The tension, atmosphere, the foreboding
terror. Young Jaime Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasance tangling with
the Shape a.k.a. Michael Myers...will not be reviewed today. Hey
gang welcome back as we tackle the Halloween spoken in whispers,
loved by many and loathed by Michael fans.
This is Halloween III: Season of the
Witch.
Nancy Drew and the Brawny Man are on the case!!!
Okay let's not run away already.
Criminy. Now many of you are wondering of all the Halloween flicks,
why does Jake decide to do the third film? Well one, it doesn't
involve Michael performing acts of superhuman strength levels and
regeneration. Two, this film is still being debated to this very day
and three, it has been on the request back burner for a while.
Writer and director Tommy Lee Wallace
(Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Fright Night 2, Aloha
Summer, It and The Comrades of Summer) had the audacity, the temerity to give us a Halloween WITHOUT MICHAEL MYERS??!! As many surmised, Michael and Loomis blew up in the hospital in Halloween II
and that was...well pretty much all she wrote. The initial plan was
John Carpenter would write a new Halloween movie each year telling a
different tale of Gothic horror during the Halloween season thus
bringing an anthology of horror and macabre to the American and
overseas viewers.
Is barfing insects up a sign of illness?
Unfortunately due to the low attendance
and ticket sales at the box office, the idea was completely shelved
because the audiences of the time just wanted more Michael in the
same fashion of their Friday the 13th and A
Nightmare on Elm Street. An immortal killer that cannot be
stopped but only made dormant for a time and until he rises again.
Yup, that sure sounds like something people have NEVER seen.
Stupid 80s audience!!! So rather than
some potential terror we are left with the first and only installment
in that new direction. Is it a complete waste of your time? Does
it have some bizarre and astonishing effects? Let's take a look.
So our story begins with a disturbed
old man and of course the best stories always do. Shop keeper Harry
Grimbridge (Al Berry of The Last Starfighter, Re-Animator, Mad
About You, Empty Nest, Nick Knight and Guns of Paradise) is
being pursued on a lonely road by two men in black? Making his way
to the gas station, the attendant offers to take him to the hospital
noticing Harry clutching a Silver Shamrock mask screaming, "They're
going to kill us!!" FYI we are actually shooting and existing
in Northern California not faux Haddonfield Illinois. SHOCKING!!!
Dr. Challis (Tom Atkins of
Baretta, The Fog, Escape from New York, Lethal Weapon, A Stranger
Waits, Maniac Cop, Striking Distance, Oz and Shannon's Rainbow)
is clearly our hard ass protagonist. I mean look at him. Rugged,
focused and an don't mess with me attitude.
Cripes it's Buddy. Act natural, honey and he'll go away.
Seeing demented Harry rambling, the doc
springs into action. And by springs into action, I mean check his
charts, blood levels and medical history. Another man in black
attends to Harry in the form of killing him, nips out to the parking
lot, dousing himself in a high octane fuel and lights up. Subtle.
What? Air bubble in his I.V.not good enough?
Next morning Harry's daughter Ellie
(Stacey Nelkin of Going Ape!, Yellowbeard, Bullets over
Broadway, Ride with the Wind, Distant Cousins and 12 Floors Up)
comes to ID dead pappy, get mildly weepy and confab with Challis that
Harry's death clearly had something to do with what is going on in
Santa Mira.
Apparently the doc had no other
patients so it is off to channel Dick Van Dyke's Diagnosis Murder
without a doofy detective for a son. Yeah I know it's off topic
but did that kid every do his damn job as a homicide detective
without daddy's help?
So Detective McCrae is hot on the trail
finding that Harry stayed at the local motel and almost the whole
town are working for The Old Man of Robocop?? OCP runs Santa
Mira!!! There will be ED-209s running amok in the streets!! Okay
okay, fine! It's Conal Cochran (Da O' Herlihy of Good Against
Evil, MacArthur, The Bionic Woman, Deadly Game, The Last Starfighter,
Robocop, Robocop II, VR.5 and The Rat Pack) whose mask
factory has saved the whole town's economy...with three masks. A
witch, jack-o-lantern and a skull. Variety!!! Two of the shop
owners I just wanted to slap though. Buddy and Betty Guttman who
cruelly named their son, Little Buddy. Oh sure Buddy Jr or Buddy
the Second is most likely his name but Little Buddy is too close to
My Buddy. Probably lock him in the basement when he has an original
thought of his own.
This whole time watching this I am
thinking, leave the town to the ominous and obvious dark forces.
That could just be I am not an action hero with mighty pecs, zingy
one liners and infinite ammo. Challis won't be swayed from
skulking about as the townsfolk seem blissfully unaware of the
disturbingly calm and cold security force dressed in black suits and
ties.
