Halloween - The Curse of Michael Myers DVD
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 Rating: - Not as bad as it's reputation, but in the end your basic stalk and slash that doens't fully work
The Curse of Michael Myers is one of the installments that seems to strike a lot of debates among the fans; some see it as the best sequel and others see it as the worst. Some people liked the back-story that finally gave us a reason behind Michael's motives, while others think it took away all his mystery. As a series goes on a lot of times a back-story that was never brought up before suddenly comes out, sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. In the case of The Curse of Michael Myers it falls into both categories; unlike other franchises, at least this one sort of ties into the series.

The problem with the back-story is it does take away from Michael's character. People complain about Rob Zombie's back-story in the remake, but at the end of the day, Michael was still a psychopath who was bound to snap sooner or later, The Curse of Michael Myers almost makes him sympathetic in the sense he cannot help himself due to the curse. Zombie's Halloween didn't really give Michael a reason. It showed us a disturbed boy with a terrible home.

In Halloween 5 is when we are introduced to the man in black, and he did serve Halloween 5 well. It added some mystery and the ending made a great cliffhanger. Think back to when you first saw it. Come on you know it was shocking and left you wanting more. But let's face it even if it worked in Halloween 5 it did back the series into a corner and no matter what direction that character went fans were bound to be upset.

Daniel Farrands had the task of having to explain who the man in black was and it wasn't an easy job. Farrands is a fan of the series and it shows in his script. Some of the past makers of the Halloween sequels were fans, but Farrands is one of the die hard fans and a lot of the times when a die hard fan writes for his favorite franchise it normally doesn't work out well.

The screenplay was a very mixed bag; personally I never cared for the curse of thorn and therefore it's tough for me to get into the movie. The thing is I don't believe this was a poorly written movie. While the script isn't great, Farrands' does a pretty good job with the characters. I liked quite a few of them, but overall his screenplay is often quite messy and never fully works out well. In fairness Farrands had to do a lot of rewrites, but any draft I read really wasn't much better. The whole curse of thorn I thought was a bit too much. Granted there weren't many directions to go, but it just doesn't work. Like I said about the only thing that really works well in the script are the characters, but everything else is very sloppy, which isn't only on Daniel Farrands the director and producers had a hand in that, but his script was quite flawed.

One of my major complaints, while it might sound silly, but the fact the Strode family is so oblivious that they live in the Myers house is so idiotic. How can they not know? John Strode obviously knows, but no one else knows. They are living in the Myers house, one would think soon after moving in they would find out. Considering all the people Michael has killed over the years and it's not like it was a cover up. It might be silly, but that bugs the hell out of me.

Joe Chappelle serves as director and delivers a very uneven movie; the problem is this guy didn't have any respect for the series and didn't really care about the movie. His only interest was getting a 3-picture deal with Dimension films and all of that very much shows in the final product. His scenes are mostly sloppy with terrible editing and he never really develops much suspense or tension. Chappelle also added a lot more violence to this installment. The Curse of Michael Myers feels more like a Friday the 13th sequel rather than a Halloween sequel. There is even an exploding head death scene, while the F/X was cool on it that's something that doesn't really fit into a Halloween movie.

There are a couple of fairly decent moments, while none were very suspenseful, but there were some decent moments. Joe Chappelle takes a script that is a bit messy to begin with and further screws things up. John Carpenter himself could have directed The Curse of Michael Myers and it still wouldn't be one of my favorites due to the plot, but I am willing to bet it would still be a scary and suspenseful movie. Joe Chappelle could have come in and salvaged any script problems, but instead he creates more problems. At no time did I really feel and sense of dread or doom and most of the chase scenes fall rather flat. At the end of the day The Curse of Michael Myers really is your standard stalk and slash movie. Like I said there were some decent moments, but as a whole nothing really works. With a better director or at least someone who cared enough I think this could have been better despite the flawed the script. Wouldn't be a great movie, but could have been a lot better.

