Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (Producer's Cut)
Terror never rests in peace.
Year of Release: 1995
Also Known As: Halloween 666: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween: The Origin of Michael Myers
Genre: Horror
Rated: Not Rated
Running Time: 95 minutes (1:35)
Director: Joe Chapelle
Cast:
Donald Pleasence ... Dr. Loomis
Paul Rudd ... Tommy Doyle
Marianne Hagan ... Kara Strode
Devin Gardner ... Danny Strode
Mitchell Ryan ... Dr. Wynn
Kim Darby ... Debra Strode
Bradford English ... John Strode
Keith Bogart ... Tim Strode
Mariah O'Brien ... Beth
Leo Geter ... Barry Simms
J.C. Brandy ... Jamie Lloyd
George P. Wilbur ... The Shape
A. Michael Lerner ... Additional Shape
Summary:
In a single horrifying night, Michael Myers' masked reign of terror changed Halloween forever! Now, six years after he was presumed dead in a fire, Myers has returned to kill again - and this time there's no escape! As the homicidal fury builds to a spine-tingling climax, the long-hidden secrets of the screen's most maniacal murderer are revealed... with shocking results!
Review:
Halloween 6, remindin' us that there're things man was just not meant to know, an pretty close to the top of that list was why Michael Myers does what he does. There're plenty of slashers out there with clear motivations, so why was it such a problem to have ONE that don't fit the mold? I always liked that you never really knew why Mike hasta kill his entire family on Halloween night, but writers these days gotta monkey around with the formula to make somethin' "fresh," cause ya know, maybe those hundreds of millions of dollars the first five flicks made were just a fluke. This whole "origin" thing blew up in their faces so bad that they hadda bring Jamie Lee Curtis back to life just to stop the angry mobs from eggin' the Akkads every time they left their mosque. Great plan guys, what else you got for us? Gonna try sellin' confederate flags out the backa your van in inner-city Detroit? Maybe organize a nice Muslim prayer group in Payette, Idaho? It's no wonder the Screenwriter's Guild has a collective blood/alcohol level higher'n a Las Vegas drunk tank.
An speakin' of people who can't help but screw with the natural order of things, Skunky Hernandez, against my vehement an frequent objections, went an opened up the Sage Maze on Sunday this year instead of doin' it on Halloween like God an John Carpenter intended. Us serious holiday revelers do whatever's necessary to celebrate on Halloween Night, even if it means callin' into work with Bubonic Plague an drivin' around with our heads ducked down under the dash all day so we don't get caught. Apparently there's just no place for tradition in this country anymore. Skunky claimed he was just tryin' to accommodate folks an show the kids the best time he could... actually what he said was "Eez jus' beesness vato, I doh'n akespec you to comprende, I akespec you to run projector." Skunky's people skills leave somethin' to be desired at times. But anyway, the take from our showin' of The Killer Shrews at the Grime Time prior to the maze openin' up was pretty good. Skunky musta raked in $70 - $80 offa the parents gettin' their kids' picture taken with the killer mutant pack rat Cleave Furguson an I captured last week at Furry Mountain Stuffing. Coupla the little idiots couldn't resist stickin' their fingers into the cage, but we had Tetnis workin' the ticket booth, so he got 'em all stitched up before the movie started an helped us avoid any frivolous lawsuits.