Old Man tells Challis his masks will
wipe out children on a global level and he will save this planet by
replacing them...with androids apparently. Yeah I'm not sure if he
thought this through well enough. Could be he is eco-friendly and
wants to create a race of beings with solar cells, won't encroach
more on wild life and use up natural resources??
With the dark arts, robotic servitors
and a kooky curse underway, Challis must save the world in time for
the sake of the children?
Okay a few of the obvious points I will
no doubt have to make or fans will ream me. The Silver Shamrock
theme is completely based on London Bridges children song because it
was public domain. Stonehenge druid stones where transported to the
mask factory but never explained. One of those, "Eh, the
audience will get it or they won't," scenarios and personally
that makes it fun.
With effects ranging from animatronic prosthetic, gore gags and creepy crawlers I found this film to be
fun, bizarre and really out there. Many in Carpenter's mindset
would agree Michael's story was finished at 2 and it was ample time
to move on. While others just want a mute stalker slashing
teenyboppers, elder men and women with a cold and methodical fashion.
You already have that with Jason Vorhees!!!
With a budget estimated at 2.5 million
dollars this film still brought in $14.4 million at the box office.
Okay it wasn't a huge success but clearly folks didn't crap all over
as much as the hype wanted you to believe.
Hello folks and welcome to Aimless
Adulteration. I got tired of grab bag so we stretch the vocabulary
once in a while and things tend to move smoother. So it's random
choices once again as one of the treats to myself and always wanting
to see a better version of it in spite of being a sequel to a much
more clever story I opted to Amazon that bad boy to me and now you
are stuck with this review. This is Halloween 6: The Curse of
Michael Myers. The Producer's Cut.
Is this where you hang? Arnie puns and Myers!! Maybe not.
Six years after the police station's
fire and her abduction by the "Man in Black" (Cue Johnny
Cash) Jamie Lloyd (J.C. Brandy of Wolf, Star Trek: The Next
Generation, Kindred: The Embraced, Dogstar and Promethus Bound)
is alive and birthing a child in some secluded underground shelter
lit with more candles than a Hammer film or Sting video combined. No
sooner is the child sexed and cleaned these cultists/followers take
the baby away somehow. Maybe Michael is on the move in this dank,
subterranean recess slaughtering these cult members left and right
like it's his own personal abbatoir. The midwife nurse wraps Jamie's
baby, placing the child in Jamie's arms and demanding she run for
both their lives... ya know right after an agonizing child birth
scene. Not even a lie down or Tylenol for this gal. Strength! FYI,
Danelle Harris offered to reaprise her role but her asking price of 5
grand wasn't in their budget or they just felt her performance wasn't
worth it. Whatever.
A wool sweater is what keeps masked psychos at bay. That's just science.
Fleeing in a stolen pickup (Still,
like her uncle no one had gotten around to giving her driving
lessons) when she makes it to a bus station that appears to be
off duty and yet all the doors are unlocked. While all this is going
on a DJ on local radio has been mocking Haddonfield's ban on
Halloween and Michael Myers bringing every nutter butter to the phone
lines that Jamie uses a payphone as a desperate last chance call out
to Doctor Loomis. People mock Jamie for not calling the cops but if
you listen carefully the automated response said due to the storm,
the switchboard was OUT. Hence she called the radio station
about Haddonfield in the hopes this would bring her any help at all.
Hiding the baby in the ladies, she pulls the old fake baby in the
blankets to throw Michael off the scent for more than 5 blocks and is
stabbed for it and left for dead. Yeah no horrific farm equipment
impalement this time around.
This guy killed his big sister, tried
to murder his little sister and mutilated and butchered more than 15
to 20 people per movie. Of the many callers is a grown up Tommy
Doyle (Paul Rudd of Clueless, Overnight Delivery, 200
Cigarettes, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The Ex, Night at
the Museum and Knocked Up) survivor of the first Halloween is
convinced that Myers is still alive and someone is attempting to
harness his strength while Doctor Loomis (Donald Pleasence)
is retired after all this time only to be called in on the mess that
was Jamie and a burn mark is placed on the nearby barn which Loomis nonchalantly explains it is Michael's mark (the one we have NEVER SEEN
until the 5th movie). Also a simple scene of Loomis
explaining why he was listening to the Chicago shock jock for Myers
research in to his manuscript and he had plastic surgery for his face
and hand from his burns in Halloween II. THAT CRAP IS NEED TO KNOW!
Sir, do you think I have what it takes to be an Ant-Man?
Meanwhile at Michael's former home
resides the late Jamie and Laurie's family on the Strode side...
these people were around and couldn't adopt Jamie. Just seems odd.
As he had a psychic link to Jamie, perhaps he is tuning in to her son
Tommy has named Steven. Conversing with Kara Strode (Marianne
Hagan of I Think I Do, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Dinner
and a Movie and Stake Land) Tommy tells her of the danger her
family is in if Michael is back.