The final act though does have some decent moments, but still lacks any real tension. Joe Chappelle at times manages to get some scenes right, but as a whole a majority of his scenes just fall flat. He just seemed to be going through the motions and never really tries to do anything too different from your basic stalk and slash movie. Bottom line its obvious making this movie wasn't important and it shows. A lot of the scenes try and attempt at what Carpenter did with the original and it just doesn't work well at all. It seems like a poor mans attempt.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was doomed from the start, from various rewrites and a massive re-shoot. I'm sure all the fans know about the re-shoots The Curse of Michael Myers went through; there is an alternate version that features at least 43-minutes of a difference. That version dubbed The Producers Cut does make more sense and is the better screenplay between the two it just doesn't flow right and this is the one time I actually agree with the studios. The theatrical version may have the weaker screenplay, but the movie flows better.

The Producers Cut also used a lot of the original music with some tweaking to it like every sequel. For whatever reason the music was changed in the theatrical release and of all the scores The Curse of Michael Myers has one of the weakest of the series. Alan Howarth who scored the previous sequels and I like what he did, but the score here was mostly terrible. The only time the score works is when it's the original music and not the very annoying guitar take on the music.

The final act also went through some major changes, the original was quite idiotic and Michael was stopped by Runes or as I call them a bunch of rocks. Joe Chappelle wrote the final act though is un-credited. To be totally honest, the final act is about the only thing that works in The Curse of Michael Myers when it comes to suspense and tension. It's not very good, but there is some decent suspense and tension. No this won't have you on the edge of your seat, but it's about the only thing Joe Chappelle gets sort of right.

As I pointed out before the characters weren't too bad, but they were just stuck in a sub-par movie. It was interesting having the Tommy Doyle character brought back this time played by Paul Rudd. Tommy is pretty much a younger version of Loomis. Rudd does a fairly good job, but most of his lines seem to be rewrites of past movies saying things that Dr. Loomis would normally say. And speaking of Dr. Loomis, he's pretty much wasted here. Joe Chappelle didn't really care for the Loomis character and cut a lot of his scenes. Loomis is around early, but after that he doesn't really do much and goes MIA for a while. The final act he's taken out rather early before returning in the final minutes.

I'm a big fan of Donald Pleasence, but in fairness there really weren't many directions the character could go at this point and a lot of his dialogue is mostly a rehash. Pleasence though like always is excellent here. Sadly this was the last movie he did. Shortly after filming he passed away. When the movie was released he had been dead for several months. It doesn't seem like Pleasence was in the best of health at the time, but he's a trooper and gives the role his all. Halloween has never been the same since he passed away.

The brightest spot of The Curse of Michael Myers is Kara Strode played by Marianne Hagan; I thought she made for a strong and excellent heroine and gave a solid performance. She's the main reason I didn't lose complete interest. Only downside is a great character trapped in an average movie. I really liked the character of Kara she doesn't get the respect she deserves due to the movie not really getting over all that well with fans. But she was the bright spot in this movie. Kara was an excellent character and played very well by Marianne Hagan in her screen debut.

One of the biggest complaints about The Curse of Michael Myers is that Danielle Harris didn't reprise the role of Jamie Lloyd she's now played by J.C. Brandy. I think all hardcore fans will tell you Danielle is Jamie, but it didn't work out it happens. Some people bash J.C. Brandy, but she does give a strong performance. She doesn't really have a lot to do besides run away from Michael and she's only in the first 20-minutes of the movie. I didn't like the direction Jamie went. She was a great character and after all she went through it's kinda sad to see her reduced to just some random character. And while I did like J.C. Brandy, but of course I'll favor Danielle, the death scene was brutal and a sad way to see the character go, but it does lack a little bit since it wasn't Danielle. But again J.C. Brandy does well and deserves a lot more credit than she gets.

In closing, The Curse of Michael Myers has some fairly decent moments, brought down by an average script and very weak direction. The overall feel almost looks like a DTV movie. This isn't the worst of the series, but not one of the best, what could have been a some what good movie is brought down by the directing. Hardcore fans will probably find something to like out of this, but it is one of the weaker installments with some decent moments. In my opinion far better than the two movies that followed, but not as good as the remake.

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