Course, the real attraction for me came later on when Skunky opened up the maze an the three guys from Seattle who'd been lost in the maze from Halloween 2014 - 2015 showed up with their shrinks to "confront their demons." Apparently they've been reacclimated to society enough to stop jumpin' outta their cars in traffic to chase squirrels, but the doctors said this step was "critical in their rehabilitation process," an that they couldn't get cleared to return to work until they'd displayed "rational behavior in uncontrolled social circumstances." Real big shots, these doctors. Way too good to enjoy a nice, succulent park squirrel like regular folks. Anyhow, these three guys head out into the maze with the rest of the patrons, sans doctors (they said the guys needed go it alone, but they were prolly just afraid of gettin' ticks, the big pantywaists), an after about an hour they still ain't come out the other end. I figured they were just lost at first, cause the only good way to get outta that thing's with a chainsaw. So Skunky, Tetnis an I go in after 'em an... well, it wasn't actually the first time I'd ever seen a man chewin' the guts out of a jack rabbit before, but it *was* the first time I'd seen it happen in a three way tug of war where all three combatants were snarlin' an tryin' to rip each others' scalp off by their bowl haircuts. Was a lot like that baby-eatin' scene in Anthropophagus, now that I think about it. They scattered the moment they saw us, an we never could find 'em again after that. Skunky's sendin' his cousins out to look for 'em again today, but they've gone full caveman now, an when that happens there's nothin' you can do to bring somebody back. Actually, that's prolly what I'll do if social security peters out before I make it to retirement age. But anyway, hope everybody has a good Halloween, an be sure to carry a few rolls of toilet paper for the people who give you fruit. That's the only thing those Commies understand.
Now then, you might be wonderin' why I've decided to go with the Producer's Cut of this flick, an if you're wonderin' that I'll just assume you haven't seen the theatrical cut, cause if you had, you wouldn't be wonderin' that at all. The reason is that this version is at least on the verge of makin' sense. I mean, they took it in a direction they never shoulda an forced everybody to pretend like mosta this stuff never happened afterwards, but you can kinda follow the story in this version. Normally I wouldn't give these "filmmakers" the time of day as far as sharin' some of the things their movie has to teach us, but this was Donald Pleasence's last flick, an I don't wanna go accidentally knockin' over the casket at the funeral tryin' to throw punches at these guys like what happened in Pet Sematary, so I'm gonna do the professional thing an relay a few insights to be gleaned from this thing. First, if you can get a grip to distract a baby with a game of off screen peek-a-boo, they won't let out so much as a squeak while some guy in a monk robe carves voodoo runes into their chest. Second, Michael Myers' safe word is "Samhain." Evidently this stops 'im dead in his tracks, an coulda saved a whole lotta room in the Haddonfield morgue if we'd known about that rule a little sooner. An third, bein' at the epicenter of two massive explosions over the course of his life never did any serious harm to Mike's swim team, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
But the most disgustin' thing about this movie is how it flaunts the fact that there's just no justice in Hollywood. Sure, you hear about the Roman Polanskis, Woody Allens, and Victor Salvas an how easy they got off the hook, but how come nothin' sticks to Joe Chapelle after Halloween 6? I mean, I realize he didn't actually write either script, but we've got a pretty obvious case of elder abuse perpetrated against Donald Pleasence as far as I'm concerned. Particularly when you look at it from Donald's point of view, cause this's his career role we're talkin' about here, an he's already seen Miramax refuse to bring back Danielle Harris cause she had the audacity to ask for $5,000 to reprise the role of Jamie Lloyd. Yeah, $5,000. That comma was not misplaced. So he knows if he asks for a rewrite that contains a consistent point-of-view an doesn't flush the whole Michael Myers legend down the ole crapper he's gonna be out on his butt faster'n he can say "cash grab," an replaced by some community theater actor in old-age makeup. So, bein' the pro that he is, he soldiers on an sticks with it as best he can with this student film in drag to prevent the filmgoin' audience from rioting in the streets, even though it may permanently tarnish his status as a horror icon. The man really took one for the team on this deal, an what's he get for his trouble? Death. The script was so asinine it literally killed him. All he wanted was to give his "pure evil" speech an maybe yell at the local authorities one last time in pursuit of Mike, an what happens? Death by screenplay. I can see it clear as day in my mind; poor Donald's layin' in his hospital bed, flatlined, eyes closed, an over the intercom comes that voice from Mortal Kombat declaring: "Farrands wins. FATALITY!" I just wanna make sure Donald knows, if they got broadband in Heaven, that none of us holds this flick against 'im, an that we all miss ya more'n words can say. Thanks for the good times, Donald, you were always one of our favorites.
