Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:00 pm
This sucker was made in '95, a full six years after Halloween V was released. This represents the biggest lull between films in the entire series. What's funny is that it actually looks like they put thought into developing an interesting (though certainly not plausible) story, then when it came time to give the ideas flesh & blood, the found the worst writers in the universe & gave them the typewriters from "The Naked Lunch." This film easily has the most missed potential of any in the series.
This was Donald Pleasence's final film. It's not quite as bad as Raul Julia doing Street Fighter for his final performance, but it's still a dismal end to the dude that used to be Blofeld, for fuck's sake. What's more, when Pleasence died, the only recurring actor w\ any talent was gone. If the producers would've known that Don'd be dead, I sincerely hoped they'd've put more effort into this movie.
Anyhow, onto the actual film. It starts off w\ a tie-in to IV & V & a rather pointless, poorly-written chase/stalk sequence. Later on, there's a tie-in directly to the first film, including a reintroduction of one of the characters from the original. He ends up being an interesting counterpart protagonist to Dr. Loomis. Unfortunately, the rest of the characters are so one-dimensional, unsympathetic, outright superfluous, forgotten, or underutilized that by the time the script tries (badly) to get all the odds & ends swept under the rug, you've longed since cease to care about most of them. The whole piece goes on like the worst X-Files episode you've ever seen. There's big-ass, ancient conspiracies that everyone except the heroes are in on. There's supernatural & astrological events going on left and right. There's hallucinations, mental sickness, schizophrenia, dudes in hooded black suits, pagan religious rituals, & more. Tragically, none of it goes right. The conspiracy theories are replete with gaping holes in logic & chronology, the supposed "expert" on the medieval pagan rites mispronounces the word "samhain," the Celtic world for Halloween, the schizophrenia/psychosis route doesn't make much sense since the sufferer isn't a blood relative of Michael Myers, the men in black are fucking jokes who could barely coordinate a convenience store robbery, let alone carry out a sacrificial rite, & the ending leaves more than a little something to be desired.
Maybe there's a decent film in here somewhere. But it takes writing & directing talent higher than the high school film-level to bring it to the surface. Halloween VI certainly doesn't've either of those.
Verdict : 1.5 stars.
Edited By Malcolm on 1139418084
This was Donald Pleasence's final film. It's not quite as bad as Raul Julia doing Street Fighter for his final performance, but it's still a dismal end to the dude that used to be Blofeld, for fuck's sake. What's more, when Pleasence died, the only recurring actor w\ any talent was gone. If the producers would've known that Don'd be dead, I sincerely hoped they'd've put more effort into this movie.
Anyhow, onto the actual film. It starts off w\ a tie-in to IV & V & a rather pointless, poorly-written chase/stalk sequence. Later on, there's a tie-in directly to the first film, including a reintroduction of one of the characters from the original. He ends up being an interesting counterpart protagonist to Dr. Loomis. Unfortunately, the rest of the characters are so one-dimensional, unsympathetic, outright superfluous, forgotten, or underutilized that by the time the script tries (badly) to get all the odds & ends swept under the rug, you've longed since cease to care about most of them. The whole piece goes on like the worst X-Files episode you've ever seen. There's big-ass, ancient conspiracies that everyone except the heroes are in on. There's supernatural & astrological events going on left and right. There's hallucinations, mental sickness, schizophrenia, dudes in hooded black suits, pagan religious rituals, & more. Tragically, none of it goes right. The conspiracy theories are replete with gaping holes in logic & chronology, the supposed "expert" on the medieval pagan rites mispronounces the word "samhain," the Celtic world for Halloween, the schizophrenia/psychosis route doesn't make much sense since the sufferer isn't a blood relative of Michael Myers, the men in black are fucking jokes who could barely coordinate a convenience store robbery, let alone carry out a sacrificial rite, & the ending leaves more than a little something to be desired.
Maybe there's a decent film in here somewhere. But it takes writing & directing talent higher than the high school film-level to bring it to the surface. Halloween VI certainly doesn't've either of those.
Verdict : 1.5 stars.
Edited By Malcolm on 1139418084