Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers

Starring Donald Pleasence, Paul Rudd, Marianne Hagan, and Mitch Ryan. The sixth installment in the Halloween film series, the plot depicts Michael Myers hunting down the infant son of his niece, Jamie Lloyd. The film marks the final appearance of Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis before his death, as well as the feature film debut of Paul Rudd, who portrays a now adult Tommy Doyle from the original Halloween (1978).

Shot in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1994, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers had a troubled post-production. Its original cut performed poorly with test audiences, leading to the film undergoing a series of reshoots and edits. The finished film was distributed by Dimension Films, who would go on to distribute the rest of the series until 2018’s Halloween. Pleasance died on February 2, 1995, nearly eight months before the film was released. The film was dedicated to his memory.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was released on September 29, 1995, grossing $15.1 million at the domestic box office on a budget of $5 million. It was lambasted by critics, with criticism focused on its weak story, ending, and Rudd’s performance, as well as the portrayal and mask of Michael Myers, though Pleasance’s performance was better received.

After the film’s home media release, the original workprint of the film, which featured 45 minutes of alternative footage and a different 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 September 2014, the Producer’s Cut received its first official home media release by Scream Factory as part of a Blu-ray box set of the Halloween series.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was followed by Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998, which does not contain any references to the Jamie Lloyd storyline of the prior three films (although they were featured in the original script and comic book tie-ins published by Chaos! Comics), instead serving as a direct sequel to Halloween II (1981).

On Halloween Eve, fifteen-year-old Jamie gives birth and escapes with her baby in a stolen pickup truck with Michael in pursuit.

Meanwhile, a now retired Dr. 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. As Wynn asks Loomis to return to Smith’s Grove, they overhear Jamie’s plea for help on a local radio station. Michael catches up with Jamie and kills her, only to find that she has hidden her child elsewhere.

In Haddonfield, the old Myers house is now owned by relatives of Laurie Strode’s adoptive family: John and Debra Strode, their adult children Kara and Tim, and Kara’s six-year-old son Danny, who is tormented by visions of the Man in Black telling him to commit murder.

At the boarding house across the street lives Tommy Doyle, the boy Laurie babysat in 1978, now a recluse obsessed with finding the truth behind Michael’s motives. Also hearing Jamie’s cry for help, he tracks the call down to a bus station and finds the baby, whom he names Steven.

After running into Loomis and telling him about the Strodes, Tommy locates Kara and Danny and takes them to safety at the boarding house. He tells Kara that he believes Michael is under the influence of Thorn, an ancient Druid curse that drives a person to kill their family on Halloween. He mentions that Steven will be Michael’s final sacrifice before leaving to meet up with Loomis. Meanwhile, Michael returns to his childhood home and kills Debra, John, Tim, and Tim’s girlfriend Beth.

Mrs. Blankenship, the owner of the boarding house who was babysitting Michael the night he killed his sister, tells Kara that Danny hears the same voice that Michael did. The Man in Black beckons Danny to the Myers house, forcing Kara to rescue her son from Michael. Upon returning to the boarding house, the Man in Black is revealed to be Dr. Wynn.

Cult members burst in and, with the help of Mrs. Blankenship, abduct Kara, Danny, and Steven and take them to Smith’s Grove. Kara is locked in a maximum-security ward while the boys are kept in an operating room.

Tommy and Loomis go to the sanitarium where Loomis confronts Wynn, who insinuates that the Smith’s Grove staff have been studying pure evil to learn how to control it. Steven is implied to be the successful result of in vitro fertilization to clone Michael’s DNA. Wynn wants Loomis to join him, as he was the first to see the power inside Michael.

Loomis refuses and is knocked out by a doctor. Meanwhile, Tommy frees Kara as Michael pursues them through the sanitarium. They watch as Wynn and his team prepare for a surgical procedure before Michael suddenly appears and turns against the cult, killing them all.

Tommy and Kara rescue the kids as Michael chases them into a laboratory containing fetuses from Wynn’s failed experiments. Tommy injects Michael with corrosive liquid and beats him unconscious with a lead pipe. Tommy, Kara, and the children leave Smith’s Grove while Loomis stays behind to take care of some business. Inside, Michael’s mask lies alone on the lab floor as Loomis screams in the background, leaving their fates unknown.