Following the astrological end of
things correlated with the events of each Myers attack with a
constellation of Thorn (Rune of Icelandic or early Norse turned
symbol of sacrifice but actually it means the or that) it
seems to give the bearer of the mark near superhuman strength,
fortitude and healing as its appointed task means to deplete one
family in the village for the good of said village. Someone or some
force has been guiding Michael all this time as far back as a 5 year
old boy something always whispering in his ear that insists he
slaughter his sister.
Will this curse continue to Steven?
Can Tommy and Doctor Loomis put a final end to Michael? What of the
Cult of Thorn? Hey, where are my pants?
And now a teensy bit of trivia. There
are more than three different releases of this movie due to the
eleven drafts. The neutered VHS later DVD 89 min has the most gore
but the least amount of continuity. The producer's cut has
unfinished dailies spliced into the final cut and is more coherent.
Our film tops off 96 minutes giving a wilder concept to be held for
all Halloween fans but less graphic death scenes. Weird, right?
This version is amazingly better with more Loomis, a better handle on
Rudd's character yet I always wondered what happened to little
Lindsay Wallace of Halloween? Doyle has newspaper articles,
conspiracies and a murder board yet nothing for Lindsay? The
Wallaces move? The continuation of what is referred among the fans as The Thorn Trilogy (4, 5, and 6) is actually been completed.
Watching the Producer's Cut of
Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers. No seizure inducing strobes
via the theatrical cut. More scenes with Donald Pleasence and him
originally narrating the opening sequence rather than Tommy Doyle
portrayed by Paul Rudd. Yup a total piece of crap with old guy
yammering and being boring said the director. With these re-added
scenes you have a complete movie. A beginning, a middle, character
development and an ending. They even try to explain Michael's true
behavior being altered. What made him this pure evil. Kinda clever
idea but not genius. Of course summing up what became of a young
boy this evil shape without a BS story of a bad childhood (Rob
Zombie's take), a force of darkness grew inside the boy like
a cancer.
Whereas a concept of a demonic force
slowly warping a child over and over for Harvest season i.e. Hallow's
Eve sounds vastly more creepy. As an avid Myers fan while the
explanation was unusual, I am impressed to how this ended and felt it
deserves a higher spot. This take was eerie, gave off a vibe of
impending violence lurking in the shadows and had real presence.
Halloween sequel fans will enjoy this version.
Mind you, this gets retconned due to
Pleasance dying and we are off to H2O: 20 years later and sadly the
first Halloween I got to see on the big screen opening night. Yawn.
GIVE ME THE POWER I BEG OF YOU!!! No wait. That's another flick.
Happy Halloween everyone and welcome to
Day 5 of Halloween Week. This marks two impressive moments. One,
this is my 600th blog! Yah!! Two, we have a Halloween
movie for Halloween!!! That being said, why in the seven hells did I
have to review piece of flotsam??!!! Yeah, folks I am not thrilled
to be tackling this particular sequel of the substantial series.
For those of you that disliked Halloween H20, really despised this
fun filled pile of scum. So let's roll up our sleeves, stretch the
muscles out and go out swinging. This was Halloween Resurrection.
Gonna get his... oh I don't even care.
Three years after H20, Laurie Strode
had been sent to the whacko basket, I mean a psychiatric hospital as
(SPOILER) she had lopped the head off of a paramedic and not her
brother Michael in some costume switcheroo cliche. Myers apparently
attacked this poor paramedic by crushing his larynx and swapping his
uniform for Myers' jumpsuit and mask. While the poor lad got
beheaded, Myers has snuck away into the woods and either went into
hiding for the next three years. Back to the nuthouse, Laurie is
prepped for Michael's arrival and has gone full Home Alone with the
hospital to do the old boy in but to no avail. Yeah they greased
Laurie. His 20 year mission is at an end. So end of movie right?
WRONG! Sadly that was only the first 15 minutes and maybe 10 to 12
snippets of dialogue from Laurie. So glad we drug Jamie Lee Curtis
back for that.
A year later we are having a reality
show in Michael Myers' house for six college students must spend a
night in the house that brought forth evil and figure out what caused
he to go completely crackers and start up his killing spree. I
figured it was the tacky wallpaper but that was just my
approximation. Our six contestants decide in the ultimate wisdom to
split up and search for clue, Scooby teen gang style. Zoiks! No
sooner do these collective bags of hammers separate it would appear
that Michael starts systematically wiping them out. Who could have
seen that coming?
Duhhhhhh....
