(1995) **1/2
I recall seeing this with JPX when it first came out and thinking it was the worst movie ever. It was the first Michael Myers movie I viewed since #2, so rather suddenly I was thrown in with Michael’s niece, Celtic baby rituals and some guy in a black hat. I wasn’t feeling very charitable towards the doddering Donald Pleasance, either. So I was mildly surprised when I threw this in and it wasn’t quite that bad. It wasn’t particularly good, mind you, but certainly not the wandering mishmash I remembered.
We open with a rather painfully long scene of Jamie Lloyd giving birth. Seems she’s been a captive of the group led by the black-clad mystery man from #5, a group that finally fleshes out the Celtic/Samhain/Halloween presence hinted at since #2. They employ Michael as sort of a free-lance security guard, and when Jamie escapes with her baby he takes off after her. I would’ve liked to see Danielle Harris reprise her Jamie role, but it’s just as well she didn’t do it since Michael impales her quickly. I suspect that would have honked me off.
(If they’d just let him kill her in #4 or #5, would he have stopped since he has no blood relatives left? I mean, do the math, people.)
Then we’re back in Haddonfield, where Tommy Doyle (the babysat kid from the first movie, played by the likeable Paul Rudd) lives across from the old Myers house, recently occupied by the relatives of Laurie’s adoptive Strode family. This includes unbelievable Asshole Dad and the actual mom from Better Off Dead, hee hee. She doesn’t serve any Frahnch fries, though. We get the basic “don’t get killed” plot along with a “keep the baby safe” plot, and a more subdued Loomis is on the scene. This time around I liked him a lot more; I thought the beard suited him. There is one line of his I remembered griping about in ’95. I think he says “do you mean to say—“ (that Jamie had a baby), but it sounds like a gout of escaping wheezy air instead of speech. Eh, he was old.
This was the third movie I watched over the weekend that featured uncontrollable minions. The Phantasm balls, the Jason hands from Hell, and this time Michael himself: as the Celtic cabal is prepping for whatever it is they do, he walks in and whacks the lot of them. Suckers!
There was only one scene in this movie that maintained its flagrant stupidity from my viewing of it ten years ago. Michael stuffs one of his kills in a tree, and the discovery happens when a little girl spends two whole minutes saying “Mommy, it’s raining red” without 1)looking up, or 2)knowing what blood looks like. I suppose that’s a decent conclusion for this review: this movie won’t piss you off too much.
8 comments:
The alternate cut of this film IS SO MUCH BETTER! I picked it up from a nerd convention years ago.
So I keep hearing. I'll have to watch that for next year.
Amazing isn't it? I haven't really recovered from this year's contest and I'm already planning next year's. Mmmm...Horrorthon.
Next year Summerisle wants to cover Man vs. Beast and I want to cover Man Stumbles into Devil Worshipping Cults. Oh why is the Thon over already? So many horror films, so little time. . .
Octopunk, didn't you have a friend who expressed surprise that there are enough horror flicks out there that you don't have to repeat them year after year? The fool!
I've heard that comment several times now (from several fools I guess, but I hope none of them are reading). Last time someone asked me that, I pointed out that it would take my entire 2004 Horrothon output (98 movies) to cover just the Slasher section at nearby Reel Video.
I think we could go years without repeating once. This year the only films I had seen before were the Wolf Man films.
Especially when you can apparently buy some semi-decent movies at the supermarket for .50 to $1!
As the guy who has to find the pictures for these uber-obscure movies from the Supermarket Dimension, I wish you wouldn't encourage him.
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