Vilified from just about every conceivable angle, Joe Chapelle's Halloween 6: The Curse Of Michael Myers is a stark example of too many fingers in the proverbial pie, as well as a harsh reminder of the perils of post-production studio tampering.
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There are two elements of tragedy afoot here, the first being the sudden death of star Donald Pleasance shortly after completing his work on this film. The second is that the project had the potential to be the best follow-up of the series. Even Pleasance, in an interview conducted shortly before his passing, had high hopes for the film, claiming "This Halloween will be the best one since the first one. It's a very exciting story, and it will send shivers up your spine."
Perhaps Pleasance had seen the original cut of Halloween 6, the version often referred to as the Producer's Cut and is readily available on bootleg VHS. Admittedly, that version is hands-down superior to the incoherent cut that made its way onto movie screens in September of 1995. But the ending to the original cut would have required Pleasance's participation in any follow-up, so his passing must have required a re-shoot of the conclusion.
The storyline picks up six years after Halloween 5. Jamie Lloyd (now played by J.C. Brandy) has been held prisoner by members of a cult presided over by the Man In Black introduced in the previous film. Michael Myers (George Wilbur) seems to be a hired hand to do the bidding of these weirdos. The cult is fixated upon the Thorn rune symbol which Myers inexplicably has on his wrist. And on a cold, rainy night after giving birth to a baby (the daddy of which, it appears, is Myers himself), Jamie escapes with her newborn, steals a vehicle and drives back to Haddonfield, with Myers and the cultists in hot pursuit. How the captive Jamie has learned to drive (as well as navigate her way back to Haddonfield) remains wonderfully vague, but as legendary filmmaker Ed Wood once aptly noted, "Haven't you ever heard of a momentary suspension of disbelief?"
Haddonfield, meanwhile, hasn't bothered to celebrate Halloween ever since Myers' shennanigans from six years prior. But all that's changing now, as students at Haddonfield Junior College want to drag this two-bit burg kicking and screaming into the 90's, and that means a reinstatement of Samhain festivities, buddy. Back in town is returning character Tommy Doyle (Stephen Paul Rudd), the grown-up version of one of the little shits Jamie Lee Curtis was babysitting in the first movie. This paranoid geek rightfully suspects that a return from Myers is a-coming, especially since he's conducted research into the Thorn mythology. Also onhand is Dr. Loomis (Pleasance), who this time around gets some of the hammiest dialogue the series has ever enjoyed. Throw in yet another returning character, Dr. Wynn (Mitchell Ryan), featured in the original in one scene, and you've got a convenient fill-in-the-blank for the Man In Black's true identity.
The old Myers house has been renovated and has new occupants, the Strodes.....that is, relatives of Jamie Lee Curtis' character. Small world! And the youngest member of the family is a small boy who is clearly a target of the Thorn cult to take the aging Myers' place in their entourage. Since Tommy is staking out the joint from a boardinghouse across the street, there is ample opportunity for verbal exposition into Thorn, Samhain, and the nature of evil.
The chief problem with Halloween 6 is that it can't decide if it wants to be sci-fi or horror. Whereas the original cut had Wynn and the Thornies' intentions grounded purely in the occult, the re-shoots seem to indicate that their true agenda is genetic engineering. And the altered ending is vague and terribly unsatisfying. Since the next follow-up Halloween: H20 failed to clear up any inconsistencies, it's very easy to dismiss Chapelle's film as someone's ninety-minute dream sequence.
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The best thing about Halloween 6, frankly, is the music score. In addition to Alan Howarth's re-workings of established Carpenter motifs into heavy guitar arrangements, many of the pop songs featured in the film are by the great Alabama-based rock group Brother Cane, whose album track "And Fools Shine On" became a hit single thanks to Halloween 6. And when I met Brother Cane frontman Damon Johnson backstage at a 1996 concert, he told me that even he didn't like this movie. Ouch!