Yes this is what the saga has be
reduced to, the slaughter of Laurie with a year's follow-up of
wacking people in his childhood home. Thank you Dimension Films for
dragging us through all that for this half-assed collection of gore
scenes with next to no plot. When writer of The Drifter (Larry
Brand of Backfire, Masque of Red Death, Till the End of the Night,
Paranoia and The Right Temptation), a vastly underrated
thriller starring Timothy Bottoms and Kim Delany was transcribed to
write this end of an era I figured I was well onto the summing of a
final chapter. Laurie finally defeats him and can breathe again...
instead I get catch phrases that are dated, Busta Rhymes throwing
cowboy with Myers and Tyra Banks not voting off models.
Let's take wacky facts about the flick
now. Just for the sake of ending this review and I can go on to
watch better horror movies. Jamie Lee Curtis agreed to reprise her
character Laurie Strode so she would NEVER EVER be back for yet
another sequel. Long time Halloween producer Moustapha Akkad made
it sound during the theatrical release that Curtis was so impressed
with the screenplay and could hardly wait to be a part of the legacy
when actually she was under contract. Yeah lot of sunshine shot up
the collective sphincters there, huh?
Director Rick Rosenthal was brought
back to direct this festering boil on a dog's anus after 21 years
prior bringing us the vastly superior Halloween II in 1981. While
our body count seemed extremely light at a whopping ten I suppose you
could count the some of the bodies from the flashback sequence so
giving it a tally of 14.
Still love the fact we skipped Tyra
Bank's death scene but you get to see the aftermath in said van. So
basically it was almost stating she wasn't deemed worthy of an
on-screen death. What crap was that? Too pricey an effect???
Anywho, this was one that clung to the bowl no matter how many
times you flushed. With this being the final nail in the original
series' coffin, it is another 5 years before Rob Zombie picks it up
from the ashes and starts anew.
Now normally I am not one for
reboots but honestly I dug that he expanded beyond Carpenter's
original path of pure evil, gave him a dark childhood and slowly
warped him. Just a different take on it and it does not detract the
folks from the originals at all. Resurrection however could
convince you to Google Rick Rosenthal's home address just to egg it,
his car and maybe even the family dog.
Hello there all and welcome back to
Halloween Week. Well it is time. The time in which I speak of is
to basically ignore all avenues of 4, 5, and even 6 as they did not
appear relevant in regards to this upcoming chapter in the Myers
saga. Now that the pesky Jamie has been removed from the
franchise... horrifically I might add, we get back to the lone survivor
of the first two Halloweens. Laurie Strode. "But Jake, she
died in a car accident leaving Jamie all alone to fend for herself
against her insane uncle,." Nay, horror fan boys and girls, for
it appears in the grand scheme of plot point that she faked her death
in order to hide from Michael and raise her other child. This is
Halloween: H20.
Yarrrgh, there be a slasher on port!
Marion Chambers (Nancy Stephens
of Charlie's Angels, Barnaby Jones, Panic in Echo Park, Halloween,
Halloween II and A Time for Dancing), the late Doctor
Loomis's nurse and colleague has had her house in Illinois broken
into as her neighbors' kids go and search the house to find nothing
but a few things trashed. Satisfied with that respond she goes and
sorts what happened as her medical files have been rummaged through,
specifically Laurie Strode's old files. When she goes to check on
the hockey hooligans they are all sprawled dead on the couch and she
herself gets her throat slit by Michael.
Since 1988, Laurie Strode (Jamie
Lee Curtis of The Fog, Terror Train, Prom Night, Halloween II, A Fish
Called Wanda, Forever Young, True Lies and NCIS) has hidden
herself and her infant son of one year after Jamie was born in
California. With accredited academics and forged documents she has
re-emerged as Keri Tate, a respected headmistress of a posh private
school in California where she attempts to keep her life together for
the sake of her son John (Josh Hartnett of The Faculty, Blow
Dry, Pearl Harbor, Blackhawk Down, 40 Days and 40 Nights and 30 Days
of Night) who has grown distant from her as he does not
approve of her functioning alcoholism and prescription pill popping.
As this is a result of surviving that Halloween night of more than 20
people butchered at the hands of her brother, you can understand how
she may be a little edgy every Halloween but the boy wants to hang
with his girlfriend on the camping trip.
When that is a bust the
teen gang decides to remain on campus for a private party of their
own. Molly (Michelle Williams of Dawson's Creek, A Thousand
Acres, Dick, But I'm a Cheerleader and Me Without You),
John's girlfriend agrees with a couple other friends that they will
sneak around to the campus and get their drink and fornication on!!!
Hey, trying to keep it PG-13 here.
Tee hee, we're toast.
With everyone away for the holidays,
out on the camping trip and in general enjoying time away from school
the campus is as still as a tomb. Laurie/Keri thinks she is
hallucinating as she swears she saw Michael stalking her throughout
the day. Confessing to her colleague/boyfriend Will (Adam Arkin of
Chicago Hope, 8 Simple Rules, The West Wing, Baby Bob and Hitch) that
she is not who she claims to be, about Michael and all the horror of
that night, he takes it surprisingly well. Me, I think I need more
than a fade wipe to mull my thoughts over this new info.