The movie begins with Jamie Lloyd bein' rolled through a boiler room an into The Mummy's Tomb on a hospital gurney by a buncha cultist nurse's assistants wearin' Hell University graduation gowns, at which point she gives birth to a little gooey bundle of Satanic joy. Then the man in black, who may or may not be Cary Elwes from Princess Bride, comes in to repo the baby cause Rumpelstiltskin finally got P.O.'d enough to call a collection agency on 'em. So since everybody in the audience's wonderin' what in the Sam Hill's goin' on, we got a little voice over from Donald Pleasence recappin' the events of the first five movies an clutchin' at straws over the fact that nobody technically saw Michael Myers die at the end of Part 5. It seems that right before the explosion went off, this guy in black an his band of bandito Zorros showed up an abducted both Michael an Jamie just in case somebody decided to make a sequel. So if you remember seein' Jamie inside the building after the explosion at the end of Part 5, the writer would really appreciate it if you just forgot about that. Then one of the nurses who helped Jamie pop 'er baby like the lid on a Pringles can sneaks back into 'er room, gives 'er the kid, an tells 'er a crypt is no place to raise a baby what with Freddy Krueger hangin' around the boiler room next door practicin' cheesy one-liners in front of a mirror. She's able to get Jamie outta there, cept she apparently forgot about Mike workin' graveyard shift security, an ends up gettin' 'er birthday suit hung up to dry on a railroad spike coat rack. While that's goin' on, the man in... this's gettin' old, let's just call the guy Johnny Cash from here on out. So anyway, Johnny's hangin' out in the bedroom of some kid who looks like Haley Joel Osment with Alfalfa ears (Danny) tellin' 'im to "kill for him," even though he hasta pay royalties to Freddy every time he says it. Already havin' enough voices alternately tellin' 'im to burn the house down an to try on his mama's bra, the kid takes offense to this new voice an screams for his mom (Kara) to come save his bacon from the closet monster. Then Kara goes back to her room to strip down to 'er delicates an stand in front of the window so she can get all offended when she catches Ant-Man (Tommy Doyle from the first Halloween) peekin' at 'er. At least he had his pants on this time. Anyway, Tommy takes the closed curtains to mean that he won't be takin' a stroll down mammary lane anytime soon an calls up this shock jock who's plannin' to do a live show in Haddonfield to celebrate the lifting of its Halloween ban. Tommy tells the guy that Mike's out there tunin' up the band for his big anniversary reunion tour, but the DJ ends up cuttin' 'im off cause he's gotta budget his time to fit in the Siamese midget hookers an Rob Ford.
Meanwhile, Jamie's stolen a truck from Hillbilly Jim while Mike was unscrewin' his head like a Copenhagen lid, an driven down to the Greyhound terminal to grab a ticket to anywhere but New Jersey, cept the desk clerk musta wandered down to the 7-Eleven for a beef jerky slurpie or somethin', cause the only sound to be heard is comin' from the shock jock (who's apparently got an exclusive radio sleaze contract) on the radio. I really don't care whether it's Mike or TV, but somebody's gotta kill the radio star like right now, cause this's gettin' old. Elsewhere, Greg Montgomery's Dad from Dharma & Greg (Dr. Terrence Wynn) shows up at Donald Pleasence's house to tell 'im he's retirin' from the Haddonfield sanitarium an that he'd like Donald to come back to work an tend to the lunatics screamin' about the imaginary anacondas that're swallowin' 'em from the feet up. Donald thinks that's pretty funny since by this point he's got enough psychological trauma to his own psyche that, were he to accept, the inmates would literally be runnin' the asylum. But about that time Jamie calls up the DJ (whose show is playin' in Donald's place as well) an goes apeshit on the air beggin' Donald to help 'er, until the guy hangs up on 'er like a stressed out 911 dispatcher before she can say where she is. That's about the point where things start to go south, cause now Mike's made his way to the station an started leafin' through the vacation brochures tryin' to decide where he'd like to get some R&R now that he's got the last of his family right where he wants 'em. Cept Jamie sneaks outta the can an guns it down