Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers



Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a 1995 American slasher film directed by Joe Chappelle, written by Daniel Farrands, and starring Paul Rudd, Marianne Hagan, and Donald Pleasance. The sixth installment in the Halloween film series, it follows a young woman living with her family in Michael Myers's childhood home who finds herself stalked by Myers on Halloween. At her aid is Tommy Doyle, a returning character from the original Halloween film, and Dr. Sam Loomis. The plot of the film formally introduced the "Curse of Thorn", a mystical symbol first referenced in The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) and revealed in the film to be the source of Michael Myers's immortality and drive to kill.

Shot in Salt Lake City in the winter of 1994–95, the film underwent a series of reshoots after it performed poorly with test audiences, resulting in a final product that was significantly different—both tonally and narratively—from the original script. The film was distributed by Miramax's Dimension Films, and opened in the fall of 1995, earning $7.3 million dollars during its opening weekend, coming in second to the New Line Cinema thriller Seven.

After the film's home media release, the original workprint of the film (which featured 43 minutes of alternative footage and an alternate ending) was discovered by fans of the series. This version, dubbed The Producer's Cut, developed a cult following, with bootleg DVD copies sold on eBay and online petitions targeting for an official release of it. In 2014, The Producer's Cut was officially released on Blu-ray.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers and the Thorn plotline would be rendered non-canon in succeeding installments, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and Halloween: Resurrection. However, the 2001 Halloween comic book series published by Chaos Comics—and based on Farrands' concept for the eighth Halloween film—attempts to bridge the continuity between The Curse of Michael Myers and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.

Plot
On October 31, 1989, Michael Myers and his niece Jamie Lloyd are abducted from the Haddonfield Police Station. Six years later, on October 30, 1995, Jamie has been impregnated and her baby is born, being taken away by the "Man in Black", the leader of a Druid-like cult. Later, a midwife helps Jamie escape with her baby and is soon killed by Michael. Jamie and her baby flee in a stolen pick-up truck. Stopping briefly at a deserted bus station, Jamie makes a call to a Haddonfield radio station to warn them that Michael is about to return home, only to be ignored by the radio D.J. Barry Simms.

Meanwhile, the retired Dr. Sam Loomis is visited by his friend Dr. Terence Wynn, the chief administrator of Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where Michael had been incarcerated as a boy; Wynn asks Loomis to return to Smith's Grove. They overhear Jamie's plea for help on a local radio station. Michael finds Jamie, and she crashes the truck into an old barn. He kills Jamie by impaling her on a corn thresher and turning it on, disemboweling her, but finds that her baby is not in the truck.

Back in Haddonfield, Tommy Doyle, whom Laurie Strode babysat in 1978, now lives in a boarding house run by Mrs. Blankenship. The family living in the Myers house across the street are relatives of the Strode family: Kara Strode, her six-year-old son Danny, her teenage brother Tim, caring mother Debra, and abusive father John. Ever since seeing Michael as a child, Tommy has been obsessed with finding the truth behind his motives. He finds Jamie's baby at the bus station, takes him into his care, and names him Steven. Tommy runs into Loomis and tells him about the Strode family living in the Myers house. The two believe Michael has returned to Haddonfield.

Michael enters his home and kills Debra. Later, Tommy, Kara, and Danny go to the boarding house, where Tommy reveals that he believes Michael has been inflicted with Thorn, an ancient Druid curse. Long ago, one child from each tribe, chosen to bear the curse of Thorn, must sacrifice its next of kin on the night of Samhain, or Halloween. Tommy believes that Steven will be Michael's final sacrifice. While Tommy goes out to look for Loomis, Mrs. Blankenship reveals to Kara that she was babysitting Michael the night he killed his sister, and that Danny is hearing a voice telling him to kill just like Michael did, indicating Danny also possesses the power of Thorn. Meanwhile, Michael kills John, Tim, Tim's girlfriend Beth, and Barry Simms. After Tommy returns home with Loomis, the Man in Black reveals himself to be Wynn. The cult take Kara, Danny, Steven, and Michael to Smith's Grove. There, Loomis confronts Wynn, who reveals he wants to control and study the power of Thorn. Wynn wants Loomis to join in on his conspiracy, and reveals that Jamie's baby represents a new cycle of Michael's evil that he kept secret from most of the cult who were focused on inflicting the curse onto a new child (Danny) to carry out a new trend of family sacrifices. Loomis calls Wynn out on his scheme and is knocked unconscious.