No sooner as the night fallen that
Michael is on the prowl, dispatching a few guards, groundskeeper and
personnel left and right that Laurie must dig down deep and take
Michael head to head for the sake of her son's life and possibly her
sanity. Will Laurie defeat Michael after so many have tried and
failed? Will she ever have a normal life again? Will John be as
messed up as anyone else associated with the Myers bloodline?
A few comments of trivia about this
film in a moment. I had a slight rant to this particular film.
While this screen treatment feels like you should be ignoring
anything that happened from 4 and on they really kept pushing the
envelope in reminding you of the first two films with lifting
dialogue uttered by Donald Pleasence during the latter opening credit
sequence after the first 4 deaths to using the line, "Well it's
Halloween. I guess everyone is entitled to one good scare."
My biggest bee in my bonnet (Other than what ass put me in a bonnet)
is the lack of continuity already established by the last three
movies and how this film seemed almost like we should sweep those
movies under the rug. Other reviewers speculate it is a divergent or
alternative timeline from the other movies. Frankly, just point out
Laurie wanted a boy and not a girl, faked her death and went off to
live out the days with her son. See? No mystery and maybe a bad
parent story line in the wings.
So we have cliches' like horror movie
characters watching a horror movie during our film, reminding you
there may be better flicks out there I am guessing or that this is
all Sam Raimi and Wes Craven's fault for starting this trend in
horror movies. Initially, Jamie Lee Curtis wanted to work with John
Carpenter for H20 but he declined due to lack of interest in the
existing project any longer. Of the unmentioned alumni of this
movie I must not forget the original scream queen Janet Leigh, L.L.Cool J, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jodi Lyn O' Keefe. Not a bad
flick but I have to say not one of my favorites of the franchise.
Well, howdy folks and welcome back for
Day 3 of Halloween Week. Sit right down and I will attempt to recap
thus far. After the second film's climatic end and both Loomis and
Myers set ablaze, Loomis was scarred but alive while Myers lay in a
coma for ten years, animated after being indirectly informed he had a
niece Jame alive and well. A few choice encounters with her that
year and the next, left Loomis and Haddonfield's Sheriff department
bewildered and taken both Michael and Jamie our of the public's eye.
Our sixth incarnation had a rocky road to cross given the re-writes,
title changes, edited versions and the unfortunate passing of Donald
Pleasence. This is Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.
Yikes, they will never get the stain of mashed mime out of that wall.
Six years after the police station's
fire and her abduction by the "Man in Black" (Cue Johnny
Cash) Jamie Lloyd (J.C. Brandy of Wolf, Star Trek: The Next
Generation, Kindred: The Embraced, Dogstar and Promethus Bound)
is alive and birthing a child in some secluded underground shelter
lit with more candles than a Hammer film or Sting video combined. No
sooner is the child sexed and cleaned these cultists/followers take
the baby away, somehow Michael is on the move in this dank,
subterranean recess slaughtering these cult members left and right
like it's his own personal abbatoir. The midwife nurse wraps Jamie's
baby, placing the child in Jamie's arms and demanding she run for
both their lives... ya know right after an agonizing child birth
scene. Not even a lie down or Tylenol for this gal. Strength!
Fleeing in a stolen pickup (Still,
like her uncle no one had gotten around to giving her driving
lessons) when she makes it to a bus station that appears to be
off duty and yet all the doors are unlocked. While all this is going
on a DJ on local radio has been mocking Haddonfield's ban on
Halloween and Michael Myers bringing every nutter butter to the phone
lines that Jamie uses a payphone as a desperate last chance call out
to Doctor Loomis. Hiding the baby in the ladies, she pulls the old
fake baby in the blankets to throw Michael off the scent for more
than 5 blocks and is horribly murdered for it.
Gen-X parents have it rough.
Oh, do not act all shocked. This guy
killed his big sister, tried to murder his little sister and
mutilated and butchered more than 15 to 20 people per movie. Of the
many callers is a grown up Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd of Clueless,
Overnight Delivery, 200 Cigarettes, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron
Burgundy, The Ex, Night at the Museum and Knocked Up)
survivor the first Halloween is convinced that Myers is still alive
and someone is attempting to harness his strength while Doctor Loomis
(Donald Pleasence) is retired after all this time only
to be called in on the mess that was Jamie and a burn mark is placed
on the nearby barn which Loomis nonchalantly explains it is Michael's
mark (the one we have NEVER SEEN until the 5th movie).
Meanwhile at Michael's former home
resides the late Jamie and Laurie's family on the Strode side...
these people were around and couldn't adopt Jamie. Just seems odd.