the highway until Mike catches up an runs 'er off the road in the Greyhound shuttle van, an next thing you know she gets shucked like an ear of corn by Old MikeDonald. The next day (Halloween), while Donald an Terrence're up at the sanitarium lookin' through the new Fall straitjacket catalog, Donald tells Terrence that the voice on the radio the night before was Jamie, an that if Jamie's back that means Mike's back, an that he's gettin' way too old for this stuff. Then they go into Terrence's reception area an find out that Jamie's body's been spatula'd up an taken over to Haddonfield General, an everybody gets this look on their face like somebody just stuffed a potato up their tailpipes. Elsewhere, Kara's Dad (John) is bein' a complete shithead at the breakfast table talkin' about how the Tropicana budget has tripled ever since she an 'er little tax deduction moved back in with 'im, only while he's auditionin' for the Lifetime Network, Danny starts hearin' the "kill for me" stuff in his head again an just about fillets John's tweed slacks before Kara can get the steak knife away from 'im. But while the episode of Brawl in the Family's playin' out at Kara's place, Tommy's detected some background noise in the tape recording of Jamie's call to the radio station indicatin' where she mighta been at the time, an he heads up to the bus depot where he finds evidence of lackluster janitorial services an the baby.
Meanwhile, Donald an Terrence've driven out to the crime scene so Donald can yell at the sheriff like old times, only this time he finds a 10' tall symbol burned into a tower of hay bales that appear to've been tagged by some ostentatious gang of Satanic cultists, before accompanyin' Jamie to the hospital. Which is fortunate, cause while Tommy don't know too much about babies, he's pretty sure that ones with cult symbolism carved into their torsos might benefit from medical science. Course, by the time he runs into Donald in the waitin' room he's kinda made an ass of 'imself with the desk clerk an only has enough time to tell 'im the baby's Jamie's, that more Strodes're livin' in the Myers house, an that he'll meet 'im later that night at the college rally, cause right now he's got a whole herd of security guards eyeballin' 'im like a hobo in the Walmart wine aisle. Strangely enough, mosta these new Strodes don't seem to know whose house they're in, so Donald heads over to the Myers/Strode house an tells Kara's Mom that 'er husband's cheaper'n a date from the Tinder "casual encounters" section, an that they'd prolly better get outta there on account of their livin' in the house that hack built. Then Mom calls Dad to tell 'im how this's the cheapest thing he's done since that time he filled out their wedding registry at Dollar General, an says she's takin' the kids an gettin' outta there like she shoulda done when she caught 'im buyin' 'er 10th anniversary gift from a guy wearin' a trench coat. Then Darkness from Legend calls 'er up on the phone an says they want the child, but she only makes it as far as the front yard where Mike's hidin' behind the bed sheets waitin' to bury the hatchet. A little while later, Tommy intercepts Danny on his way home from school so they can swap Gameboy cheat codes, an when Kara finally comes home an finds 'em sittin' in Danny's room she gets this look on 'er face like she just found out somebody's been replacin' 'er birth control pills with pez. Tommy explains that if they don't get outta the house by the time Mike comes home from work it's gonna tack on an additional cat an mouse scene that'll extend the runnin' time beyond the sweet spot for teenagers with ADHD, an that they'd better get over to his place so he can show 'er his limited edition serial killing newsclippin' wallpaper. Elsewhere, Jamie's still in the hospital dreamin' about the time she got WAY too drunk on Scientology Spritzers back at Cult HQ an accidentally slept with Mike (just go with this explanation, cause the real version's almost as unpleasant to consider in practical terms as it is canonically), when Johnny Cash shows up in 'er room an sends 'er to join the Riders in the Sky with his Cult .45. Then we pan back to Tommy's place, where Tommy's booted up his Macintosh Quadra to help Kara brush up on 'er ancient Druidic symbols an explain why the mumbo-jumbo marks carved into the baby's chest cavity are gonna make it real tough to get the kid adopted.
