In 1995, I saw Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (sans the 6 in the title of this new cut) on opening day. A lifelong fan of the series, I was excited for a new trip to Haddonfield, my first in a theater. 88 minutes later I was crushed, because it was one of the worst movies I've ever seen, no hyperbole. It was ugly, stupid, and seemingly assembled by an editor who was blind, incompetent, and possibly incontinent. Over the next 19 years, I heard stories of an alternate cut, available via blurry convention floor bootlegs, that was supposed to rectify so many problems with the theatrical cut.
Now that Scream Factory and Anchor Bay have teamed up to offer the fabled producer's cut on a beautiful, comprehensive blu-ray, I have finally had the opportunity to see the changes for myself.
Eh.
There's more Donald Pleasence (always welcome) and less gore (also welcome, not because I'm not fond of the red stuff but because the Halloween series was built on suspense, not gore), but there's also more awful dialogue about Druids and runes and stellar cartography and oh look at that I just fell asleep in mid-sentence.
No matter which cut you watch (they're both on the blu-ray), the movie is still a big bowl of fuck you. No suspense, no fun, just piles and piles of exposition, a handful of unbearably broad performances, and multiple stab wounds.
Not a great start to Scary Movie Month, but I'm still glad I finally got to see it, it truly is fascinating how a movie can be reshaped in the editing room. My goal this year is to watch a new-to-me movie every day of October, so stay tuned, fans of me failing miserably at things!
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