Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers 4K 1995

A sequel to the famous thriller about the ruthless maniac Michael Myers, who once again appears in the small American town of Haddonfield on the eve of the All Saints' Day holiday.

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Creating with Debra Hill the legend of Haddonfield, known as Michael Myers, director John Carpenter was well aware that the main thing was to stop in time and not turn concentrated horror into a conveyor belt, which a priori could not scare. In this regard, Carpenter decided to limit his functions in the work on the sequel, and then left "Halloween", which began to rapidly destroy the mythology of Myers, turning him from a silent killer in the object of worship of teenagers, ready to buy branded toys and run through the streets in the famous white masks. The indefatigable producers, who once decided to refresh the franchise with a side story without Myers' participation, and failed disastrously, began to bring back the maniac with special persistence, and even the absence of Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis, the main character of the first two parts, did not stop them from endlessly exploiting the franchise, in which very soon found a place for the niece of long-suffering Lori Strode, who never managed to avoid an untimely death, though it did not matter for what reason. Having given Jamie Strode ample screen time and opportunities to take down Myers, Mustafa Akkad and company knew that sooner or later they would need to look again for other options to continue the franchise, as fans needed freshness and the maniac needed new challenges to expand the trail of his bloody adventures. But instead of building a logical, suspenseful and actually frightening spectacle in the style of the first parts of "Halloween," the producers decided to create something akin to a parody itself, following in the footsteps of their colleagues from "Friday the 13th," who completely forgot how to pile on the anxiety. "Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers" turned out to be a mere disappointment for the franchise fans, and the situation is not saved even by the suddenly appeared mysticism, which is supposed to somehow explain the nature of the immortal essence of the killer, who for decades surprises by his astonishing persistence. And while audiences gave Myers renewed attention, allowing the film to pay off at the box office, it was abundantly clear that the current order of things needed to change, as the old traditional slashers began to live out their last days, gradually passing ahead of the "Scream" and "I know what you did last summer," with a healthy intrigue and irony, but in no way unintentional absurdity.

So, the plot of the film unfolds years after young Jamie Lloyd escapes death at the hands of her own uncle Michael Myers, but despite Dr. Loomis' (Donald Pleasance) assurances that the maniac has left our world forever, it was still too early to say goodbye to the incarnation of pure evil. Once again outwitted by death, Myers returns to the streets to finish off his kin, and this time his luck finally smiles on him. Inexorably pursuing his goal, Michael does find the grown-up Jamie (J. S. Brandy), thus putting an end to the long confrontation, but as much as he doesn't want to get back to the family business, he can't do it yet, because his niece has a minor son who is urgently sheltered by Kara Strode (Marianne Hagan) and Tommy Lloyd (Paul Rudd). And they are clearly not about to surrender to the mercy of a crazed killer, trying to shield the unfortunate child from a relative whose bloodlust has no limits. Going straight to the baby, Michael traditionally does not notice the obstacles in his way, leaving behind a whole mountain of corpses. Nothing and no one can stop him, and this time we clearly see the reason for Myers's immortality, which, as it turns out, is not the plane of endurance and luck, but in the mystical rituals of some mysterious cult, which repeatedly pulls the hangman hailing from Haddonfield back into the streets of the town, so he has another chance to fulfill his destiny.

The creators, to their credit, finally abandoned the ruthless exploitation of Laurie Strode and Jamie Lloyd in order to break away from the past, which has already been abused more than once, but in fact the replacement of characters did not play into the hands of "The Curse of Michael Myers", because in addition to new names and guest actors it was necessary to work properly on their character and the script of the film as a whole. And with this, the sixth "Halloween" looks like a serious problem. The previous part of the franchise, as controversial as it was, gave us experiences and anxieties not seen since the release of "Halloween 2". Laurie's daughter, the lovely Jamie, was something to hold our fists to, being in the spotlight evoked mostly warm, trusting feelings and despite the eccentricities of visions and lucid dreams, commanded respect for her struggles with the incarnation of pure nightmare. Now director Joe Chappelle falls into an artistic trap he could well have avoided and turns the narrative into the guileless march of a silent killer against all things. Forget the stylistic peculiarities of the franchise, the gradual build-up of suspense and other not insignificant components of the franchise. "Halloween 5" follows the path of least resistance, offering entertainment for unpretentious viewers for whom the most important thing is to have someone in a Myers mask in front of the lens, and everything else will supposedly work itself out. Of course, by the sixth part of the franchise the creators had managed to recreate rather spectacular murder scenes, for which almost all means at hand were spent, but there is no point in such dedication, because for all the dedication of the make-up and props department they are unable to make us care about what happens on screen, because there is nothing much to care about.

The vast majority of the picture's characters turn into a faceless, uninteresting mass just waiting for Michael Myers to come along and end its mortal existence. And the saddest thing is that by the sixth part of the franchise the influence and importance of the irreplaceable Doctor Loomis is reduced many times, and he turns into a kind of setting, which is only meant to please the old guard of admirers and nothing more. It is known that for Donald Pleasance this film was the last in his career and the shooting process was far from as easy as it was before. The creators decided to protect the actor from exhausting tests, but at the same time, in return did not offer anything substantial and serious. Loomis is simply unnecessary to the film, and his retirement would not have changed anything. At the very least, Plaisance's performance is much more interesting to watch even in the brutally cut version, while the mystical cult members bringing Myers to life elicit honest laughter and bewilderment as to what they have ever forgotten about in this franchise and what their true goals are. The script refuses to answer this and it simply makes no sense to ask anyone, because "The Curse of Michael Myers" looks downright second-rate and is clearly not trying to be anything more than a do-it-yourself production.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (88.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1, 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles
English SDH.