Apparently it's some kinda curse that makes its bearer kill everyone in their family, at which point the curse gets passed on like a a supernatural STD to somebody else an the cycle repeats itself to keep the human population in check so there won't be so many messages on God's voicemail. The rune's also part of an astronomical constellation that only shows up on Halloween night during years when Moustapha Akkad happens to need a financial bailout, an has appeared in the sky during every one of Mike's previous rampages. As Dean Cain would say: Unbelievable? Believe it. Then Kara's Dad comes home from work an ends up down in the basement after the lights go out, only to be stabbed through his gut bucket an into the breaker box he happened to be pinned against at the time, causin' irreparable damage to the house's electrical circuits an makin' the entire neighborhood smell like hickory smoked bacon. But while that's goin' on, Kara's younger brother (Tim, who's been completely irrelevant until this moment) an his girlfriend Beth're over at the campus rally with the radio shock jock fightin' their crusade for justice against the American Dental Association in their bid to reinstate Halloween. Course they forgot to factor in that a man who makes a livin' ridiculin' people with vulgar metaphors might not be the voice of reason they need to be taken seriously, an after awhile Beth ends up lettin' slip that Tim lives in the Myers House, causin' an immediate ratings exodus to the land of Mike an honey. Fortunately, the dick jockey gets into the wrong van where Mike happens to be staked out watchin' for anorexic John Glover wannabes with bad mustaches, an the guy ends up Myered in a bog of exposed guts an his own avarice. Meanwhile, Tommy's gone down to the campus to meet Donald an finds the shock jerk tied up in a tree with a string of holiday lights dribblin' plasma onto some little girl who's understudyin' the Sissy Spacek role from Carrie, when one of the branches snaps an the corpse plummets to earth like a Canadian goose that got sucked into an airplane turbine. But back at the Myers House, Tim an Beth've gotten tired of waitin' for the DJ an decided that just cause a guy goes live on the air makin' sexual remarks that'd embarrass Donald Trump, there's no reason to worry about what might happen should he walk in on 'em, an Tim decides to salvage the evenin' with a little stick 'er seating. Unfortunately, across the street, Tommy's insistence upon Kara keepin' an eye on things looks to've been disregarded like policy discussion at a presidential debate, an by the time she notices the light's on in 'er house Tim's throat's already been ripped out like the knees in a cheap pair of jeans, an when she calls Beth to warn 'er all she can do is watch the breast reduction surgery unfold in real time. Gonna cut it off here, cause this flick bounces around more'n the Hooters wait staff durin' happy hour an I'm all outta transitionary dialog.
Alright, now that that's over lemme just say something: I do not take pleasure from tearin' into any movie descended from an all-time classic. But I also don't take any pleasure from sequels that flush the original formula down the toilet and decide to try explainin' a slasher's motivation while attempting to carve out a back story that nobody wants, and that cannot be conformed to the previous series canon no matter how oiled up the writers' shoe horn is. Cause first of all, did we need to know why Michael Myers wanted to kill his family to enjoy the first movie in the Halloween series? I mean, the box office returns were only 250x the original budget of the movie, so I'm thinkin' at least a few people were able to overlook that little omission. If it was so critical to our enjoyment of the franchise, how come nobody bothered to try explainin' everything until the 6th goll dang movie? Well I'll tell ya why; egotism. To continue on in the same vein that made the series successful up to that point (I use the term "success" a little loosely when including Part 5 in that statement) wouldn't be "fresh," so they've gotta try knockin' our collective socks off with some mind-blowing revelations. Of course, the only thing that's mind-blowing about them is that the Akkads didn't set that script on fire and mail it back to Iran, but they had their hook. I think the worst thing about it is that this ain't the first time somebody's tried this, but nobody seems to learn anything from other studios' mistakes. Remember Freddy's Dead? Jason Goes to Hell? Children of the Corn: Revelation? And really, those examples aren't nearly as egregious as what Halloween 6 tries to do, cause in those cases they just went back and retconned some crapola that either didn't make sense or wasn't relevant to the story to create a new angle. That, on its own, doesn't always backfire. But trying to tie together four previous sequels that were pretty well in line with each other into a plot that hadn't so much as been hinted at anywhere prior is asinine. In that regard, the theatrical cut is technically better than the producer's cut, because its edited in such a way that so many critical plot points got left on the cutting room floor that you haven't got a clue what's goin' on most of the time. That's not to say that the producer's cut is some shining beacon of coherence either, cause over the course of it you'll probably find yourself asking at least a few of these questions:
1) How is it that the neighborhood kids recognize the Myers house as being such, but the kids/mother who actually live in it managed to avoid finding that out their whole lives?
