Why I love Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers
"Halloween" (1978) is one of the first horror films I ever saw, and certainly the first slasher film. "Halloween" is notable as being largely successful both critically and commercially and influenced many slasher horrors and the horror genre in general (the Friday the 13th series was created entirely on the strength of Halloween and it's box office returns) while the film itself was influenced by "Psycho".
As previously mentioned, "Halloween" was a box office success. Regardless of the critical impact of the film, financial success inevitably lead to sequels. The Micheal Myers story is kind of a gift that keeps on giving, so you can see why film makers have continued to run with it. The ambiguity of the first film and it's characters provides a wealth of material for sequels, and the fact that Micheal Myers is seemingly invincible only adds further to the sequel potential. "Halloween II" followed in 1981, with a production budget of $2,500,000 (towering over the budget of the first film with it's tiny $325,000 budget), "Halloween II" went on to make over 25 million at the box office worldwide, significantly lower than the 70 million gross of "Halloween" but still a significant success. "Halloween II" sought to bring closure to the Michael Myers/Laurie Strode saga. The ending of the film hints heavily at the demise of Michael & almost sort of ties up the ends of the narrative. Sort of.
Following the success of both "Halloween" and "Halloween II", Debra Hill & John Carpenter decided to take the franchise in an entirely new direction. What they intended to do with the third "Halloween" film was to create a new story, thus creating a pattern in which a new self contained story would begin after each sequel. The intention was to make "Halloween" into an anthology series, but that was not to be. "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" was released in 1982 to lukewarm critical reception and a significant drop in box office gross. Many critics expressed their distaste for the new direction for the series and criticizing the film as simply a method of cashing in off the back of the popular Michael Myers saga.
The critical beating of Season of the Witch kind of killed off the series for a while. It took six years (which is basically about a hundred years in the land of horror movie sequels) in order for the series to be resurrected. Adopted by a new studio and a new set of writers and producers, "Halloween" was once again reintroduced to cinema audiences in the guise of "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" in 1988. If Debra Hill and John Carpenter had their way and the series was allowed to carry on as an anthology, Halloween 4 would have allegedly been some kind of ghost story, which sounds kinda weird but I am oddly fascinated by that idea. Too bad it'll never see the light of day hah. Anyway, back to Micheal Myers killing people! "Revenge" sought not only to revisit the character, but also to broaden the origin story of Myers, giving his story more depth.
So obviously, it transpires that Myers didn't die in "Halloween II" (SPOILERZ) and that Laurie Strode died in a car accident in between II and 4. Laurie is succeeded by her daughter, Jamie Lloyd who is as a result, the niece of Micheal. Micheal pursues her and anyone who has anything to do with her. Jamie Lloyd is a fairly key element in both "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" and "Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers" (1989) and she also plays a small part in the plot of the final part of the "new" trilogy "Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers" (1995). This trilogy follows on from "Halloween II" (obviously ignoring III as it has nothing to do with Michael Myers) but the story-line established in 4,5 & 6 would later be ignored in both Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) and Halloween: Resurrection (2002), both of which reintroduce the character of Laurie Strode, thus splitting the narrative into two separate realities, one in which Laurie was never killed & Jamie Lloyd was never born, thus negating the events that transpired in 4, 5 & 6. Crazy.
And for me, it's kind of sad that this is what happened. Contrary to the critical reception of the trilogy (often referred to as the "thorn trilogy" or the "curse of thorn trilogy") I think this set of films is pretty great. But in particular, a little gem called "Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers". But first, some 4, 5 & 6 back story. The trilogy finds it's basis in a couple of key elements, most notably the "man in black" (Terence Wynn) who appears in the "Halloween" as an administrator at Smith Grove Sanitarium from which Michael Escapes. The trilogy is referred to as the "thorn trilogy" due to the prominence of something called "the curse of thorn". The Halloween wikia refers to the "curse of thorn" as being -
"The Curse of Thorn is a constellation that could appear during Halloween. To prevent mass death among the tribes, one family was chosen to bear the curse. This curse would require the bearer to sacrificially murder his or her entire family, which in turn would spare their community from events such as plague and drought. The curse also appears to give the cursed inhuman strength and immunity from death.