Later, Michael butchers Wynn's team of staff surgeons during a medical procedure and Wynn himself during a medical procedure with Danny and Steven sitting in a room next door. Tommy finds and frees Kara, Danny, and Steven; they flee from Michael and hide in a laboratory. Regaining consciousness, Loomis helps Kara and the children escape the hospital. When Michael breaks into the room, Tommy injects him with a corrosive liquid and beats him unconscious with a lead pipe. As Tommy, Kara, Danny, and Steven leave, Loomis refuses to come with them as he has "a little business to attend to”. Back inside the building, Michael's mask is seen lying on the floor of the lab room and Loomis is heard screaming in the background, leaving the fate of both characters unknown.

Cast

 * Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis
 * Paul Rudd (credited as Paul Stephen Rudd) as Tommy Doyle
 * Marianne Hagan as Kara Strode
 * Devin Gardner as Danny Strode
 * George P. Wilbur as Michael Myers
 * A. Michael Lerner as Michael Myers (reshoots)
 * Mitchell Ryan as Dr. Terence Wynn
 * J. C. Brandy as Jamie Lloyd
 * Danielle Harris as Young Jamie Lloyd (archive footage; Producer's Cut only)
 * Mariah O'Brien as Beth
 * Keith Bogart as Tim Strode
 * Kim Darby as Debra Strode
 * Bradford English as John Strode
 * Leo Geter as Barry Simms
 * Susan Swift as Nurse Mary
 * Alan Echeverria as Dr. Bonham
 * Janice Knickrehm as Mrs. Blankenship

Concept and writing
After the less than enthusiastic response to Halloween 5 which came out only a year after Halloween 4, producer Moustapha Akkad put the series on hold to re-evaluate its potential. Akkad felt Halloween 5 had strayed too far from Halloween 4 and the box office response was much lower than expected. In 1990, screenwriter and long-time Halloween fan Daniel Farrands set out to write the sixth entry in the Halloween series. Farrands gave his horror movie scripts to the producer of Halloween 5, Ramsey Thomas; impressed by his writing, Thomas set a meeting for Farrands with executive producer Moustapha Akkad. Farrands described the meeting:

I spent weeks preparing for the meeting and came in with a huge notebook filled with Halloween research – I had the entire series laid out in a timeline, a bio of every character, a "family tree" of the Myers and Strode clans, as well as all of the research I had compiled about the runic symbol (Thorn) that was briefly shown in "Halloween 5." I then laid out how I thought all of this might be explored in Halloween 6.

Although the producers at the time had already sought to make a sixth Halloween film, a series of complicated legal battles ensued which delayed plans for a sequel; eventually Miramax Films (via its Dimension Films division) bought the rights to the Halloween series.

In June 1994, after several screenplays from different writers had been deemed insufficient by Akkad (including one by Scott Spiegel), Farrands was hired to write a new screenplay, as the film had an impending shooting date scheduled for October in Salt Lake City, Utah. Farrands has said his initial intent for the film was to "bridge the later films (4-5) in the series to the earlier films (1-2) while at the same time taking the story into new territory so that the series could expand for future installments." This in part meant expanding on the presence of the "Man in Black" as well as the appearance of the Thorn symbol, both of which appear without explanation at the end of Halloween 5. In beginning the script, Farrands contacted the writers of Halloween 4 and 5 for additional information, but they were unable to provide clear answers, leaving him to "pick up the pieces."