2) Do they really expect us to believe that a newborn baby made it 12 hours in a bus station bathroom without so much as making a sound prior to being found by Tommy?
3) Are Tim and Beth really screwing when they're expecting the guy voted most likely to broadcast it over the radio to arrive at Tim's place any minute?
4) If the old hag that lives with Tommy was babysitting Michael Myers the night he killed his sister, how come we never saw her in the first movie?
5) If Michael was programmed to kill his entire family by these nuts in monastery garb, how come he never went after his parents? Particularly when he had the perfect opportunity in the prologue of the first movie?
6) Is it normal for a baby to get a torso-long pattern carved into its chest without so much as a tear? And don't give me that crap about how he don't feel pain the same way Michael doesn't, because the movie's own rules say that you don't get those powers until you've got the curse.
7) If the electricity's off, why the hell's the washing machine running?
8) How'd Mike get the shock jock up in the tree where the whole goddamned town was gathered for a party?
I had some others, but I think you get the idea. That said, the producer's version, besides having one HELL of a stupid story line, makes more sense than the theatrical cut. I also liked all the cute little homages to the first movie that got stuck in there, like the busted pumpkin, the slow pursuit by Mike across the street while the would-be victims pound on the door to be let in, and Donald Pleasence again standing over the location where Mike's fallen corpse should be, but isn't. Of course, then they turned around and refused to cut Danielle Harris a borderline insulting check to reprise the Jamie Lloyd role, so it pretty well flushes all those nice throwbacks down the toilet because it tells you exactly how much they actually cared about making something the fans would enjoy.
Well, there you have it. And since Part 5 failed despite mostly following the formula, I guess it's time to see what kinda score this mess can cobble together from a story that craps in the laps of the fans, while simultaneously suffering from some of the stupidest movie logic ever put to film by a production that intended to tie a series together and create closure. The plot, when judged entirely upon coherence, fares a little better than how much fans of the series are likely to enjoy it. Normally I don't judge horror flicks too harshly when it comes to the script, but when you put out a trailer that hypes putting the mystery of Michael Myers to rest, you'd damn well better make sure it makes sense, and they didn't. Basically, it's got no more reasoning problems than a Friday the 13th sequel, but Friday the 13th sequels generally don't shoot for realism, because realism puts a serious damper on the body count. So yeah, this flick is gonna get reamed on this front. The acting is fine for the most part, but Donald Pleasence doesn't have nearly as much screen time as he needs to save this thing from the swine pit. Something else that really bugs me about the studio's unwillingness to bring back Danielle Harris is that J.C. Brandy (who took over the role) is easily the least talented actor in the whole movie. So basically, the two characters who are most important to the fans of the series aren't on screen as much as they should be, and don't act in a manner that's in line with what we've come to expect from the characters up to that point. Still, the supporting cast is pretty decent, with Bradford English giving a good performance as the jerkoff father of Kara Strode, Mitchell Ryan bringing some much needed class to the sinister Dr. Terrence Wynn character, and the always obnoxious Leo Geter as the shock jock. That guy really knows how to make you hate him, and I'm at least mostly sure that's what they were going for. Marianne Hagen and Paul Rudd don't really inspire much of an emotional response from the audience, but then just look at the material they had to work with. Hardly seems fair to blame them.
