Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Directed by	Joe Chapelle
Produced by	Paul Freeman
Written by	Daniel Farrands
Starring	Donald Pleasence Paul Rudd Marianne Hagan Kim Darby
Music by	Alan Howarth
Cinematography	Billy Dickson
Editing by	Randolph K. Bricker
Distributed by	Dimension Films
Release	September 29, 1995
Running time	Theatrical cut 88 min. Producer's Cut 96 min. (43 minutes of footage is alternate)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5 million
Gross revenue	$15,116,634
Preceded by	Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
Followed by	Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998)

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (also known as Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, stylized as Hᚦlloween 6) is a 1995 horror film and the sixth installment in the Halloween series, as well as the final film in the 4-6 Timeline. Directed by Joe Chappelle from a screenplay by Daniel Farrands, the plot involves the "Curse of Thorn", a mystical symbol first shown in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers and revealed in the film to be the source of Michael Myers' evil. The cast includes Paul Rudd as Tommy Doyle, a returning character from the original Halloween film, and Donald Pleasence reprising his role as protagonist Dr. Sam Loomis for the final time.

The Curse of Michael Myers opened to a respectable $7.3 million on September 29, 1995, coming in second to New Line's serial killer thriller Se7en.

This sixth installment is known for its controversial behind-the-scenes history, suffering from re-shoots in production and numerous cuts and arrangements made in the editing room; the workprint of the film, with 43 minutes of alternate footage, including a different ending, was eventually discovered by fans of the series. This version, dubbed "The Producer's Cut" (as it was the originally intended version of the film) developed a strong cult following, with bootleg DVD copies sold on eBay.

Plot[]

The birth of Steven and demise of Jamie[]

The sixth film in the series opened with a 15-year-old Jamie Lloyd pleading, gasping, and screaming as she was wheeled on a stretcher down a long underground corridor by masked physicians. The location was eventually revealed to be the basement area of Smith's Grove Warren County Sanitarium. She was hallucinating that her crazed, psycho serial-killer uncle Michael Myers was terrorizing her with a large butcher knife. The trench-coated Man in Black was also visible. Jamie was laid on her back, with her arms and legs tied, surrounded by a candle-lit altar with burning torches during a mysterious ceremony of cultists. She then was seen in labor delivering a male baby, that was immediately handed to the Man in Black - she cursed him as her baby was taken away.

(voice-over, during the credits, later identified as Tommy Doyle) "When Michael Myers was six years old, he stabbed his sister to death. For years, he was locked up in Smith's Grove Sanitarium, but he escaped. And suddenly, Halloween became another word for mayhem! One by one, he killed his entire family, until his nine-year-old niece, Jamie Lloyd, was the only one left alive. Six years ago, Halloween night, Michael and Jamie vanished. Many people believed them dead, but I think that someone hid them away. Someone who keeps Michael, protects him, tries to control him. And if there's one thing I know, you can't control evil. You can lock it up, you can burn it and bury it and pray that it dies, but it never will. It just rests awhile. You can lock your doors and say your prayers at night, but the evil's out there waiting. And maybe, just maybe, it's closer than you think!"

Since the previous film, The Man in Black, over the previous six years, had kidnapped and cared for both Michael Myers and Jamie, during which time she was impregnated by an unknown man. On Halloween Eve in 1995, she delivered a male baby, marked on its stomach in blood with a rune symbol, and used on the altar in a ritual. That night, Jamie was rescued with her newborn by Nurse Mary and aided in an escape to save her baby - Jamie feared that she wouldn't be allowed to keep the baby. When Mary left her at the exit, masked Michael Myers grabbed her by the throat, choked her, picked her up, and impaled the back of her skull into a protruding sharp metal spike high on the wall. With Michael in pursuit, Jamie fled to a nearby road where she took the driver's seat of a vacated truck. The angry, drunken driver yelled at her: "What the hell are you doing in my truck?" and then had his neck violently twisted around and snapped. She drove off in the stolen truck into the rainy, thundery night.

In Haddonfield, Illinois, the old Myers home (at 45 Lampkin Lane) had been sold, by Strode Realty, to the Strode family. The young boy Danny Strode, who slept in Michael Myers' bedroom, was experiencing nightmares of a knife-wielding Voiceman ("He says things, bad things"), and was comforted by his single mother Kara Strode, Laurie Strode's cousin. The broadcast of a WKNB radio show called Back Talk, hosted by shock-jock Barry Simms, was airing a special Halloween edition of its show on Halloween Eve. Simms announced that their next night's show would be broadcast live from Haddonfield at the Halloween Harvest Fair, where Halloween had been banned since 1989, "when infamous serial killer Michael Myers and his niece, Jamie Lloyd, and about a dozen cops were killed in an explosion." This was an obvious falsehood; Jamie did not perish in the explosion, and neither did Myers. Living directly across the street from the Strode house on the second floor of a boarding house, grown-up Tommy Doyle was using a camera telephoto lens to spy on the Strodes.

