The Past, Present and Future of Michael Myers: Halloween 6 (1995)

Halloween is undoubtedly a staple of the horror genre – one that still manages to rake in the money, so its longevity is hardly a surprise regardless of abysmal entries and a not-so-subtle remake. How does the series’s first entry of the 1990s stack up?

“Watch out for the bogeyman.” Oh, and the mysterious figure introduced in Halloween 5. He’s connected to the “thorn” symbol painted on a wall at the ever-changing Myers house. Audiences waited six years for the release of what was initially being called Halloween 666: The Origin Of Michael Myers. The title was changed sometime during production to Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, when its writer joked of this film being cursed. It’s the first in the franchise to be under the distribution of Dimension. It’s remarkably paradoxical to explore a background for this character, rendering him a slasher-icon-turned-cult-bitch for the sake of keeping the franchise fresh. Moustapha felt it imperative to give audiences something more to the character so no one would grow tired of the franchise.

In an unnecessary twist, Curse sets out to give Myers an extra kick. One that involves a town-wide cult led by Dr. Wynn – the man in black played by Mitchell Ryan. Donald Pleasence returns once more. His portrayal of the character in Revenge was off the deep end, so in a way it’s great to see Loomis sort of at peace.

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Brian Andrews did not have an agent at the time, so the role of Tommy Doyle went to Paul Rudd. The opening of the film is two minutes of non-stop screaming from a pregnant 15 year-old Jamie Lloyd. Danielle Harris wanted to reprise her role, but was not happy with the story and couldn’t reach a pay agreement. There’s a lot of confusion about the storyline, regardless of which version you watch. Jamie escapes from the druid lair with the help of Susan Swift’s character. Her first instinct is to go to an abandoned bus station and call the number of a trashy radio show ran by a discount Howard Stern.

In the theatrical cut Michael manages to off Jamie early on. His intention was to take the baby from her. His baby. Michael not only got heavy, but also turned to rape and incest with the help of his cult family. Ritualistically, Michael’s final sacrifice has to be his next of kin. Did he really have to keep it all in the family? Couldn’t one of the creepy cult chicks take one for the team? He technically just has to kill a baby; not the person sleeping with him. Maybe the cult of Haddonfield should have considered recruiting and indoctrinating the female caller from the radio show that seemed to have the hots for Michael.

Michael can’t find the baby, so he turns his attention to a family that moved into his house. That family is the Strodes. Laurie’s father was a realtor. The only person he could sell that house to was his brother, John. The lead character, Kara Strode, played by Marianne Hagan, has a son named Danny. He just happens to strike a certain resemblance to a young Michael Myers; serving as a subtle way of teasing the audience that he’d potentially take over for Myers, which actually wouldn’t work because Michael wipes out his family.

Dimension supervised and played a huge role in post-production changes, with both rewrites and re-shoots. The producer’s cut is arguably better, but it still lacks a lot of Farrand’s ideas, most of which relied on teases and suspense, leaving the final product sloppy with gore.

The cult angle is a rather difficult pill to swallow for this franchise, primarily because it was going to unfold as a town-wide grouping. Cults are genuinely terrifying as it is – especially cults from the 1960s-1970s, but perhaps it would have played better if it were a smaller group of people, preferably wearing Michael Myers masks. This film is meant to make the series at this point feel like it was coming full circle; so they could have played with the scene in The Return of Michael Myers when several young men are seen wearing those masks and coveralls. To take it one step further, this film references Halloween 3 by naming one of the characters, Mrs. Blankenship.

There are moments where you scratch your head and laugh, uncertain of what you’re watching unfold. Nonetheless it still proves to be an enjoyable entry with homages to other horror flicks. Unfortunately, a lot of the characters in this film were hardly developed. Aside from Kara, perhaps the only likeable Strode in this movie is Kim Darby’s Debra. Mariah O’Brien’s character Beth had potential but was lost in countless rewrites.

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It seems to be popular opinion that Paul Rudd, like most celebrities whose careers started in the horror genre, hates this film. He has been quoted reflecting on his time on the set and was even set to appear at his first-ever horror convention in 2016. Unfortunately he cancelled due to contractual obligations.

Halloween 6 did not win over its test audience, so in the beginning of 1995 the film was brought back into production. On February 2, 1995 the world lost Donald Pleasence from heart failure. Halloween 6 also marked the end of Alan Howarth’s involvement with the franchise. His score for both the theatrical and producer’s cut differ slightly, both still with a 90s edge. The budget is said to have been $5 million. The film managed to make a little over $15 million in the US. At this point in the franchise’s history, Halloween 6’s opening weekend earnings of $7,308,529, were the closest to Halloween 2‘s $7,446,508. Parts 3-5’s opening weekend were considerably less.

It is by no means a worthy sequel, but the writer’s appreciation of John Carpenter still bleeds through. Daniel Farrands had ideas about where the story could have gone, but the final product wasn’t successful enough in exciting long-time fans and or casual moviegoers to further explore. It was time for another approach.