Apparently, if you are a child and your name is Tommy, you are destined to meet a masked serial killer (see Jarvis, Tommy from Friday the 13th series and Doyle, Tommy from the Halloween series). Not only that, but you will survive and are destined to meet him again when you are a messed up young adult. Forget Freddy vs. Jason. I want Tommy vs. Tommy, but make it for Alice’s hand in marriage (you know…the girl that survived multiple Nightmare on Elm Street movies).
Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers is really confusing yet fast paced movie. It was originally billed as answering all of our questions about Michael Myers, but I found that it just made the legend more confusing. I always assumed this was going to be the last one as Freddy and Jason had both met their on-screen demises, and I think they may have intended that as well.
When last we saw Michael (in Halloween 5), he had been arrested by Haddonfield police (with his mask on still?). Suddenly, a mysterious man springs him from jail in a bloody assault. His young niece, Jamie (who he had been stalking the last 2 movies), finds his jail cell empty to her horror.
TCOMM picks up 6 years later. We find that Jamie (now 15) is giving birth in a very non-traditional manner: being held against her will by some Druid cult. We are given no explanation as to who’s the father or who the girl even is initially. After the baby is born, he is whisked away while Jamie cries. Michael shows up at the complex, and a well meaning nurse gives Jamie back her baby to escape. Michael kills her while Jamie escapes.
She eventually makes her way to a bus station near Haddonfield where she abandons the baby and flees (She calls into a Howard Stern wannabe and tells him that Michael’s after her.). Michael pursues, and doesn’t realize that she left the baby back at the station. Goodbye, Jamie (too bad your parents didn’t name you Tommy).
Tommy Doyle, the boy Laurie Strode was babysitting during the events of the first Halloween movies, is staying at a boarding house (which should be where Tommy lived in the first movie) across the street from the Myers house. A new family (that seems to be unaware of the house’s history) now resides there: an abusive dad, a mom, their 2 college aged kids (Kara and Tim), and Kara’s 6 year old son Danny. Kara catches Tommy watching her from his window (with a camera??!!) and is put off.
Tommy deduces where the baby is and goes to get it. We are reintroduced to Dr Loomis (who has been retired and is introduced like he’s in a theatrical trailer) who goes back to work at the asylum at the beckoning of an old colleague. Tommy finds the baby. Michael returns home. Loomis calls Michael “EVIL” a few times. Tommy meets Kara by randomly picking up Danny on the streets and taking him to his bedroom. Kara is not freaked out by this at all so she decides to stay at Tommy’s. (Trust me…none of this makes sense in the movie either.)
Michael Myers shows up and starts killing people, and we spend a lot of time talking about the Curse of the Thorn. The Thorn is a tattoo (representing a constellation) that is shown on Michael’s hand at the end of part 5. We learn that it is the source of Michael’s strength and immortality. Supposedly, a child is chosen every time the constellation shows up on Halloween to slaughter its family so “the rest of the tribe may live”. Once the child is successful, the curse passes onto another.
So, if you didn’t get all that, don’t worry. TCOMM becomes a hide and seek game between Michael Myers, Tommy and Co, and the Thorn cult. None of the events really make sense together, but they are intertwined in this story. It’s really a mess. I’m not sure what the cult is doing at one point as it is doing some surgical procedure that is never explained. The writing is horrible as Michael and the cult allow Tommy, Kara, Loomis, and Danny all live inexplicably. Seriously, why? Kara is being strangled by Michael yet he walks away before the job is complete. The cult kidnaps Kara and the kids, yet knocks Tommy and Loomis out (twice!). Sloppy writing. We are told that Halloween has been canceled for many years, and yet it shows us kids walking around in costumes and decorations. The local college is even having a rally to bring it back! Pure confusion.
Films like Friday the 13th and other isolation films work well because the characters have nobody to turn to. TCOMM writers conveniently write people in and out of the script whenever necessary. It felt OK when the characters were isolated. It just felt the isolation was just too convenient. In the final act, the characters all end up at the asylum. Of course there is no security… In fact, there’s nobody to be found (at least until Michael shows up and then random victims show up just for the slaughter)! One character is killed in the middle of the rally parking lot, and somehow Michael strings him up in a tree without anybody noticing.
The kills in this movie are OK. There’s nothing too exciting, and even then some are confusing. The power goes out on Kara’s abusive dad, but the washing machine continues going. (He even points this out to us.) I’m glad Michael has had time to learn about home wiring to pull off this kill. And if he is simply out for his great nephew, then why bother with that family? And, as Tommy lives across the street and figures that Michael will return home, why keep the baby there? Why not isolate him someplace where he has an advantage or even a plan? Why is Michael slaughtering the cult members if they control him?
The Curse of Michael Myers – Final Thoughts
Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers is currently on Netflix (and was on Fear Fest the other night). It’s worth a look if you want to see a young Paul Rudd in one of his first film roles (as Tommy Doyle), but don’t feel obligated to watch just because it’s part of the series. The movies after this one ignore it as well. If you need me, I’ll be down at the courts today changing my sons’ names to Tommy.
Buy Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers (Unrated Producer’s Cut) [Blu-ray] on Amazon
Of all the Halloween Movies, this mask was one of the WORST!!! Only H.1 and 2 are good looking masks.