Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

Curse of Michael Myers, the sixth entry in the Halloween series tends to get a lot of slack among fans. Now I’m not saying this is the best movie of all time, but it’s definitely not the redheaded step child some would make it out to be. In my humble opinion, its actually one of the best in the series! It’s a very dark, creepy, moody film that finally fills us in on the question of “why” that we have about Myers intentions. Remember when I was bitching about how Rob Zombie fucked up the remake by including an origin? Well this film manages to give him one that doesn’t suck major horse cock!

“Please Michael, don’t hurt me.” That’s the first thing we hear, then we’re treated to some pretty traumatic child birth… A Mysterious women give’s birth in a mysterious facility surrounded by mysterious people. Probably the most Mysterious start to any Halloween film! The baby is taken away from the mother and given to the man in black who popped up rather randomly in the fifth film. We’re treated to a monologue about how Myers and Jamie disappeared 6 years ago. The mystery women is revealed (a little bit later anyway) as Jamie. She escapes (by this point the death toll is already up to 2! You know this movie is going to be good!) and drives off to a bus station. It’s kind of odd… if she’s apparently been missing since the events of Halloween 5 she really shouldn’t know how to drive…. Like Uncle like Niece I suppose… Anyway, she calls up a radio shock jock because the emergency lines are busy due to the epic storm outside. Turns out this is a pretty good idea, as both kinda creepy traumatized Tommy Doyle AKA the little boy from the first film and Loomis happen to be listening to the radio broadcast. Now this shock jock is coming to Haddonfield on Halloween to do a… thing on Halloween in Haddonfield. Jamie leaves her baby at the bus station and runs to a barn. Michael kills her. Next day we see Haddonfield. Apparently Halloween is banned in this town… Yet we see Halloween decorations and Trick or Treaters… must not be a very well enforced rule, despite the fact that a major plot point is this fall festival sort of deal to get Halloween back in Haddonfield. Anyway, we meet John Strode, who is Laurie’s uncle, and his wife Deborah. Living there with them is their daughter Kara and her son Danny. Also, yes. She is a total MILF. They also have a son named Tim. Tommy figures out that Jamie called from a bus station and heads there. He proceeds to magically find the baby and takes him away. He also conveniently heads to the local hospital and finds Loomis. Loomis say’s that Jamie is that last of Myers bloodline, while Tommy shows him living, crying, shitting proof. The middle part of the film is basically classic Halloween. Myers stalks and kills some folks while Loomis and Tommy are on his tail. Later on we find out that Michael suffers from the curse of thorn. Basically, the curse is what causes him to kill his family members. The Cult of thorn is apparently controlling him; possibly from the start. The film doesn’t clarify weather he’s controlled from the events of the first film, all you really know is that he was from at least 5. Thus, the plot is convoluted. Why do they impregnate Jamie just for Michael to kill the baby? Just kill Jamie and that’s it, no more Myers blood. What’s the point of bringing another child into the world just to kill it? Ugh so many questions…

This is a good movie. The plot is sort of convoluted and hard to follow but it’s alright. Plenty of good kills in this one, lots of gore.  This film is actually pretty creepy and suspenseful. This is really the only film in the series that can manage to actually make my feel uneasy while watching. It’s really dark with a gloomy mood to it; you can tell they were going for a darker film after Halloween 5. This film is different from the others, and that’s not a bad thing. It’s a bit of a fresh take on the Series, at least the Cult angle was. The middle “classic” Halloween part was great as well. You can’t go to off the wall with this sort of movies; you have to root the stuff firmly in the series but deviate from the normal style subtly. This film manages to pull it off Very well. Personally I don’t like the thorn story that much, but it does bring some uniqueness to this film that the others lack. Also, the mask Myers uses in tis film looks fantastic, much better then that shit they use in the last film.  The producers cut of the film is more popular with the Halloween fan base then the theatrical cut. Problem is, only way you can get a hold of that is by bootleg. From what I’ve heard, I think I would prefer the theatrical cut anyway… Producers cut sounds pretty lame.