25-year-old Tommy phoned the talk-radio show, explaining how he saw Michael Myers when he was eight years old. He considered himself one of the lucky ones: "I survived." Tommy also asserted: "Michael's work isn't done in Haddonfield. And soon, very soon, he'll come home to kill again. But this time, I'll be ready." He seemed obsessed about the Myers legacy ever since he was a boy.

The "just very-much retired" Dr. Loomis, Michael's psychiatrist, was also listening to the show in his isolated country home. He was joined by Dr. Terence Wynn, an old friend and colleague, for a drink. Wynn stressed that he had chosen Loomis to return to Smith's Grove Sanitarium. Loomis refused, claiming he had buried the "ghosts" in a manuscript.

Jamie drove up to the local bus depot, as she listened to the broadcast on the PA system inside the darkened and empty terminal (a sign at the desk read "Back in 20"). Another female caller, from Haddonfield Junior College, spoke about a planned Halloween rally (and the radio broadcast) on the campus to revitalize the town after six years of banned celebrations. From a depot pay phone, Jamie called the 1-800-YOU-SUCK number to the radio station, and as Loomis and Tommy listened, they heard Jamie weeping and warning of Myers' imminent return: "They're coming. They're coming...Michael. Michael Myers." She asked for help, mentioning Dr. Loomis by name, but was regarded as only a wacko. Jamie's uncle relentlessly pursued her into the bus depot's bathroom, outside to her truck, and then followed her in a stolen van. After running her off the road near an old barn in the Haddonfield area where she crashed the truck into a pile of pumpkins, he followed her into the barn, grabbed her by the neck, and impaled her stomach through the spikes of a corn thresher. He pushed her further onto the spikes, as she gurgled and choked to death before his eyes. She muttered her final words to him: "You can't have the baby, Michael," before he activated the thresher's controls, causing the thresher to rip Jamie's insides apart. Only the baby's blanket was found in the truck.

Michael hunts down Steven[]

The next day, HALLOWEEN, in HADDONFIELD, We are introduced to all the members of the troubled and dysfunctional Strode family, including struggling single mother and red-haired college student Kara Strode and her six-year-old son Danny, who had both returned to live with her parents in the household, after being away for five years. Kara's parents included a caring mother Debra, and an extremely abusive father John, who called Danny a "bastard" boy. He hates Kara for some unknown reason. He believed she had brought bad luck to the household. Also there was Kara's teenaged brother Tim, Danny's uncle, who was dating girlfriend Beth. Beth lived across the hall from Tommy Doyle in the boarding house across the street from the Strode house. Hard-of-hearing, elderly Mrs. Blankenship managed the boarding house.

At the Smith's Grove Sanitarium, Dr. Wynn and Dr. Loomis learned that Jamie Lloyd's body had been discovered near Haddonfield. The rune symbol or mark, tattooed on Michael Myers' wrist, and on the stomach of Jamie's baby, was seen at the crime scene painted (or burned) in black on bales of hay. Dr. Loomis interpreted: "It's his mark...He's come home."

Meanwhile, Tommy Doyle listened intently to his reel-to-reel tape recording of Jamie's radio interview, and figured out the call came from the bus depot. Blood droppings from the pay-phone booth led to the downstairs restroom, where he found Jamie's baby crying in a wooden cabinet - he took the infant with him. The imaginative, young Danny Strode had drawn a prophetic picture of the Strodes: Mommy, Uncle Tim, Grandma and Grandpa, all with bloody knives sticking into them, as they stood next to a black object labeled "THORN." In the emergency room of Haddonfield hospital, Tommy was carrying Jamie's baby when he spoke to Dr. Loomis and introduced himself, and corrected his misconception about Jamie being the last of Myers' bloodline, now that Michael had come home ("No, Dr. Loomis, she's not the last"). Loomis was told about the Strodes, now living in the Myers old house. Tommy took the baby into his care for protective safe-keeping from harm, and names it Steven.