Farrands expanded the "Curse of Thorn" plot line, in which Jamie Lloyd is kidnapped by a covert cult who has cursed Michael Myers via the Runic symbol of Thorn, which compels him to kill and also affords him immortality. Farrands had in part based the idea on dialogue present in Halloween II (1981) about the night of Samhain, during which the "veil between the living and the dead is thinnest," the one time of the year during which Myers became "active, and seeks out his bloodline." References to Druidism as well as Myers's grandfather "hearing voices" had also appeared in the 1978 novelization of Halloween by Curtis Richards. While the character of Jamie Lloyd dies early in the film, the initial versions of Farrands' script had her character surviving until the final act, at which point she was ultimately killed by Michael. Other elements of Farrands' working script that ultimately had to be trimmed down included an extension of the Curse of Thorn subplot, which had the entire town of Haddonfield in collusion with the cult, an idea Akkad wanted to use for the series' seventh installment. However, this idea was scrapped in favor of the Halloween H20 script in 1997.

According to Farrands, there were around ten different drafts of his script between June 1994 and the October 1994 film shoot, and much of the finale that appears in the theatrical version (including the events at the hospital, as well as the references to the cult using Myers's power as a means of scientific investigation), was not written by him, and had been written and shot in post-production under the supervision of Dimension Films.

Allusions and references
Farrands, a long-time fan of the series, sought to incorporate various references and allusions to the previous Halloween films, particularly the original, to play with the "Halloween mythology." These range from situational allusions, such as Tommy Doyle living across the street from the Strode house (a play on the events in the original Halloween, which take place between the Wallace and Doyle residences, which are across the street from one another) to minor references, such as the naming of an address from Halloween II (1981), and the character of Mrs. Blankenship, a name referred to in passing in Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). Other references outside the narrative diegeses of the series include the names of characters, such as John and Debra Strode (referencing John Carpenter and Debra Hill), as well as the naming of Danny Strode, a character Farrands has said was modeled after Danny Torrance in The Shining (1980).

Farrands also referenced Carpenter's The Fog (1980) with the line referring to a "stomach pounder" (a protein milkshake Tim drinks early in the film), and Beth's murder scene was modeled after a scene from Fred Walton's When a Stranger Calls (1979) (Farrands wrote the scene upon hearing that Walton had been attached to direct the project, though Walton would eventually drop out of the production). Additionally, extended scenes of Kara walking on the college campus and en route to her home were intended to allude to scenes featuring Laurie Strode in the first film, while Danny dropping his pumpkin while walking home alludes to a scene in the first film in which a group of bullies force Tommy to drop his pumpkin outside the elementary school.

Casting
Donald Pleasence returned to play Dr. Loomis, in what would be his final film performance; according to Farrands, Pleasance was fond of the script. Danielle Harris, who was seventeen at the time, contacted producer Paul Freeman about reprising her role as Jamie Lloyd, and went so far as completing paperwork to become legally emancipated in order to shoot the film. She was officially cast in the role, but Dimension Films could not come to an agreement over her salary; Harris alleges that Dimension offered her a scaled $1,000 to shoot the part over the course of a week, which was less than the amount of money she had paid for her emancipation. Farrands and Freeman both had wanted Harris for the part, but at that point "had their hands tied."

According to Harris, the head of the casting department refused to negotiate her salary, stating that she was a "scale character who dies in the first twenty minutes." This ultimately led to her dropping out of the project. "People automatically assume I wanted some crazy amount of money, or something," Harris commented in 2014, "[but] it's not like I [was] demanding of anything, really... When you've been asked to do something and then they insult you by saying, "You're a piece of shit, you die in the first act—I don't give a fuck that you were in two other Halloween movies, who cares?"... I was in shock." Actress J. C. Brandy was cast as Harris's replacement.

The producers initially wanted Brian Andrews to reprise his role as Tommy Doyle. However, with Andrews not having an agent, they were unable to contact him. Paul Rudd was cast in the part of Tommy, which marked his first starring role before he appeared in Clueless (1995). The leading female role, Kara, was given to Marianne Hagan; however, Hagan has since stated that Miramax executives Bob and Harvey Weinstein did not favor her for the part, and made aesthetic criticisms about her being "too thin" and her chin being "too pointy". Farrands, however, had wanted Hagan for the part because he felt she possessed an "every-girl" quality of having "lived a little, and had a hard time," and likened her screen presence to that of Jamie Lee Curtis.