As he had a psychic link to Jamie, perhaps he is tuning in to her son
Tommy has named Steven. Conversing with Kara Strode (Marianne
Hagan of I Think I Do, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, Dinner
and a Movie and Stake Land) Tommy tells her of the danger her
family is in if Michael is back. Following the astrological end of
things correlated with the events of each Myers attack with a
constellation of Thorn (Rune of Icelandic or early Norse turned
symbol of sacrifice but actually it means the or that) it
seems to give the bearer of the mark near superhuman strength,
fortitude and healing as its appointed task means to deplete one
family in the village for the good of said village.
Someone or some
force has been guiding Michael all this time as far back as a 5 year
old boy something always whispering in his ear that insists he
slaughter his sister.
Will this curse continue to Steven?
Can Tommy and Doctor Loomis put a final end to Michael? What of the
Cult of Thorn? Hey, where are my pants?
And now a teensy bit of trivia. There
are more than three different releases of this movie due to the
eleven drafts. The neutered VHS later DVD 89 min has the most gore
but the least amount of continuity. The producer's cut has
unfinished dailies spliced into the final cut and is more coherent.
The alternative version has Tommy arranging runes as an impromptu ward
or barrier to keep Michael end leaving the cult stuck with this
maniac while Tommy, Kara, Danny and the baby escape leaving Dr.
Loomis to face the head of the cult and Michael all alone as his
request.
No official copy of the Producer's Cut
has been released still but the bootlegs are out there and still the
most impressive tie-in to the franchise and giving the saga an even
purer evil as Carpenter briefly explained.
OOoOoo.. bet she has a pipe or 2 x 4 to bonk me with. Pathetic.
Welcome back for Day 2 of Halloween
Week and boy that last one was... eh, it wasn't terrible. I have
certainly seen worse in my 4 years of reviewing that is to be
certain. So lets dive right in the shallow end for some splintered
bones, shall we? One year after the events of Halloween 4, Michael
Myers fell down a substantial and plot point conveniently placed mine
shaft that the camera work would have you believe was bottomless and
little Jamie in a fit of terror accidentally stabbed her foster
mother wearing her clown costume giving it that circle of horror
feel. Taking on her uncle's legacy if you will. This is Halloween
5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.
Honey, don't play with crazy men.
Jamie (Danielle Harris of The
Wild Thornberrys, Debating Robert Lee, Halloween, Left for Dead, Fear
Clinic, Hatchet II, Stake Land and The Victim) is now mute
and withdrawn from normal child behavior (Can't imagine why!!!) and
Doctor Loomis (Donald Pleasence of Halloween, Centennial,
Dracula, Halloween II, Alone in the Dark, Warrior Queen and Ten
Little Indians) keeps a watchful eye on her, convinced that
the evil that is her uncle has not been vanquished.
Believed to be dead, Michael
(Stuntman/actor Don Shanks of The Life and Times of Grizzly
Adams, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Halloween 5, Spirit of the Eagle,
Wind Dancer, Ride with the Devil, Twice Today and Death House)
escapes from the mine shaft and washes up on the nearby shore from
the river. A friendly hermit helps Michael to his cabin where he
lays for a year to heal and recoup and rewards the hermit with an
affectionate murder. Jamie forced to stay in the psychiatric ward has
exhibited signs of having a empathic or possibly telepathic link to
her quite insane uncle. Ah, yes the psychic link to the killer
chestnut. Gosh, where could I have heard that one before? (coughs
Silent Night Deadly Night III, In Dreams, Hideaway, Split Second)
and Loomis is trying desperately to convince Sheriff Meeker (Beau
Starr of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Speed, Due South,
Prisoner of Love, Shadow Hours and The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe
Mystery) that Myers is in
fact alive and heading to town yet again. Now in the Sheriff's
defense he is still in office after his entire staff minus two
deputies were slaughtered in his own office, coupled with the loss of
his daughter that it could be argued that grief has him conflicted
but you would also think he would take Loomis at his word.
Zombie Shatner??!! Oh wait, it's just Michael.
With
visits from her foster sister Rachel (Ellie Cornell of
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Gabriel's Fire, Free
Enterprise, The Specials, House of the Dead, All Souls Day: Dia de
los Muertos, The Darkroom, The Thirst and Dead Calling)
Jamie almost feels normal when she sees the future of Rachel being
attacked by Michael and tries to warn her when her doctors feel she
is being hysterical and having a fit. Rachel sees Jamie off and
heads out when she is murdered by Michael by having a pair of
scissors thrust in the chest. Ouch. No sooner that murder when he
stalks Rachel and Jamie's mutual friend Tina (Wendy
Foxworth of Guiding Light, My Two Dads, Police Story: Monster Manor,
Alien Nation and Blood Deep).