When Debra was in the Strode home struggling with a malfunctioning washing machine in the basement, she suspected someone else was in the house, but it was only Dr. Loomis who claimed he wanted to help the family. He warned her of the violent force inside serial killer Myers that contaminated his soul: "It was pure evil," and that he would return to his childhood home that was "sacred to him...with all his memories here." Loomis' tale terrified Debra with his rantings about the haunted house and all the terrible things that had happened there - and she understood the reason why her husband's brother couldn't sell the house and why they were living there. As she expressed her fears to her husband on the phone and then prepared to vacate, Myers stalked her, and then hacked her up in the backyard with a hatchet, and splattering blood onto her freshly-hung laundry on the clothesline.

Suspecting that the entire Strode family was in danger from Michael, Tommy befriended Danny, and led him and Kara back to his boarding house room for safety, although she thought he was crazy. She became more convinced of his sincerity when she saw the evidence of years of his collected newspaper clippings about Myers and the murders. He explained about the runes symbols and the meaning of Thorn: "Runes are a kind of early alphabet that originated about 500 B.C. They were symbols carved out of stone or pieces of wood used in pagan rituals to portend future events and invoke magic. Among the ancient Druids, Thorn represented a demon that spread sickness, brought death to hundreds of thousands of people. According to Celtic legend, one child from each tribe was chosen to be inflicted with the curse of Thorn, to offer the blood sacrifices of its next of kin on the night of Samhain [Halloween]. The sacrifice of one family meant sparing the lives of the entire tribe." Tommy felt that might be the contaminating force or reason that compelled Michael Myers, marked with Thorn, to commit evil - the method behind his madness.

He continued, explaining how Michael was seeking the baby, his next of kin, for a blood sacrifice (to save the tribe), and why he kept reappearing year after year - especially when the stars were aligned into a Thorn symbol: "The Druids were also great mathematicians and astronomers, but the Thorn symbol is actually a constellation of stars that appears from time to time on Halloween night. Whenever it appears, he appears. Coincidence? I think that's why these people, whoever they are, are after Jamie's baby. To make it Michael's final sacrifice." Tommy left to seek out Dr. Loomis, warning Kara never to return to her house.

In the boarding house parlor where she was watching the classic film on television The Phantom of the Opera, Mrs. Blankenship explained the origins of celebrating Halloween to Danny: "A long, long time ago, it was a night of great power when the days grew short and the spirits of the dead returned to their homes to warm themselves by the fireside. All across the land, huge bonfires were lit. Oh, there was a marvelous celebration. People danced and they played games, and they dressed up in costumes, hoping to ward off the evil spirits, especially the boogeyman." Then, she told Kara that her son could also hear the "voice" - "just like the other boy that lived in that house." She revealed that she was babysitting in 1963, 32 years earlier, when little Mikey Myers lived across the street, and he heard a voice the night that he murdered his sister: "It told him to kill his family." She was implying that Danny, who could also hear a voice, was the next "child" to be cursed with Thorn, if Michael succeeded in killing his entire family.

When John Strode returned home, he found everyone gone. Suddenly, the lights inexplicably extinguished, and he laughingly pondered: "It must be the boogeyman." In the basement, as he investigated the cause of the power outage and the loud, chugging and leaking washing machine, he found a bloody sheet inside. When he turned, Myers murdered him by stabbing him in the stomach with a butcher knife, lifting him up, and pinning him against the fuse box, where he was electrocuted - his face fried and then exploded.

At the Halloween Harvest Fair, Beth was interviewed by DJ Barry Simms in front of the crowd, asserting: "We will no longer let the powers that be control our minds. For years, Halloween has represented everything that's wrong with Haddonfield. But Michael Myers is long gone. There is no Boogeyman." Tim was surprised to learn that he lived in the notorious Myers house, once occupied by the "most brutal mass murderer in history." As a publicity stunt, Simms promised to move the shock-fest show to the Myers house: "Ten minutes in that house and I'll have every fruitcake medium in the country calling in, trying to channel the spirit of that pussy, Michael Myers." In his vehicle as Simms prepared to drive to the Myers house, he was knifed in the chest from behind. [Later, his half-naked body was wrapped in lights and strung up in a tree - his dripping blood was misinterpreted by a child as red rain.] Beth and Tim found themselves alone in Myers house when Barry didn't show - she spooked him by recreating the night of the initial murder. They kissed in the darkened house and then proceeded to make love in Kara's bed while surrounded by candles. After showering and then standing in front of a foggy mirror, Tim's throat was slit with a butcher knife, and Beth is stabbed to death by Myers, and Kara witnesses through the window inside the Blankenship's house. Kara then looks down and sees Danny entering the Myers House. Kara races over to the Myers House, and upon entrance, she witnesses her son going upstairs into darkness-where Myers is lurking. Kara brandishes a fire poker and creeps upstairs after Danny. She discovers Tim and Beth's bloody corpses and then finds Danny in the opposite room. Kara and Danny flee after Michael arrives and Danny runs downstairs, while Kara stays upstairs to fend off Michael. She manages to strike Michael in the head with the fire poker and send him down the stairs. As Kara goes back downstairs to retrieve Danny, Michael comes to life and breaks Kara's ankle. She manages to hit him in the arm with the poker, and Kara and Danny run out of the house and back to the Blankenship's house, where several masked men appear. The Man in Black is also there and turns out to be Dr. Wynn. He calls Danny over who sits on his lap. Tommy and Loomis are grabbed and Kara tries to escape by jumping out a window after being cornered by cult members and Mrs. Blankenship (who is also part of the cult), but is knocked out.