The curse was greatly explored in the Producer's Cut of Halloween 6, with more importance given to Dr. Wynn and his Cult. At the end of that cut, a dying Wynn passes the curse to Dr. Loomis, which is the real reason Loomis screams at the end of the film."
Basically, Dr Wynn is a member of the cult and Micheal Myers is the one that was cursed, thus the murder of his sister way back in "Halloween". It also explains the fact that Michael is so freakishly strong and bloody unstoppable, so that's nice. People afflicted with the curse are marked with this symbol -
Which can be seen on Loomis (Donald Pleasense) at the end of the film. Sadly, Halloween 6 was the last role by Donald before his death in February 1995, meaning that the film was released in the September posthumously. Also, due to the retcon of the series by H20: 20 Years Later, the curse of thorn saga was basically wiped from the slate. Sad.
With that little bit of back story out the way, let me continue to ramble on about why I love The Curse of Michael Myers (and why everybody should). It's hard for me to put my finger on what it is exactly, but there's an ambiance about this film that is just completely different to the others in the series. It really successfully captures an Octoberish/Halloween-esque atmosphere. Part of me wants to believe that it's my deep love for anything Paul Rudd related that makes me love this film (he does have magical powers that make me love anything he's in) but that's not it. Despite being only 6 years older than Halloween 5, it feels so much fresher.
The casting is stellar, with Rudd as Tommy Doyle (the boy Laurie was babysitting in the first film remember?! REMEMBER) and Marianne Hagan as Kara Strode (relatives of Laurie) who live across the street from him. Jamie Lloyd features, this time played by J. C Brandy who is seen as being pregnant at the beginning of the film, giving birth on the 30th of October, 1995.
The film is famous for the "Producers Cut", a cut of the film featuring 40 odd minutes of scenes removed from the theatrical cut, making the film and the trilogy as a whole more cohesive (dare I say it, the entire series up to this point). It significantly boosts the films run time from its original 88 minutes and creates what I would argue to be one of the most interesting entries to the series. This cut will be receiving it's first official release this September in the Halloween Complete Blu-Ray collection (finally!) and will hopefully be well remastered to blend the cut footage with the theatrical footage. Currently, the film exists as a number of bootleg releases that can be found round the internet and in hard copy on eBay.
To summarize, I believe "Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers" to be an underrated gem and in the modern day horror landscape of endless Paranormal Activity clones, it is nice to go back to this film as it feels like a breath of fresh air. The editing is pacy, like that of a music video (it was 1995, after all) and the tone is perhaps the darkest of the series. It's got evil druid cults, Michael Myers and Paul Rudd in it, what more do you want. Nothing. Nothing at all.
22 Jump Street
In the way way back of 2012 (2012 isn't really that long ago, but it kind of feels like it is), 21 Jump Street was released. Beyond the appeal of the casting decisions, I decided to watch the film on the strength of the handful of episodes I'd watched from the original 1980's 21 Jump Street series starring Johnny Depp. The film was a pleasant surprise and exceeded my expectations. Released in March (a time of year plagued by terrible comedies/films in general attempting to capitalize on the Easter/early Summer market) I was skeptical as to how the film would turn out. The film was well thought out and structured, with notable references to the original series. I also enjoyed how the film clearly wasn't just a Channing Tatum/Jonah Hill vehicle in that they really fit well with their roles and made them 3 dimensional.
So, I was happy to see that the film would be getting a sequel when it was announced in the June of 2013. And this optimism was not unjustified. I'm going to go right off the bat and say that I think that 22 Jump Street is the strongest of the two films. The comedy was even more self aware than the previous film (mocking the idea of sequels in a way that reminded me of similar material used in Scream 2) and even better chemistry between the cast members. Where 21 Jump Street was more slowly paced, 22 throws the audience in at the deep end (assuming that they have seen the first film, and saving a serious amount of time) and allows for further expansion of the characters and their individual plot lines than was possible in 21.