Meeker and Loomis attempt to put a plan together to capture Michael
or destroy him outright. With elements of the previous gags,
Michael replaces a boyfriend and proceeds to go back on his killing
spree at the same time Jamie regains her speech. She and her friend
Billy escape the ward in search of Tina. Will Loomis and Meeker be
able to stop Myers or be caught in the wake of his murderous rage?
A few bits of
trivia about the film at this time. An alternative opening for the
movie was the hermit finding Michael's body and was to be shown and
removing his mask gawking at it and his scarred face but the ultimate
decision was to cut it for time.
KNB EFX has
designed facial makeup for Myers looking scarred from the fire and
producers wasn't sure to show the detailed look or put it in the
shadows. KNB went for the latter saving them time to work on more
gore effects.
Thanks
to the MPAA the film was fighting off an X rating due to the
violence, blood and gore that was all prevalent in Halloween 4 yet
somehow a year later it was too gory so some scenes had to be trimmed
back and neutering some of KNB's finer work of quivering bodies, a
face plant through a windshield and Billy's leg mashed by the Camero.
Man the MPAA can really ruin a flick. Don Shanks played both
Myers and the mysterious Man in Black. The car chase sequence was
shot entirely all that night. Poor Ellie Cornell is in the film of
all of 20 minutes. Kind of a bummer for a return.
Greetings and hello to Day 1 of
Halloween Week. As previously mentioned but heck I am not above a
recap, I will not be tackling Halloween 3: Season of the Witch due to
its lack of involvement with the original series. That being said
let us journey ten years after the first massacre with Michael Myers
and Doctor Sam Loomis's last confrontation ending in an explosion of
compressed oxygen and fire. Leaving Doctor Loomis scarred from the
burns and Michael a vegetable. What threat could Myers represent
now? This is Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.
Look what this franchise is doing to me!!
With Michael inert and kept alive
intravenously at Richmond Mental Institute, he is being transferred
to Smith's Grove, when he is awaken from listening to the guards and
transfer crew exposition about Myers being an uncle but his sister
Laurie Strode dying in a car accident. Stirring from his bonds he
dispatches his pickup crew and kills the driver causing the ambulance
to flip and crash. Michael (stuntman George P. Wilbur of Die
Hard, The Silence of the Lambs, Casino and Spider-Man) after
10 years of being bed ridden just must have sauntered on out and
heads for the nearest gas station. Having heard this predicament,
Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence of Dracula, Escape from New York,
A Breed Apart, Django 2, Prince of Darkness and Halloween 5)
head to the area and tracks Michael down at the gas station finding
more than a few corpses, he pleads with Michael to take his life
instead of haunting Haddonfield yet again. Michael leaves Dr. Loomis
in a burning building he narrowly escapes from, his car totaled he
needs a lift for the showdown in Haddonfield.
Don't think the mask is set right.
Michael's niece, Jamie (Dannelle
Harris of Halloween 5, Marked for Death, Don't Tell Mom the
Babysitter's Dead, Roseanne, Halloween, Hatchet II and Hatchet III)
has terrifying dreams about a man in a jumpsuit and mask for no real
explained reason but it does frighten her. Her foster parents are
attempting their best to raise her but they still cannot connect with
her. Halloween night and they are heading out to socialize leaving
their daughter Rachel (Ellie Cornell of Married to the Mob,
Halloween 5, Free Enterprise, House of the Dead, The Specials, All
Souls Day: Dia de los Muertos and Dead Calling) who has to
put off her date with her boyfriend Brady (Sasha Jenson of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dazed and Confused, Halloween 4: The Return
of Michael Myers and Grind) who as a teenage boy gets pissed
and grumbly. Naturally he needs consoling and that of course can
only be found in the arms and breasts of the slightly easy Sheriff's
daughter Kelly (Kathleen Kinmont of Winners Take All,
Nightforce, Rush Week, Midnight, Bride of Re-Animator and Renegade)
but enough about whiny pansy boy and jiggly girl!
Loomis makes it to the Sheriff's office
demanding to speak to Sheriff Brackett, which Loomis is informed he
retired early 8 years ago after losing his daughter to Michael's
bloody mayhem and Sheriff Beeker (Beau Starr of Relentless,
Halloween 5, True Blue, Speed, Due South and The Golden Spiders: A
Nero Wolfe Mystery) tells him he is in no mood for that kind
of dredging. Loomis is adamant about 6 bodies thus far and God only
knows how many to follow. Meeker takes Loomis at his word in spite
of Myers has been out of the slashing game for 10 years.
Will Meeker, his men and Loomis be able
to put a stop to Myers before his body count goes double if not
triple digit? Do they have a contingency plan? Is Jamie in grave
danger?