Showdown at Smith's Grove Sanitarium[]

Tommy and Loomis awaken after being drugged and find everyone gone. They go to Smith's Grove Sanitarium where they know Wynn and taken everyone. Tommy and Loomis split up. Loomis confronts Wynn, who credits him for first discovering Michael's evil. He states how Jamie's baby represents a new cycle of it after multiple failures and wants Loomis to join in on his efforts entering into a "dawn of a new age". Loomis calls Wynn out on his evil scheme and is knocked unconscious. Meanwhile, Tommy searches for Kara and the two children, and finds Michael prowling the hallways, having already knifed one of the Sanitarium's patients in the stomach. The lunatic dying mental patient spooked him: "He walks amongst us, brother. He's come back and he's very angry. How does it feel to be damned?" before dropping dead. He then finds Kara locked in a room ahead towards the exit, grabs a fire extinguisher and starts beating on the doorknob with it.

Michael then walks from the darkness into the light where the dead patient was, stands still, and slowly turns his head to his left where he spots Tommy. Tommy locks eyes on him as the banging against the doorknob with the extinguisher slowly ceased. The events that happened in the first Halloween flows back in his mind as Michael and Tommy stare at each other. After a few moments of staring, Tommy chuckles nervously and bobs his head to the left nervously and continues to bang on the doorknob with the extinguisher as Michael begins to walk towards Tommy, not letting him out of his sight.

Finally, after a few beatings on the doorknob and Michael coming dangerously closer to him, the doorknob finally breaks off, Tommy drops the extinguisher, kicks the door very hard, unlocking the door and charges in. Kara runs out the room that she was locked in with, and as they run out the door, Michael, since he is now in close range tries to grab Kara but misses, and starts sprint walking towards Tommy and Kara as they slam the gate exit on him.

However, this time, Michael manages to grab hold of Kara's hair and begins to shake her head back and forth after they slam the gates on him. As Kara struggles and yells out, "Oh, God! Stop!!", Tommy grabs a gun-based weapon off the rack on the wall, points it at Michael's shoulder through the gate door, pulls the trigger, Michael falls backwards. Afterwards, they continue on to find Danny and Steven, while Michael is laying down, stunned, moving one or two fingers slowly.

In the hallway, they see several doctors, one of them wearing their Thorn Cult robe, talking about the genetic engineering testing they've worked on and believe they have came across a breakthrough. Dr. Wynn joins them and they head inside to perform the breakthrough procedure. Tommy and Kara walk into the room next to it, where they find the children. They watch through a two-way mirror as Dr. Wynn and the surgeons prepare to perform an operation. But Michael, now realizing that he was being exploited and used against his will for personal gain by the doctors, interrupts the procedure by walking in with a large surgical blade in hand and promptly murders all the doctors except one, who runs away from Michael in the same direction as Tommy and Kara. When Tommy closed the gate door on the doctor, he exclaims, "Please, help me! Oh, God!", before Michael grabs the surviving doctor's head and begins to push his head with tremendous force through the gate door (splitting his head in three places in the original, more bloody version before the MPAA forced them to cut it out of the film). The gate door breaks off the hinges, and Michael walks on the deceased doctor's body as he pursues Tommy and Kara again.

Tommy, Kara, and the kids run with Michael in hot pursuit until they come to a locked gate. With nowhere to go, the group hides in a high-tech med lab. Inside the lab, Kara notices some tanks with what looks like to be baby fetus' inside each one of them, with a chart underneath it with the ancient runes translated into scientific letter codes next to them. These are apparently the failures Wynn tells Loomis about as he told him earlier, "I've had my failures but this baby, Jamie's baby! We are at the dawn of a new age!"; the failed attempts of Wynn to engineer a new child to harness the evil power of Thorn. As a result, the experiment the doctors were about to work on in the operating room may have involved Michael's DNA.

