Donald Pleasance would have - he always cared - so we will pick this one for tonight...
Seventeen years after the first movie - the sixth film in the series rolled into theaters. Between the film's production wrap and release the news of Donald Pleasance's passing had come out, so this was his last performance. And from what showed on movie screens - they hadn't managed to finish his role in the film - because Dr. Loomis says he's going to go do something, then a moment later they cut outside to a shot of the building and a dubbed in scream provides a terribly lackluster last moment for the character.
I really didn't like this movie at all in its theatrical presentation - and I slammed it in my review in Encore Magazine. (Favorite line I wrote: "The movie doesn't even end - it just stops; and we're left with the true curse of Michael Myers - that he'll be back in a part 7." That there was a part 7 and it was actually a very entertaining sequel was not something I could have predicted.)
But back at this sixth movie - in a very weird turn of events there was a "Producer's Cut" of the movie - which provided a very different experience from the director's version that played theaters. I saw a bootleg VHS of it a friend loaned me - and while it still wasn't exactly a GOOD movie, it was MUCH better than the theatrical cut.
It appeared that the Producer's Cut would remain something passed around in these bootleg editions - but then it was announced that a big Blu-Ray set of the entire series would actually include a remastered and cleaned up edition of the Producer's Cut along with the theatrical edition - and I started saving my pennies.
I do have that ultimate set in the video vault, and this movie is going to kick off Crazy Movie Weekend: Halloween Horrorfest 5 in less than two weeks! Please come check it out - or any of the other dozen plus scarepics we're going to watch over that weekend! If you can't make it then - come on and check out this flick with me sooner - even this very evening!
Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Fork, Cause I Am Outta Here!
This must have been a poor entry in the series indeed!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear #7 put it back on track! Was that the final episode?
It provides a last adventure for Dr. Loomis, but poor ol' Donald Pleasance is very tired and on his last legs - so it's bittersweet at best. And then there's the problem that the filmmakers - lacking the imagination to come up with a real ending for part 5 - had almost jokingly ended that movie on a cliffhanger - with a mysterious "Man in Black" who gets off a bus in Haddonfield, then breaks a captured Michael Myers out of jail by using a maching gun to massacre the entire Haddonfield police force (!) No, there should NEVER have been automatic weapons in a Halloween movie. So now these filmmakers had to build on that ending - and they decided to go with a HUGE and far reaching conspiracy plot with mythology so dense they should have passed out thick explanatory volumes with your ticket so you could try to follow along. And a small detail but an important one - the Myers house is occupied again in this movie. It was always shown to be a normal looking small town house. The one they use in this movie is a big gothic thing that would have comfortably fit the Addams Family or the Munsters. Boggling. Part 7 was not the last. Part 8 was the last entry in that storyline - then there was a reboot for number 9 and it got a sequel for number 10.
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