Okay now just a few comments to make on
the movie. Aside from 3 schlock straight-to-video features, director
Dwight H. Little (The Phantom of the Opera, Marked for
Death, Rapid Fire, Millennium, The Practice, Prison Break, Nikita and
Bones) was tackling an existing franchise of which had to be
a bit nerve wracking but created a fairly eerie opening sequence
giving a vibe of Halloween itself and all the harvest content around
it.
Melissa Joan Hart (Clarissa
Explains It All, Drive Me Crazy, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and
Melissa & Joey) auditioned for the role of Jamie but to
no fault of her own was deemed not the right girl with... ear drum
rupturing screams. The original script called for the explosion
sequence of the second movie and was going to show Loomis on fire but
thrown from the overall ordeal but it was decided (Budget!!) that
they did not want any connection to the predecessor films... the ones
that this film is based on. Moving on the girl Lindsey who drove
Rachel and Jamie to the discount mart was to be revealed as Lindsey
Wallace from Halloween 1, making her a babysitter and was going to
have a much larger role but again the dreaded budget monster
appeared.
John Carpenter wrote a treatment for
the film giving it a more ghastly psychological approach to the film
on what impact the previous two films had on the town of Haddonfield
and its inhabitants but the producers were more for the typical
slasher fanfare and Carpenter walked away from the movie making this
the first film of the series that had no participation from him at
all. Can't blame him. Again not a bad movie but so much was left up
in the air for fans to postulate rather than have seen.
Well folks we are at the end of the week so good day the last part of Part 2 Week. This time around we have a bit of debate on whether or not this sequel was needed or did it kill the mystique that was its inception. From this one deciding factor the original director had nothing more than the credit to the characters and production as his project The Fog was just wrapping up. I speak of writer/director/editor/composer John Carpenter (Dark Star, Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, The Thing and Vampires) who may have dipped into this project a bit much. This is Halloween II.
Sheesh, polyester really catches fire!
Sam Loomis: I shot him 6 times! I shot him in the spoiler-but... HE'S NOT HUMAN!
Our movie opens literally that night of insanity as Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis of The Fog, Prom Night, Terror Train, She's in the Army Now, Escape from New York, Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda and Blue Steel) is being wheeled away on a stretcher for a cracked bone in her leg and multiple lacerations and stab wounds. Her friends have all been brutally slaughtered and elaborately propped around this house as some sort of macabre viewing. No sooner has she been moved, Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance of The Great Escape, Fantastic Voyage, You Only Live Twice, THX 1138, House of the Damned, Escape to Witch Mountain and Halloween) links up with the Sheriff and his deputies to exclaim that he shot Michael Myers six times and given it was a .357 that was blasting the cat, you would think a mortal man would bled out by this point.
Mike fought the law and the law lost.
With the mess of bodies to contend with, tricking and treating is being put on hold and a curfew is being established as the law does a house to house search for him. Laurie awakes in the hospital and is dazed from medicines, trauma and probably that horrible wig on her head. Our hospital is understaffed as the overactive and hormone driven 20 somethings are giving it their best of Grey's Anatomy impressions that no one seems to be aware that someone else has entered the grounds.
Security goes to investigate some strange noises and finds a few objects broken. While fiddling with the walkie talkie he experiences a splitting headache or a claw hammer driven in his skull. Take your pick. With the stereotypical teens and 20 somethings archetypes fooling around during break or between shifts and little to no monitoring of the premises, Myers moves in silently from the shadows removing all obstacles out of his way in search for Laurie.
Meanwhile, the Institute is covering its collective butt and blaming Loomis for Myers to have ever escaped in the first place in spite of his countless warnings of the impeding evil patiently lurking inside our demented 21 year old. He cannot rest until Michael is captured or killed and Loomis is of the mindset that killed would be preferred. Restless from nightmares and vague memories of childhood Laurie gets out of bed looking for help only to run into Michael. Is he real or another rampant dream?
Just a few comments to make about the film now. John Carpenter felt that director Rick Rosenthal's version was coming off too pedestrian and shot a few gorier death scenes and a bit of nudity as he felt this was the way of the upcoming slasher genre. This rubbed our director a bit raw and his vision was to have the film stand on its own and be merited its story rather than resorting to blood, guts and nudity. This sequel was to be the last film to feature Michael Myers, Dr. Loomis, Laurie and all of Haddonfield as a story arc.
Universal Studios sold the rights to this particular franchise after Halloween III: Season of the Witch did not fare at the box office in spite of an original story and new cast. The general vibe was the audience was expecting a continuation of the Myers murder machine and instead got a completely different film and couldn't cope with some new creativity. The irony is of all the sequels, Halloween II falls under a great push ahead into that already dark night and gives some general fright aside from a few technical errors while Halloween III has found love from the cult following it built from VHS and DVD era crowd.