Here's who matters and why (less Donald Pleasence, and Paul Rudd. I wouldn't know a Rudd from a Judd, but i figure most normal are prolly pretty familiar with him): Marianne Hagan (Stake Land, BreadCrumbs), Mitchell Ryan (Judge Dredd, A Reflection of Fear, and Durke Devlin on Dark Shadows), Kim Darby (Don't Be Afraid of the Dark), Bradford English (Wolf), Leo Geter (The Stand, Near Dark, Silent Night Deadly Night), J.C. Brandy (What Lies Beneath, Devil in the Flesh), Susan Swift (Audrey Rose, Burned at the Stake), George P. Wilbur (Halloween 4, Cast a Deadly Spell, Remote Control, The Running Man, Firestarter, The Clonus Horror), Janice Knickrehm (The Haunting of Marsten Manor), Sheri Hicks (Dinosaur Island, Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold), Tom Proctor (Guardians of the Galaxy, Pandemic 2009, Fear of Clowns 2, Vampire Slayers, When Shadows Die), A Michael Lerner (Remote Control), Jimmy Chunga (Species), Ellen Dunning (Batman & Robin, Demonic Toys, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Predator 2), Fred Lerner (Wishcraft, The Soul Collector, The Lake 1998, The Deliberate Stranger, Covenant, Endangered Species), James Woodson (Independence Day, Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare). Besides Pleasence and Rudd, you might also remember Mitchell Ryan as Edward Montgomery on Dharma & Greg, as well as Dave Drake in High Plains Drifter. This's actually a pretty pitiful set of credit listings for a movie that's only 20 years old, but the acting is still alright.
The special effects, in this version of the movie at least, are pretty skimpy. That's one of the big differences between the two versions aside from the storyline; the producer's cut is much less forthcoming with the gore. There's the electrocution scene in the basement where Mike stabs and fries Bradford English (the dummy's pretty good, although in the theatrical cut the head explodes), a cut throat (pretty pitiful due to the distance from the camera), the neck swiveling (bloodless, of course, but not bad), and a couple other stabbings that happen either fully, or mostly off screen. Pretty lame totals here, but historically the Halloween movies have never had the kind of gore effects you'd see in a Friday the 13th movie, so it really doesn't break from past entries at least. The shooting locations, and the effort that was put forth to give the appearance of the Halloween season, are pretty good here. In fact, there's a great opening shot of the street that the new characters live on, that's pretty similar in terms of layout to the first movie, complete with a hedge that's not unlike the one Michael Myers ducks behind once he's spotted by Jamie Lee Curtis. However, the Myers House looks nothing at all like the original, and beyond that the only other decent set is Donald Pleasence's house, which seems very fitting. So the shooting locations are fair, but nothing special, and don't come anywhere close to capturing that Halloween feeling that the first movie had. As for the soundtrack, well, it's probably the best part of the movie, because it's pretty much entirely recycled from the previous Halloween movies. They usually made minor tweaks to the better known tracks with each passing sequel, but the heart of the Halloween series has always been that John Carpenter musical score, and they've preserved it faithfully for this latest go around. Really can't go wrong with Alan Howarth; after all, he did compose the music for Parts 2 - 5 up to this point. The music is also a significant point of divergence between this cut of the movie and the theatrical cut, as the theatrical cut has several non-instrumental songs (including the superb "And Fools Shine On" by Brother Cane), and this cut is entirely instrumental. Overall, I do think this is a slightly better movie than Part 5, but I don't like it as much (and that wasn't exactly a high bar), so it fails as well. But don't worry, I hear this flick went over so poorly that they pretended Parts 3 - 6 never happened and brought Jamie Lee Curtis back to life, so that can only be a good sign for the next installment.
Rating: 54%