Halloween 1978

Halloween is one of the greatest classic horror films of all time. it spawned 8 sequels an awful remake and a sequel to that remake. John Carpenter and Moustapha Akkad are the masterminds behind these great films. This is a spotlight on the original 1978 classic that introduces us to Michael Myers and Dr. Sam Loomis whom we’ll be following throughout the rest of the series as well as Laurie Strode, the main character from these first two.

Title - Halloween

Year - 1978

Country - USA

The film opens up in 1963 with Myers sister, Judith, and her boyfriend messing around on the couch. Quite the horror movie staple now a days, I’m sure it was still somewhat fresh in ’78. Anyway, we see them go upstairs, presumably, to do the nasty. The camera acts as Myers eyes as he picks up a knife and a clown mask, he puts the mask on and proceeds up the stairs. Either Judith’s boyfriend in a minute man or she just likes to brush her hair before sex, when Mike (the camera still acting as his eyes) gets upstairs she’s sitting naked at her vanity brushing her hair. He proceeds to stab the shit out of her. He walks right out the front door and stands on the lawn while his parents pull up. We finally get to see Michael as a little boy dressed in a clown outfit with a bloody knife and some VERY confused parents. Scene zooms out to black, the proper movie starts. That’s it, that’s his origin story and it’s perfect. It’s what makes Michael Myers Michael Myers and its perfect.

Thus, the reason why the remake fails so hard… It tries to give Myers a background story a “more developed” origin story. The problem with that is that he simply doesn’t NEED all that. It completely goes against the concept of the character. Originally the character simply snaps one fateful Halloween and decides to kill his sister. THAT’S IT! His parents are on screen for no more then half a minute and they’re perfectly normal, middle class all American parents nothing abnormal about that. Myers came from a normal suburban family, snaps and kills his sister. This is the basis for the whole character. This is what makes him scary. Rob Zombies version of the back story goes on to piss all over the Myers name. But I’ll go into that some other time.

Anyway, its now current day (aka 1978) and we get to meet Dr. Loomis, who is headed to the nuthouse where Myers has been locked away in for 15 years, When the car gets there all the patients are roaming around outside, Loomis gets out and goes to the gate, leaving the nurse who was driving alone in the car. Myers jumps on top, pulls the nurse out and steals the car. How does he know how to drive? It’s because he’s pure evil and pure evil can get away with that sort of thing. That explanation can be applied to any question you could have about Myers in this film, he’s pure evil, as explained by Loomis, and he’s back to kill on Halloween night. If you don’t like that explanation go watch another movie, perhaps one that requires no imagination. Later we’re introduced to Laurie and her two friends. One is a dumb, bubbly blond chick and the other is a bitchy brunette chick. Later still we meet the blonds boyfriend. Myers comes into town and causes havoc, watch and enjoy =D

Great, great film! An absolute classic and for good reason as it’s one of the first slasher films and an example for all the rest to follow. This film isn’t particularly bloody, it relies more on suspense. Their really isn’t even a huge body count. The plot is great, it may be a bit formulaic but you have to realize that this is one of the first slasher films so it was fresh and new at the time. Not to say this film hasn’t aged well, it’s still a great film. The musical score in great as well, perfect horror film soundtrack! Some nice tits in this film as well, just throwing that in there. Honestly the film is a bit slow, not much really happens till the later middle half but that isn't to bigf of a deal. This movie is sort of a set up for the rest of the series (atleast the next film) so you can forgive it for being a bit slow. If you haven’t seen this, you’ve either lived under a rock since ’78 or don’t like horror movies. If you haven’t seen this I implore you PLEASE watch this, its far better then the awful remake. If you’ve seen it before though, none of this is news to you. Stay tuned because I’m doing the whole (Myers) series this week.