For the role of Dr. Terence Wynn, Mitchell Ryan was cast, based on his performance in Lethal Weapon (1987); Farrands originally urged the producers to cast Christopher Lee, having had the veteran horror actor in mind when writing the character. This is a reference on Carpenter's initial choice for role of Dr. Loomis during film making of Halloween from 1978 where he was offered that role, but declined due to low pay, only later to regret in later years. Denise Richards also auditioned for the part of Beth, but the studio passed on her, giving the role to Mariah O'Brien. Stunt performer George P. Wilbur, who portrayed Michael in the fourth installment, reprised his role as Michael Myers. However, once reshoots took place, Wilbur was replaced by A. Michael Lerner as director Joe Chapelle found Wilbur to be "too bulky."

Filming
Fred Walton (director of When a Stranger Calls and April Fool's Day) was originally attached to direct the film but dropped out. Special effects artist John Carl Buechler created the mask for the film, which was based heavily on the mask featured in the poster for Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Buechler hand-crafted the mask over actor George P. Wilbur's face.

Filming began in late October 1994 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Within the first week of shooting, however, the city experienced an early winter snowstorm, which complicated the production. As a result, several scenes which were supposed to take place on exterior locations had to be transferred to interiors. The original hospital scenes were shot at the abandoned Old Primary Children's Hospital in The Avenues section of Salt Lake City.

Producer Paul Freeman and director Chappelle reportedly rewrote the ending on-set, even from shot-to-shot as production deadlines loomed. Freeman also sent the crew home when crucial scenes needed to be shot; deleted scripted scenes indiscriminately; rewrote dialogue and action sequences; and assumed the responsibility of directing second-unit shots and the supervision of post-production of the original cut. These complications resulted in Dimension Films' parent company (and the film's co-production company) Miramax, taking over the film's production, and ordering many of the reworked sequences to be reshot.

Associated producer Malek Akkad explained the film's lack of a cohesive "vision" being the result of director Chappelle "answering" to the visions of the distributor, Dimension Films; Moustapha Akkad's production company, Nightfall Productions; and writer Daniel Farrands. Tensions between what Dimension, Nightfall, and Farrands envisioned for the film resulted in a finished product that had needed "more forethought," according to Akkad.

Reshoots
In early 1995, after filming and editing was completed, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was given a test screening in New York City which, as described by actress Marianne Hagan, "consisted primarily of fourteen-year-old boys." During the Q&A afterward, one of the audience members expressed great displeasure at the ending of the film, which entailed a Celtic ritual and the passing on of the "Curse of Thorn" to the Dr. Loomis character. As a result of the audience's disapproval toward the film's finale, the movie was rushed back into production, this time without Donald Pleasence, who died on February 2, 1995. Pleasance had been in ill health during the shooting of the film.

Reshoots took place in Los Angeles, California in the summer of 1995. A. Michael Lerner replaced George P. Wilbur in the role of Michael Myers, as the studio executives wanted him to appear less bulkier. This resulted in continuity error as the last third of the film features a slimmer Myers. However, Wilbur makes a cameo appearance as a doctor who is killed by Myers in the finale. Some of the additional footage incorporated into the finale of the film was shot at Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles.

Post-production
In addition to the re-shoots prompted by the poor test screening, the film also underwent significant editing in post-production, resulting in brisker pacing and a "flashier" cinematic style that favored "blood and guts," but, according to Farrands, ultimately resulted in a "more confusing" movie. From writer Farrands, the use of stylized flash cuts prominent in the final theatrical cut of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers were not originally intended, and he likened the style of the final product to a "MTV video rather than a Halloween film." Composer Alan Howarth similarly called the final product a "fix job," with numerous elements of the production being in flux both during and after the initial filming. In addition to Howarth's score being redone, the film's sound design was also significantly altered from Howarth's original "minimalist" design.

