The Curse of the Thorn

 

When I went to see "Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers" (1995), I was finally of age to see a Rated R film and this was only my second seen in a theater after seeing the third Alien film in 1992 with my aunt. I went with my sister, her future husband and a girl I was crushing on at the time. The girl loved it, later taking a boyfriend to see it, much to my disappointment. Funnily enough, just a couple years ago on Facebook that same girl, now in her late 30s, talked to me about that theatrical experience, the good ole days. At the time, I didn't know there was a lot of footage cut from the film. Quite frankly, I kept wondering what was wrong with the version. It was clearly the victim of serious shearing, with flash cuts that seemed to gut obviously important content.

In 2014, I noticed the Producer's Cut on Blu Ray and was excited to finally own the true definitive version, offered as an alternative to what AMC and other channels show in October. It was sort of buried in the Walmart Halloween section. I happened to eye it next to yet another Stephen King set and whatever Bloomhouse had at the time. I wasn't even expecting the release. It was barebones, with no special features. It was sort of an unheralded release. But it's complete, clean, and no longer a roughly patched bootleg. All the parts are there, no abusive cuts and Howarth's score is very close to Carpenter in terms of tone and mood. No abrupt yank from one scene to the next, with all the connective tissue grafted and assembled into a cohesive framework.

Now saying all that--the Curse of Thorn story, the Man in Black, Samhain, the Druids and power of the runes, credit to Halloween V mostly for basic introduction to where these elements got a kick in the pants while the likes of Halloween II (1981) and even Halloween III (1982) provide bits later used, as a motivational force behind The Shape--I'm more or less not full of the warm and fuzzies towards the supernatural, convoluted story arc.

There are plenty of fans who actually really enjoy the Thorn arc and that is fully restored with Dr. Loomis even receiving his own thorn mark passed to him from Mitchell Ryan's Dr. Wynn.

 There are rituals, locals in authority roles in Haddonfield wearing robes, Thorn written in blood on Jamie's baby and burned into hay at a barn, Thorn as a constellation of stars, Michael's evil given exposition, the voice communicating to Marianne Hagan's son to kill for Wynn and his followers, an actual explanation as to why Pleasence shouts in pain at the end, Michael ditching his mask for Wynn's Man in Black suit, the whole bloodline of The Myers needing to die so Michael would be released from the evil possessing him, Hagan's Kara Strode needing to protect her son from the voice wanting him to take Michael's place, and Loomis sort of forced to be Michael's "guardian" instead of pursuer are all included in this cut. And all of this refitted into the film, even if I am not the audience for this material, just benefits Halloween 6. It does feel as if the pieces to the puzzle cut away and tossed in the box have been found and applied...the puzzle is now whole.

I will say that the Howarth score, the Salt Lake City location during the right season, the autumnal ambience and October feel, how the pace has been slowed down and Haddonfield at Halloween is given the chance to be felt and experienced are why I personally grooved to the Producer's Cut. The score, though, really stood out in this late Saturday night viewing. It punches the scenes, especially when Kara finds her brother and his girlfriend dead in a bed, her mom dropping from the ceiling, and her son in the same area as Michael approaching her. Wilbur, to his credit, has the walk down and the soul seems occupied by a force instead of a human mind contemplating actions. What this lacks are effective kills...those in the reshoots for the theatrical release such as the head explosion and Jamie's hideous thresher murder are not in the Producer's Cut. And the Brother Cane song at the end of the Theatrical Cut really is missed. So even if I prefer the Producer's Cut for it's "completeness", there are positive points from the TC that I can't deny. 

Jamie's fate in both versions is still quite dismissive of the character so I'm kind of glad Harris didn't return to play the role. I remember at the time feeling so disappointed of her absence but seeing how Jamie is mistreated--in the PC she's stabbed by Michael and later shot in the head by Wynn--in Halloween 6, it was for the best