Michael breaks into the room and Tommy comes out from hiding holding "Steven" walks up to him saying: "Michael. You've won. (he chuckled, then walked forward) He's yours." As he hands over "Steven", Michael reaches for the "baby", however he hears the real baby crying off to his left, gives Tommy a menacing look as he slowly turns his head to the right, he then grabs Tommy's throat with his hand, but Tommy in response stabbed a cluster of large hypodermic needles (filled with corrosive chemicals or tranquilizers) into Michael's neck, which Michael threw him away and tried to shrug the effects off. He then continues to walk forward until Kara comes out of the corner, beating Michael with a pipe, covering Danny as he ran with Steven to shelter which was a small enclosed space that only he could fit into.

Michael then grabbed hold of Kara's forehead and hair together tightly using only one of his hands, causing her to drop the pipe. He then dragged her onto a table, knocking items off the table and almost strangles her to death until Danny shouts out, "Leave her alone!"

Michael then turns his head towards Danny and locks eyes onto him, releases Kara, and begins to walk to Danny who is still in the small enclosed space. Michael stretches his arm as far as he can and tries to fit in the small space as Danny screams out, "Mommy! Mommy! Mom! Mom! Help!!"

Tommy, hearing Danny's cries and seeing Michael distracted, stabs Michael with multiple hypodermic needles near his neck and as Danny runs to Kara, Tommy yells out to them to go as he began to beat Michael with the same pipe as Kara used.

Dr. Loomis aids Kara's, Danny's, and Steven's escape in an elevator, while Tommy takes care of Michael so he can't try to stop them from escaping.

Tommy turned to walk away with the pipe still in his hand, but turns back around and starts beating Michael again but longer because of all the pain he caused to Tommy and Laurie.

As Tommy hit Michael's head and body multiple times, green/yellow stuff started pouring little by little from the eye holes in the mask as the screen flashes quickly showing Tommy hitting Michael and Michael moving his head left and right from the force that Tommy is using to inflict damage onto Michael. Finally, Tommy throws the pipe down, exhausted, and walks out of the Sanitarium.

As Tommy sat in the driver seat of the red Jeep with Steven, Kara, and Danny, he says, "Come with us." Dr. Loomis says in response while cracking a small smile, "No, I-I have a little business to attend to here". In the final scene, chains are heard rattling while the camera pans down to Michael's mask that is lying on the floor of the lab room with a needle next to it with and Loomis is heard screaming in the background, leaving the fate of both characters ultimately unknown.

Wind whistled around the Myers house - causing a jack-o-lantern's candle on the porch to flicker and extinguish - cutting to black. The next screen read: "In Memory Of DONALD PLEASENCE" before the closing credits.

Cast[]

• Donald Pleasence as Sam Loomis
• Paul Stephen Rudd as Tommy Doyle
• Marianne Hagan as Kara Strode
• Kim Darby as Debra Strode
• Bradford English as John Strode
• Keith Bogart as Tim Strode
• Mariah O'Brien as Beth
• Leo Geter as Barry Simms
• Mitchell Ryan as Dr. Wynn
• George P. Wilbur as Michael Myers
• A. Michael Lerner as Michael Myers (archive footage)
• J.C. Brandy as Jamie Lloyd
• Devin Gardner as Danny Strode
• Susan Swift as Nurse Mary
• Janice Knickrehm as Mrs. Blankenship
• Hildur Ruriks as Dawn
• Alan Echeverria as Doctor Bonham
• Tom Proctor as Motorist
• Bryan Morris as Amtrak Attendant
• Elyse Donaldson as Lunatic
• Fred Lerner as Smith's Grove Doctor (uncredited)

Characters[]

• Barry Simms (deceased)
• Beth (deceased)
• Danny Strode
• Dawn (unknown)
• Debra Strode (deceased)
• Doctor Bonham (deceased)
• Jamie Lloyd (deceased)
• John Strode (deceased)
• Judith Myers (mentioned)
• Kara Strode
• Laurie Strode (mentioned)
• Michael Myers (unknown)
• Motorist (deceased)
• Mrs. Blankenship (unknown)
• Nurse Mary (deceased)
• Sam Loomis (unknown)
• Steven Lloyd
• Terence Wynn
• Thorn Cult (deceased/unknown)
• Tim Strode (deceased)
• Tommy Doyle

Production[]

Development[]

