantity, but completely disregard quality. There is an attempt to revive the series, no doubt, but it is done in a way that is not the best. The newly created mythology hurts what has been created so far and turns it into an overly cluttered mess, which is a great shame. (07/31/2014)