One Star Classics

As it is the season, it only makes sense to have a look at the franchise the holiday was named after: Halloween. And what a franchise it is! Not only do you have six movies in the original franchise, but the next one in the series, Halloween H20, was a direct sequel to Halloween 2. Meaning you'll have the two first movies with a direct line of four sequels, then an alternate (second) sequel with its own follow-up, Halloween: Resurrection. Add to this the two movies in Rob Zombie's reboot, and you have quite a confusing mess going on here.

But, let's be purists and look at the original franchise, or more specifically the last movie in it: Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers.

There are many, many reasons why most of the world ignored this movie. For one, Donald Pleasance, bless his (75 year old) heart (which gave out during filming), really phoned it in. I mean, I guess it's hard to expect either him or his character to be particularly excited having to deal with Michael Myers yet again (the fifth time, for those who are counting), but when director Joe Chappelle edited out most of his scenes, calling them “boring”… There's probably more truth to that than I'm comfortable to admit.

The plot doesn't help a whole lot either, harping on about some nonsense cult controlling Michael and his child(!) and god knows what else. The real question to most of us at this point, is why the hell would anyone live in the Myers-house at all? Every previous tenant has been killed by Michael. At this point, shouldn’t the city just throw in the towel, say fine, and condemn the damn thing?

I know this all sounds very negative, but there is, in fact, one glorious reason to watch Halloween 6: The Curse of siiiiigh…: Sir Paul Stephen Rudd. Yes! This film didn’t just star Paul Rudd, it also introduced him. It is Paul Rudd's first feature film! Take that and shove it, Clueless!

And, somewhat miraculously, he actually looks older in it than he does today. I don't know if there’s some sort of Benjamin Button thing going on here, but the 26 year old Rudd undeniably looks older than his own 19 years elder. Bravo, Mr. Rudd. Bravo.

Don't get me wrong, though; this is not a great performance by any means–Rudd makes Pleasance look downright enthusiastic–but come on… Paul Rudd! Who doesn't love themselves a little Paul Rudd, even if it is as an older, demented version of the kid from the original movie, Tommy Doyle?

So! I am a fan of the Halloween movies. It's probably the first franchise I got hooked on way back when, and my favorite entry is still Halloween 4, an underrated-ish kinda-classic.

In that sense, giving Curse of Oi… a watch made sense to me, and it should sort of make sense to you, too. It's a relic, maybe not because of its quality, but because of Paul Rudd. This was his start, and watching it, is like witnessing Moses before the commandments.

By Remi, Oct 29, 2014

Letterboxd summary: Six years ago, Michael Myers terrorized the town of Haddonfield, Illinois. He and his niece, Jamie Lloyd, have disappeared. Jamie was kidnapped by a bunch of evil druids who protect Michael Myers. And now, six years later, Jamie has escaped after giving birth to Michael's child. She runs to Haddonfield to get Dr. Loomis to help her again.

Ratings from around the web

Icon	Site	Score
	One Star Classics	2/6
	Letterboxd	2.1/5
	IMDb	4.7/10
	Rotten Tomatoes	9/100
	Classicmeter™	28%

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