In 1990, screenwriter and longtime Halloween fan, Daniel Farrands, had set out to write the sixth entry in the Halloween series. Farrands gave his horror movie scripts to the producer of Halloween 5, Ramsey Thomas; impressed by his writing, Thomas set a meeting for Farrands with executive producer Moustapha Akkad. Farrands described the meeting:

“ I spent weeks preparing for the meeting and came in with a huge notebook filled with HALLOWEEN research – I had the entire series laid out in a timeline, a bio of every character, a “family tree” of the Myers and Strode clans, as well as all of the research I had compiled about the runic symbol (Thorn) that was briefly shown in “Halloween 5.” I then laid out how I thought all of this might be explored in HALLOWEEN 6. ”

Although the producers at the time had already sought to make a sixth Halloween film, a series of complicated legal battles ensued which delayed plans for a sequel; eventually Miramax Films (via its Dimension Films division) bought the rights to the Halloween franchise.

Writing[]

In 1994, Akkad called Daniel Farrands for him to write the sixth Halloween film, after several screenplays from writers were deemed insufficient. Farrands has said his initial intent for Halloween 6 was to "bridge the later films (4-5) in the series to the earlier films (1-2) while at the same time taking the story into new territory so that the series could expand for future installments." Daniel Farrands had written several drafts to the film. His final draft, originally titled Halloween 666, went through eleven different drafts.

The writer and filmmakers' intentions with the script were to ultimately unveil what had kept Michael Myers alive, and his reasons for killing. They decided upon using the "Curse of Thorn"-angle, which is the concept that Myers had been under the influence of an ancient Celtic curse that drove him to murder all family members in his bloodline; once this task was completed, the curse would be passed onto another young child.

The concept of Halloween celebrations being banned in Haddonfield, a recurring subplot in the film, was originally taken from Dennis Etchison's unused script for what became Halloween 4.

Casting[]

Donald Pleasence returned as Dr. Loomis, in his last performance; according to Farrands, Pleasance "loved the script for 6, however, and told me that he felt it was the best story since the original." Danielle Harris was asked to reprise her role as Jamie Lloyd, but she and Dimension could not come to an agreement over her salary and ultimately did not want to pay Danielle more than she received in Halloween 4. Harris herself admitted to "not caring for the script" and that upon meeting with director Joe Chappelle, didn't see "eye to eye" on things. In an interview conducted several years later, Danielle later clarified that she was never contacted about appearing in the role and spent several thousand dollars getting legally emancipated in order to be able to work the hours necessary for the part; however she disliked both the rewritten script's treatment of her character and its general direction, which she felt was a departure from what the series had previously been about, and dropped out completely after a particularly hostile encounter with a Business Affairs correspondent.^[1] In any case, she ultimately opted out of reprising the role, and J. C. Brandy was cast instead; Brandy and Harris later became friends through mutual friends. It was said that the producers wanted Brian Andrews to reprise his role as Tommy Doyle. However, without an agent, they could not get in contact with Andrews.

The leading female role, Kara, was given to Marianne Hagan; however, Hagan has since stated that Miramax did not favor her, and made aesthetic criticisms about her being "too thin" and her chin being "too pointy".

For the role of Dr. Terence Wynn, Mitch Ryan was cast; Farrands originally urged the producers to cast Christopher Lee, having had the veteran horror actor in mind when writing the character. Denise Richards also auditioned for the part of Beth, but the studio passed on her, giving the role to Mariah O'Brien.

Stunt performer George P. Wilbur, who portrayed Michael Myers in the fourth installment, reprises his role as the silent unstoppable killer in the film.

Filming and reshoots[]

Fred Walton (director of When a Stranger Calls and April Fools' Day) was originally attached to direct Halloween 6 but dropped out.

Filming started in October 1994 and was shot mostly in Salt Lake City, Utah; the city was experiencing an early winter at the time which proved troublesome for the production company. Producer Paul Freeman and director Chappelle reportedly rewrote the ending on-set, even from shot to shot as production deadlines loomed large. Producer Paul Freeman also sent the crew home when crucial scenes needed to be shot; deleting scripted scenes indiscriminately, rewrote dialogue and action sequences; and took it upon himself to direct second-unit shot as well supervised the post-production phase of the original cut and made a series of blunders that resulted in Miramax taking control of the film, ordering reshoots.

In early 1995, after filming and editing was completed, Halloween 6 was given a test screening which, as described by actress Marianne Hagan, "consisted primarily of 14-year-old boys." During the Q & A afterward, one of them expressed great displeasure at the ending of the film, which entailed a Celtic ritual and the passing on of the Curse of Thorn to the Dr. Loomis character. As a result of the audience's disapproval toward the film's finale, the movie was rushed back into production, this time without Donald Pleasence, who died on February 2, 1995.