So, I was happy to see that the film would be getting a sequel when it was announced in the June of 2013. And this optimism was not unjustified. I'm going to go right off the bat and say that I think that 22 Jump Street is the strongest of the two films. The comedy was even more self aware than the previous film (mocking the idea of sequels in a way that reminded me of similar material used in Scream 2) and even better chemistry between the cast members. Where 21 Jump Street was more slowly paced, 22 throws the audience in at the deep end (assuming that they have seen the first film, and saving a serious amount of time) and allows for further expansion of the characters and their individual plot lines than was possible in 21.
An element of the film I particularly enjoyed was the further mockery of the concept of film sequels during the closing credits of the film. Kind of a shame hardly anyone who was in the cinema actually stayed to watch the credits (I swear the woman two rows down from me literally dived out of her seat at the exact second that the film ended in order to get out first, people are weird) cause they another meta-layer to the films already well constructed self aware reality. The ending credits feature Tatum & Hill going through a series jobs set by Jump Street during their police work. The jobs are showcased as being further sequels to the film (23 Jump Street, 24 Jump Street etc.) My personal favourite was "27 Jump Street" Culinary School in which Hill and Tatum play across from Bill Hader as some kind of evil chef. Amazing.
"It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (2005 - Present)
As mentioned in a previous post, I recently reactivated my Netflix account and have since become some kind of hermit stereotype, spending every moment where I'm not out or at work watching TV shows and films in a never ending cycle. Netflix goes to play the next episode and I don't stop it. "Are you still watching The Office?" it will say, every couple of episodes, to which I will reply "WELL OBVIOUSLY" and then rapidly thrash about trying to find the PlayStation controller.
At the minute there's a couple of things on there that I have found myself especially drawn to. But at the forefront is "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" (2005 - Present). Always Sunny is actually a show I began watching quite a few years ago. I watched the occasional episode and really enjoyed it & then withdrew from it, telling myself that I should watch it from the beginning to enjoy it to the full effect and to fully understand plot-lines and character development. Literal years passed until I stumbled upon the series on Netflix. I was really happy to see that not only did Netflix have the series, they had ALL of it. Always Sunny DVD's are not readily available in the UK and even though I have a region 1 player, the cost of springing for the entire series on DVD when it's in it's 9th season is just crazy talk.
ANYWAY, I've been obsessed ever since I pressed play on season 1 episode 1 and it took me a matter of weeks to get to season 9 episode 10. In short, I am in love with this show. And the thought of waiting until January for season 10 is both distressing and exciting.
As I previously mentioned, I had previously watched the show a number of years ago and watched quite a few episodes. But the episodes seem to get stronger and stronger as seasons go by. In comparison to many sitcoms, where quality declines as time goes by, Always Sunny just goes from strength to strength.
One of my personal favourite things about the series is Charlie Day and his performance as Charlie Kelly. He puts absolutely everything into every scene and it shows. This scene from "Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack" (season 4, episode 10) is something I can just watch over and over -
Been massively neglecting my blog as of late due to holidays/uni/work and I just kind fell out of the cycle of posting stuff and have repeatedly told myself to post something and kept failing to do so. I've finished uni now for the summer so I'll have plenty of time to post again (and watch stuff to post about!). I have recently reactivated my Netflix account and have found myself watching entire shows in the space of about a week. Literally ever spare moment that I have had over the last month or so has been consumed by Netflix, so I think I'll be keeping it for a while this time! (I usually bail after the free month is up)
So I should have plenty of interesting material to write about in the coming days and weeks. Tonight, I'm off to watch 22 Jump Street.
So I should have plenty of interesting material to write about in the coming days and weeks. Tonight, I'm off to watch 22 Jump Street.
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