THE RATING


THE LAIR EXPERTS

Matt: Similar to 'Halloween 6', this was the Producer's Cut of the movie, complete with a different ending, different soundtrack, and about 45 minutes of different footage. The producers delivered with a lot of the right elements that make a 'Halloween' film a success, and get Michael back to being a gruesome, emotionless killing machine. George Wilbur returns as Michael and delivers a totally different performance than he did in the fourth film. The mask was at least passable in this film, and Wilbur was very scary in this one up until the last act. From that point on, there was really nothing he, nor anyone else in the cast, could do about it. The script was so well done until that last act that it could have gone down as one of the great sequels of all-time. Instead, it has practically fallen off the face of the earth, and is even rarely played on TV anymore.

Donald Pleasence delivers his swan song as Loomis, as he unfortunately passed away following filming. He was again as great as always, but his role was very limited. This time around, the plot focuses on a grown-up Tommy Doyle (Paul Rudd) in his quest to discover the true secrets of Michael Myers. His trail leads him back to the Myers House, which is currently occupied by members of the Strode family, relatives of Laurie. So you could almost predict what was going to happen there. Other supporting cast worth noting are Marianne Hagan as Kara Strode, Bradford English and Kim Darby as John and Debra Strode, and Mitchell Ryan as the diabolical Dr. Wynn, who is revealed to have been part of the conspiracy that allowed Michael to escape Smith's Grove in the first place. It is also worth nothing that the role of Barry Simms (played by Leo Geter of 'Silent Night, Deadly Night' fame) was originally offered to shock jock Howard Stern, but he turned it down because he was putting his own movie, 'Private Parts' together at the same time. Geter did a good job playing the role, but watching it now, you can clearly see it was written with Stern in mind. My, what a different movie THAT would have been.

Alan Howarth returns for his third film behind the music, equalling John Carpenter's input to that point. Howarth does deserve credit for bringing back some of the classic Carpenter tracks in this version of the soundtrack, which is far superior to the mechanical sounds we were ultimately given in the theatrical release. And since the producers forced him to make those changes to the score, it falls more on them than Howarth for its failure.

Despite the great elements included in the film, the indecisiveness in the final cut and the cult angle totally killed this movie. The producers were faced with the daunting task of explaining Michael's madness-- and they failed miserably. They couldn't even agree with each other on what direction to go. Note to the producers-- Michael's madness needs no explanation. That's what makes him scary!. RIP Donald Pleasence. 4 out of 10.

A.J.: The only reason I gave this one a six is because I thought it could use another 6 in the title. For those of you out there that never saw or heard of this movie until now, trust me. Don't lose sleep over it. It's nothing great. It's just confusing and stupid as hell. The whole movie is just dealing with the entire cult angle. It sucks, so just stick with the original Halloween 6. 6 out of 10.


THE FANS

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