The film's ending was excised from the original cut that had been shown in the test screenings, and an entirely new ending was shot that nearly dropped the film's "Curse of Thorn" concept entirely. Additionally, over twenty minutes of other footage was removed from the film during the re-editing process.

Deleting a good amount of the Curse of Thorn plot and of Jamie Lloyd’s additional scenes also inadvertently deleted a good amount of Pleasence’s footage. This sparked a fan theory that director Joe Chapelle found him to be “too boring”, which Chapelle had consistently denied. He contends that most of his footage became unusable as much of the plot had to be altered.

Some violent footage was also edited out for fear of an NC-17 rating. This included some extra seconds of Jamie being impaled on the thresher, with more blood pouring from her mouth and extra close-ups of the thresher going through her body. The other major edited scene involved Michael ramming the doctor's head through the bars in the hospital until his head is gorily mashed through and pulps of his skull hit the floor. The current theatrical cut only shows the first few seconds.

John Carl Buechler and his effects team did not particularly care for the changes to the story or the recasting of Michael Myers for the reshoot, but they did have more creative ideas for them. “We got to go all out for the reshoots. When we were called for the initial principal photography, we were getting a little frustrated because we had all of these great ideas, but were getting a lot of pushback from the producer, who wanted us just to create effects for stabbing, and that was it.”

Music[]

The original music score is composed by long-time Halloween contributor Alan Howarth, his work in the series dating back to his collaboration with John Carpenter on Halloween II. However, Howarth's score was redone when the film went through reshoots. A soundtrack album was released by Varèse Sarabande Records, and is an unusual combination of the music featured in the original cut of the film, as well as that of the final theatrical cut.

The music of Alabama-based rock band, Brother Cane, was featured throughout the movie. The music came from their 1995 release Seeds on Virgin Records. The album's hit single And Fools Shine On reached number one on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song can be heard when Kara, Tim and Beth arrive at school in their car. The song continues to play as they go to class and sounds as if it's coming from a lo-fi radio, but the source of the music is never shown. It stops suddenly mid-scene while they examine Danny's drawing. The song is also heard during the closing credits.

The movie also featured the following songs from Seeds : Hung On A Rope, 20/20 Faith and Horses & Needles.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was the first film in the series that incorporated a hit song into its soundtrack. It was also the only film in the series to feature a single band almost entirely throughout its soundtrack. The only non-Brother Cane song was Disconnected by the group, I Found God.

Release and reception[]

An earlier teaser trailer of the film employed the title Halloween 666: The Origin of Michael Myers which, according to Daniel Farrands, came before an official title had been decided, and that trailer title was a combination of an earlier script titled The Origin of Michael Myers by another writer, and Farrands' original script titled Halloween 666. At one point, executive producer Moustapha Akkad asked Farrands for a title, who suggested The Curse of Michael Myers due to the troubled production. Although Farrands was half-joking, Akkad took the name to heart and decided upon it. Farrands also adds that this coincidentally made the subtitles similar to those in the Pink Panther films, which also used Return, Revenge, and Curse subtitles.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was released on September 29, 1995, in the United States, and brought in a $7,308,529 opening weekend gross, being the first film in the series to beat Halloween II's opening weekend gross. The film went on to gross a total of $15,116,634 at the U.S. box office.

While the film was a financial success, it received poor reviews from film critics. Daniel Kimmel of Variety called the film "tired" and "run-of-the-mill", while Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said the film lacked suspense and said that "not even the presence of the late, gloriously histrionic Donald Pleasence can liven things up". In general, most critics had negative reactions to the film. Fans disliked the film as well. Halloween 6 is regarded by some as the worst film in the franchise, mainly because it offers what is regarded as a silly explanation for something better left to the imagination. Along with 3 and 5, 6 would be deemed one of the worst Halloween films, at least up until the release of Resurrection.

Screenwriter Daniel Farrands generally dislikes the film, due to its deviations from his original script. Although Farrands thinks both versions are poor, he considers the Producer's Cut to be the superior version. In January 2010, the Producer's Cut was released on Blu-Ray in Canada.

Alternate versions[]

The Producer's Cut[]

The original cut of the film which was shown during test screenings is the version that has now come to be known as "the Producer's Cut". This version of the film contains 43 minutes of alternate footage that was either cut entirely or replaced in the theatrical release of the movie.

