THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
The end of an era is not always good for everyone.
PLOT
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers takes place six years after the infamous slasher escaped from custody. He and his 15 year old niece Jamie Lloyd have been taken by the same man in black who helped the Shape escape, leading a Druid like cult. Lloyd gives birth to her only child and is able to escape with a stolen pickup truck to prevent her baby being in any danger, but her murderous uncle follows. A nurse helps her find a way out, at the consequence of being killed by Myers. She then hides her baby at a bathroom in a nearby bus station, but her uncle catches up and kills her too unaware of where her baby is, impaling her onto farm equipment. In Haddonfield, the old Myers home is now owned by the relatives of the Strode family: The patriarch John (whose brother Morgan raised Michael’s sister Laurie), his wife Debra (Kim Darby), youngest son Tim (Keith Bogart), eldest daughter Kara and her 6 year old son Danny. Across the street is their neighbor Tommy Doyle, who was babysat by Laurie in the first film. He lives in a boarding house and has his own obsession with Myers as he wants to know the reason behind his actions. When he hears a radio recording where Jamie called for help, he goes to the bus station and finds the baby, naming him Steven. At the station, he meets the retired Sam Loomis who was asked by the chief administrator of Smith’s Grove, Terrence Wynn, to be his replacement. After having seen rune symbol being left where Jamie was killed, he tells him who the baby belonged to, thus inspiring the former psychiatrist to warn the Strodes. He alerts Debra on who the house belonged to originally, thus giving her enough reason to call John he was wrong to not tell the family about it. Only after Loomis leaves does Myers himself kill her with an axe. And when John comes home, he later electrocutes him. Tommy then meets Kara & Danny who befriend him as he explains his theory of Michael to be under the influence of a Druid curse originating from 500 BC called ‘Thorn’, which is what drives people to kill their family on Halloween, making Steven the last sacrifice. Around the time Tommy meets Loomis at a festival themed for the holiday, Myers continues his murder spree by stabbing radio host Barry Simms (Leo Geter), and later stabbing Tim & his girlfriend Beth (Mariah O’Brien) at home, who were unaware of his parents being killed as well. The festival panics when Barry’s body is found hanging above a tree before collapsing. Myers then focuses on pursuing Kara & Danny and when Tommy returns with Loomis, they find baby Steven missing. When they regroup, not only do they find Tommy’s landlady Mrs. Blankenship (Janice Knickrehm) holding the baby, but Wynn reveals himself as the man in black leading the cult. Kara & Danny and Steven would be taken by the cult to Smith’s Grove, resulting in Tommy & Loomis to follow and confront Wynn. The latter explains that he’s been using the sanitarium to study pure evil and figure out how to control it, while also revealing Steven to be made of vitro fertilization to clone Michael. As Loomis gets knocked unconscious after refusing to join, Tommy finds Kara but both get chased by Myers in the process. They find Steven & Danny and rescue them in time while the Shape kills the whole cult as they were preparing for a procedure. Tommy is then able to defeat him by injecting him with corrosive liquid before he and Kara beat him with a lead pipe. As they escape the sanitarium with the kids, they ask a recovered Loomis to come back to Haddonfield with him. He turns them down as he believes to complete unfinished business. The film ends with him screaming in agony as Michael’s mask is lied alone in the lab floor.
THOUGHTS
The Halloween franchise is known to have a convoluted plot lines and the Thorn arc that started with the fourth film and ends here is more to blame here compared to the unrelated third. I honestly was tripped out on what director Joe Chapelle and writer Daniel Farrands had to wrap up we weren’t sure to enjoy at this point. It was one thing to give us an answer to Michael’s wrath, but it makes us unsure if we ever really wanted it and preferred the mystery. You’re already intimidated with the guy having another batch of graphic kills you’d expect, thanks to both actors George P Wilbur & A Michael Lerner doing their best in making the character imposing like before. Things still take a regretful turn though in portraying Wynn as the mastermind. Mitch Ryan chews it up in making the character deceptive, but it doesn’t sell me in how evil comes where you least expect it since we only saw this character have a minute of screen time in the first film, originally played by Robert Whalen. This does imply he was the one who taught Michael to drive in the first place, but it’s the biggest stretch to have done at that point. Donald Pleasance’s final go at Loomis is actually quite effective since we see the guy to more patient in terms of doing the absolute. He trusts with Tommy with what he knows and lets him take the lead on pursuing the unknown rather than overthink like before. With the implication of him being killed by his mortal enemy was oddly fitting because he knew he couldn’t face the Shape forever, but was worth trying offscreen since the outcome would’ve appeared obvious. It was a total bummer for Jamie to get killed by her uncle since she had been through so much since her onscreen debut, but JC Brandy does her best too in making the character strong enough to fend for herself as long as she could. At this point, I hope Steven has a happy ending unlike everyone else before her. Since the other child from the first film Lindsay never re-appeared at this point, I never anticipated Tommy to be the one that would do so, especially since before it’d happen again in Blumhouse’s Halloween Kills. Early in his career, Paul Rudd definitely tested waters in playing a guy who’s not mischievous but misunderstood since he too was rattled of Michael’s first attack. It’s a bad thing to be a peeping Tom for sure, but he couldn’t help watching the Strodes live in the old Myers home because that was his own odd way to try figuring out the big why. While that wasn’t really the exact how for him to pull it off, but you gotta respect his determination to do what Loomis would’ve done if given another opportunity. Kara & Danny come off as quite underdeveloped depending on how you look at it, but I do believe the chemistry is believable between both Marianne Hagan & Devin Gardner respectively. They’re both emotionally vulnerable since they escaped one bad relationship that was the baby daddy and came back home as they were struggling financially. But with Bradford English keeping the cycle going as Kara’s dad John, they felt doomed nonstop. And Danny had more vulnerability to the point of being corrupted by Wynn enough of almost killing her grandpa to protect her mom (as implied in the producers cut). Thankfully, he doesn’t make the same mistake Jamie made and had enough restraint in him to avoid the irreversible. Hopefully, the two can have a good future as well with a big threat not after them anymore. Despite all the pros I can give, there are way too many cons that the producer’s cut can’t fix. For example, how did no one at the bus station notice the blood in the carpet or the screams of the baby before Tommy? If the staff is deaf, I’d like to know because that was dumber than Michael not going back to the station after killing Jamie. And how is Loomis even sure the mark is related to Michael when he’s never seen the mark before. Yeah, Michael had the tattoo in the fifth film but he did not comment about it. On top of that, how did Debra not know she moved into the old Myers home? If she knew what happened to Laurie, it’d make sense for her to know where that house would be after moving in Haddonfield. I then gotta ask how did Michael hang Barry’s body undetected? The tree was right next to the festival and it ain’t like there was a barricade for him to hide behind because there were a lot of lights in the area. He even takes too long in pursuing Tommy. If he has an advantage, take it and stop wasting time. I honestly think Jason Voorhees is faster in comparison and that character became a zombie which is embarrassing when you think about it. Also, where did Loomis go after talking to Deb before regrouping with Tommy? If he went back to Smith’s Grove, that should’ve been clear because it was a gap of time he was gone. If you really can ignore these flaws to overall enjoy this, you have my respect. In short, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a minor improvement to be an interesting send off of a random arc to say the least. If you dig the supernatural or slashers in general, check this out.
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