Musical score
The original music score is composed by long-time Halloween contributor Alan Howarth, his work in the series dating back to his collaboration with John Carpenter on Halloween II. However, Howarth's score was redone by music editor Paul Rabjohns when the film went through reshoots. A soundtrack album was released by Varèse Sarabande, and is an unusual combination of the music featured in the original cut of the film, as well as that of the final theatrical cut. According to Howarth, he helped re-score the revised cut of the film, incorporating the use of guitar and drums in addition to the original score, which had been more synthesizer and piano-based. Howarth's official score for the film was released on CD October 24, 1995.

The music of Alabama-based rock band Brother Cane was featured throughout the movie. The music came from their 1995 release Seeds on Virgin Records. The album's hit single "And Fools Shine On" can be heard when Kara, Tim and Beth arrive at school in their car. The song is also heard during the closing credits. Three other Brother Cane songs (all from the Seeds album) are featured in the film: "Hung on a Rope", "20/20 Faith", and "Horses & Needles". "Disconnected" by the group I Found God is also featured in the film.

Track listing

Release
The film's troubled production resulted in two cuts of the film, which prompted a legal battle between the film's production company, Nightfall, who wanted to release the original cut, and its distributor, Dimension Films, who had incorporated reshoots and additional material. Ultimately, Dimension Films won the dispute, and their cut of the film was officiated for theatrical release.

An earlier teaser trailer of the film employed the title Halloween 666: The Origin of Michael Myers, which according to Daniel Farrands, came before an official title had been decided, and that the trailer title was a combination of an earlier script titled The Origin of Michael Myers by another writer, and Farrands' original script titled Halloween 666. At one point, executive producer Moustapha Akkad asked Farrands for a title, who suggested The Curse of Michael Myers due to the troubled production. Although Farrands was half-joking, Akkad took the name to heart and decided upon it. Farrands also adds that this coincidentally made the subtitles similar to those in The Pink Panther films, which also used Return, Revenge, and Curse subtitles as Halloween's fourth, fifth and sixth films, respectively.

Box office
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was released on September 29, 1995 in the United States, and brought in a $7,308,529 opening weekend gross, coming in second to serial killer thriller Seven, being the first film in the series to be on par with Halloween II's opening weekend gross (both Halloween 4 and 5 had earned under $7 million). The film went on to gross a total of $15,116,634 at the U.S. box office, from an estimated $5 million budget.

Critical reception
The film has a 6% approval rating on the internet review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Daniel Kimmel of Variety called the film "tired" and "run-of-the-mill", while Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said the film lacked suspense and said that "not even the presence of the late, gloriously histrionic Donald Pleasence can liven things up," deeming it "bland", "deadening", and "by far the worst in the series."

Stephen Holden of The New York Times called the film's script "impossibly convoluted", and wrote that "shock effects are applied with such hamfisted regularity that they quickly backfire." Josh Hartl of The Seattle Times criticized the film's conventionality, writing: "instead of sending up the current glut of serial-killer movies, the filmmakers trot out the old slasher tactics." Jack Mathews of the Los Angeles Times similarly criticized the film's lack of originality, comparing it negatively to its predecessors.

Richard Harrington of the Washington Post also criticized the script, writing: "While director Joe Chapelle and writer Daniel Farrands took advantage of a clearance sale at the Horror Cliche Emporium, they forgot to stop in at Plots R Us." The Time Out London film guide deemed the film "A series of competently engineered shock moments jollied along by a jazzed-up version of John Carpenter's original electronic score: slicker than crude oil and just as unattractive."

Home media
The film was first released for home media on VHS on October 7, 1996 from Buena Vista Home Entertainment. A DVD followed on October 10, 2000. In January 2010, the film was released for the first time on Blu-ray in Canada from Alliance Films alongside Halloween H20: 20 Years Later and Halloween: Resurrection with no bonus material. The film was released on Blu-ray and again on DVD in the United States on May 10, 2011 by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment, once again with no bonus features.