The 43 minutes of alternate footage consists of various shots and additional scene exposition, including more dialogue between characters, and a scene in which Jamie, who dies in the beginning of the theatrical cut of the film, survives the ordeal, and is later murdered in the hospital while lying unconscious in her hospital bed. The musical score is also entirely different, featuring the Halloween theme song much more prominently. While a good portion of the alternate footage takes place in the beginning and middle areas of the film, half of it takes place during the film's finale; the Producer's Cut features an entirely different ending, which goes as follows:

Kara is kidnapped and made to take place in a ritual involving the cult of Thorn. While she is tied up and awaiting the beginning of the ritual, there is dialogue between Tommy and Dr. Loomis as they go to Smith's Grove Sanitorium, where the cult members have gathered. Following a confrontation between Loomis and Dr. Wynn, Tommy stumbles in upon the ritual as it is taking place; just before Jamie's infant is about to be sacrificed (and the Curse of Thorn is to be passed onto Danny), Tommy seizes Dr. Wynn and assists Kara and Danny in escaping. They are chased by Michael down the hallways of the hospital, and Dr. Loomis takes Kara and Danny to the bottom floor via the elevator; as this is taking place, Tommy uses runestones to stop Michael from attacking, and subsequently escapes with Kara and Danny. Dr. Loomis tells the three to leave Haddonfield, and he proceeds back upstairs as they drive away. In the hallway, he finds Dr. Wynn lying on the floor, dressed in Michael's clothing and bearing his mask. As he takes the mask off of him, Wynn grabs Loomis' hand, and tells him that Michael is gone, and it is "his game now". Loomis examines his wrist, where the symbol of Thorn materializes. The film ends as Loomis screams in fear and Michael, dressed in Wynn's hat and coat, slips away down a hallway. The final shot displays a lit jack-o'-lantern on the front porch of the Myers house.

Availability[]

The Producer's Cut is included in the new Halloween Complete Collection. On September 15, 2015, the Producer's Cut was released by itself on Blu-Ray.^[2]

Victims[]

1. Nurse Mary - Head impaled on spike by Michael.
2. Motorist - Neck twisted/snapped by Michael.
3. Jamie Lloyd - Impaled on corn thresher by Michael.
4. Debra Strode - Hacked by Michael with hatchet.
5. John Strode - Stabbed to fuse box/electrocuted by Michael.
6. Barry Simms - Stabbed by Michael with knife.
7. Tim Strode - Throat slit by Michael.
8. Beth - Knifed repeatedly in the back by Michael.
9. Unnamed Sanitarium Patient - Knifed by Michael.
10. Doctor Bonham - Killed by Michael with surgical blade.
11. 7 Cult Doctors - Killed by Michael with surgical blade.
12. Cult Doctor - Face/skull crushed against metal bars by Michael.

Producer's Cut[]

1. Nurse Mary - Head impaled on spike by Michael.
2. Motorist - Neck twisted/snapped by Michael.
3. Debra Strode - Hacked by Michael with hatchet.
4. Jamie Lloyd - Shot in the head by Wynn.
5. John Strode - Stabbed to fuse box/electrocuted by Michael.
6. Barry Simms - Stabbed by Michael.
7. Tim Strode - Throat slit by Michael.
8. Beth - Knifed repeatedly in the back by Michael.

Unconfirmed (theatrical cut)[]

1. Dawn - Possibly killed by Michael during the operating room massacre.
2. The Entire Thorn Cult - Possibly killed by Michael during the operating room massacre.
3. Dr. Samuel Loomis - Possibly killed by Michael while screaming.

Survivors[]

• Tommy Doyle - Drives back home with Kara, Danny, and his adoptive son Steven after defeating Michael.
• Kara Strode - Rides back home with Tommy, Danny, and Steven after Michael was defeated.
• Danny Strode - Rides back home with Tommy, his mother Kara, and Steven after Michael was defeated.
• Steven Lloyd: Rides back home with his adoptive father Tommy, Kara, and Danny after Michael was defeated.

Notes and trivia[]

• Dr. Wynn was seen in the original Halloween film telling Dr. Loomis that Michael could not drive a car so Loomis speculates that 'Perhaps someone around here has been giving him lessons'. It is highly likely that Wynn, as the leader of Michael's cult and a doctor at Smith's Grove, was the one who taught him how to drive.
• Dr. Loomis' unknown fate at the end has been speculated upon. Some fans think that Loomis has been killed by Michael, others that Michael has been killed by Loomis and others think he was screaming because Michael was gone. Or, as the voiceover from the alternate ending was necessary, it could have been something completely different and unknown.
• The movie is dedicated to Donald Pleasance before the ending credits appear.

References[]

External links[]

• Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers on Wikipedia
• Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers on the Internet Movie Database