Halloween 6 : The Curse of Michael Myers alternate title.

The Curse you weren't meant to see.

 

As mentioned in my review, the released version of this film differed substantially from the version they had originally filmed. Following the death of the main star Donald Pleasance shortly after filming had finished. The director Joe Chappelle decided to re-film the ending, but after doing so also decided to re-structure and re-edit other parts of the movie.

The original version, known as "The Producers Cut", has never been released, but there are bootleg tapes and DVD's in circulation in the USA (check Ebay). Those who have managed to track down copies have discovered that the original version is almost an ENTIRELY different film.

In this alternate "Producers Cut" the first major difference is the films introduction. The voice over during this section is entirely different and is done by Dr Loomis (Donald Pleasance) and not Tommy (Paul Rudd). It also contained a flashback to part 5, showing the man-in-black bundling Myers into the back of a van and abducting Jamie (Danielle Harris), just before the Police station exploded.

The scene where Jamie steals a van outside a hospital, when Michael kills the van driver in this version he just snaps his neck instead of ripping his head off. In the following scene when Wynn visits Loomis at his house, there is additional dialogue in which Loomis says how he had extensive skin graft surgery to remove the burn marks he suffered in Halloween 2. Wynn tells Loomis that he has decided to retire, Loomis reminds Wynn how he was literally forced to retire after suffering a stroke.

When Myers confronts Jamie in the barn he didn't originally kill her by impaling her on farm machinery, instead he knifed her and left her for dead. The part of the film where Dr Loomis and Dr Wynn visit the crime scene, in the producers cut the scene is extended and we see Jamie still alive, lying on a stretcher (If you look closely in the theatrical version, just before the scene cuts, you can see Jamie being loaded onto the stretcher in the background). The nurse tells them "only god can save her now", which is followed by an angry confrontation with the towns Sheriff who tells them to "go back to their nut house and stop telling ghost stories".

Following the argument at the Strode's house between Kara and her Father, after she, her brother and young Danny leave for school, in the producers cut there's an additional scene showing her mother asking why the father resents their daughter so much, to which he replies "she's not my daughter any more".

Jamie meanwhile spends most of the film in hospital. Whilst the surgeons are trying to save her we are shown a nightmare she's having of Michael impregnating her and thus explaining who the father of her child is (Isn't that incense or something?). She is later shot dead by the man-in-black, telling her "your work is done".

There are also additional scene's showing Michael stalking the Strode's and other scene's showing the man-in-black following young Danny about. Danny also hears voices saying "kill for him". The rest of the film carries on more or less the same as the theatrical version, minus the exploding head. The only other exceptions being that some scene's are longer or paced differently.

The most substantial plot change was the ending. When Loomis confronts Dr Wynn in his office, in this version Wynn is dressed in Cult robes, and tells him how he and his "Thorn" cult members look after Michael and how he wants to pass his duties onto Dr Loomis.

After one of the cult members knocks Loomis out, instead of Tommy wandering off and finding Kara locked in a room. Tommy spots one of the doctors at Smithsgove dressed in their cult robes, and so mugs him and takes his costume. Kara meanwhile is tied up in the main ceremony chamber, where they are preparing to sacrifice Jamie's baby and pass the curse of the "Thorn" from Myers to Danny, but Tommy Jumps Dr Wynn and holds a knife to his throat. Having freed Danny, Kara and the baby they make a run for it, with Myers close behind.

Rather than locking themselves in a room, doping Myers up with a syringe full of sedatives when he bursts in then beating him with a pipe as they did in the theatrical version, they find themselves trapped behind a gate. Tommy stops Myers by casting a circle of rune stones and adding his blood to the circle. As Myers crosses the circle of stones he is stopped dead, as his evil is cancelled out by them. Dr Loomis then appears and opens the gate, letting them out (the scene where Loomis opens the gate is the only original scene left in the theatrical ending).

After Tommy drives off to safety with Kara and the children, Loomis returns inside to "take care of business". All that happens next in the theatrical version is we see Myers discarded mask and hear Dr Loomis screaming in the background (presumably being set about by Myers). Instead we see Loomis enter the building, where he comes across Myers who is lying in the circle of rune stones. He removes Myers mask, only to find Dr Wynn beneath it, Wynn grabs Loomis's arm and the mark of the "Thorn" cult appears on him and Wynn says "It's your game now". Loomis cries out in terror and we see Myers leaving the building dressed as the man-in-black, then the end credits roll (in the theatrical cut the only part still remaining from the original is the sound of Loomis yelling).

The end credits are also totally different, as well as there being a few changes to the cast list. The soundtrack in the Producers Cut only features music from Allan Howarth's score. The rock music version of the "stalking theme" is not featured in it, nor is the song "And fools shine on" by Brother Cane which plays on the end credits of the theatrical release.

 

Back to Halloween 6.

Halloween : The Curse of Michael Myers (part 6).

 

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Thanks to HalloweenMovies.Com and the IMDB. The alternate Halloween 6 logo appears courtesy of Halloween Movies.Com.