Anchor Bay Entertainment and Shout! Factory once again released the film on Blu-ray on September 23, 2014 as a part of their 14-disc box set containing the entire series. This release also contained extensive bonus features, such as a commentary from writer Daniel Farrands and composer Alan Howarth, interviews with producers Malek Akkad and Paul Freeman, actresses Marian O'Brien, J. C. Brandy, and Danielle Harris, George P. Wilbur, makeup artists John Carl Buechler and Brad Hardin, as well as Howarth, in addition to deleted scenes and archival behind-the-scenes footage and interviews, and a tribute to Donald Pleasence. Lionsgate released yet another standalone Blu-ray on September 15, 2015 containing The Producer's Cut, but without any of the bonus features featured on the 14-disc release.

While the film was initially released on VHS in Australia with a rating of MA15+, the DVD was not released until October 8, 2014, with no extras.

Alternate versions
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is notorious among Halloween fans for having multiple versions. The Producer's Cut is the best known; however, a Director's Cut also exists with footage cut by the MPAA. The theatrical version was the only version commercially available&mdash;with the Director and Producer's cuts existing as low-quality bootlegs&mdash;until the Producer's Cut was included in the official Complete Collection box set released by Scream Factory and Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2014.

The Producer's Cut
The original cut of the film that screened for test audiences prior to the reshoots became known colloquially as The Producer's Cut, and bootlegged copies of it surfaced among film collectors. This cut of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers features numerous differences, ranging from different scores and musical cues to substantial shifts in plot, particularly regarding the film's conclusion. In a retrospective interview, Farrands noted that the finale in this cut of the film was sufficiently "creepy" and "Gothic," but conceded that it lacked intensity, which is largely what prompted Dimension Films to begin reshoots. The Producer's Cut of the film garnered a cult following, according to writer Farrands: "It's amazing the life that [Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers] has continued to have because there is this alternate version that has been, kind of in-the-vault all these years."

In the finale of The Producer's Cut, Kara is to be used as a human sacrifice for Myers, and awakens at Smith's Grove Sanitarium on a concrete slab, surrounded by the cult's followers. She is ultimately saved by Tommy, who uses runes to stop Michael from pursuing them, and they escape with Jamie's newborn baby; it is implied by Kara in the film that the baby is a product of incest between Jamie and Michael. The original ending of the sixth film was different, following a different aspect of the plot involving Dr. Wynn and the whole cult keeping true to cult duties, planning Michael to sacrifice the baby to be relinquished from the curse that will be passed onto Danny after he sacrifices his mother. Later, after telling the others he has got “a little business to attend to”, Loomis walks back into the sanitarium to find a seemingly-defeated Michael lying on the floor of the main hallway after having his power drained from him by a circle of runes set by Tommy Doyle. Upon removing the mask telling him it was all over, the person is revealed to be Dr. Wynn, who was forced by Michael to switch outfits so that he could escape. With his dying breath, he grabs Loomis's hand and says, "It's your game now, Dr. Loomis." After Wynn dies, Loomis looks at the wrist of the hand Wynn had just grabbed, and the Thorn symbol appears on his wrist. Realizing now that Loomis himself is now to act as the leader of the cult, he screams. This scream is used in the final ending.

Another substantial difference is the death of Jamie Lloyd: In The Producer's Cut, Jamie does not die at the beginning of the film, and survives a knife attack by Michael in the barn. She remains in a coma and is taken to the hospital, where Loomis and Wynn visit her. Midway through the film, a "Gothic" montage occurs, which reveals in fragmented detail the conception of Jamie's child among the cult. After the sequence, an unseen person, later revealed to be Wynn, shoots the unconscious Jamie in the head with a silenced pistol. John's death scene in The Producer's Cut was shorter; in the theatrical cut, an additional shot (completed during the reshoots) was incorporated of his head graphically exploding from the power surge. There are other various minor shots throughout The Producer's Cut version that were also extracted or truncated in the theatrical cut.

The Producer's Cut remained officially unreleased for over twenty years. It had its first public exhibition on October 27, 2013 at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles. Screenwriter Farrands was present for a short Q&A, in which he stressed that there was still a major push in the works to get this version a proper release. He also said that the studio allowing this version to be screened in public for the first time, and the overwhelmingly positive response, were both huge steps in the right direction.

A few select scenes from the Producer's Cut can be seen in the television version of the film. The scenes were re-inserted to increase the running time of the film.