The Monthly Rag

Originally titled HALLOWEEN 666: THE ORGIN OF MICHAEL MYERS, this tumultuous production is said to have gone through numerous re-writes and pick-up shoots, and it becomes all too obvious during its uneven eighty-eight minutes. Donald Pleasence also unfortunately died just before completion, which pretty much spelled the end of what magic was left in the barrel. Nothing remained from here and out but by-the-numbers hack n’ slash formula, and a mask that fluctuated between cranky and constipated old man expressions.

On a screenplay level, we get an almost intriguing attempt to give the Myers ghost a background. It seems that through a cult-enforced doctrine and selective experimental breeding, the powers that be behind Smith’s Grove Sanitarium have produced and controlled the murdering psychopath since his inception, which then goes on to explain why the Strode family tree has been the subject of their tampering over the years. Some nonsense about a thorn constellation is also thrown in for good measure, since they felt tying it to the actual holiday was a manditory second bird killing.

At any rate, captive Jamie Lloyd, now seventeen and missing since 1989, gives birth to the next cursed of kin, and tries like Hell to keep her from a deadly fate. Elsewhere, descendants of the original family have moved into the “old Myers house”, and soon find their ranks reduced (along with their youngest male heir hearing “voices” to kill, courtesy of the coven subplot). It’s an ambitious but cobbled together mess. What you do also get are some guilty pleasures, like a virtually unknown at the time Paul Rudd playing grown up Tommy Doyle, and the ever reliable Dr. Loomis-isms, but it’s considerably diminished returns at work.

A “Producer’s Cut” that explains more of the fractured plotline exists, and can be found fairly easily online. Though an interesting “what if” curiousity, it still doesn’t save this dreary unearthing from the proverbial stake.

Haddonfield's masked man strays momentarily from the butcher knife in HALLOWEEN: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS.