The sixth Halloween film tries way too hard to be a good film. It
jam packs plot, mythology, and coincidences into it until the film is ready
to burst. Someone needs to tell Chappelle and Farrands that less is better.
Wow! We have the brother of the father of Laurie Strode living in the Myers
house, and Michael is after his sister's daughter's son, but the little
boy Laurie baby-sat 17 years ago (Tommy Doyle) is here to save the day.
You see where this is going? It's like this film was written, shot, and
edited in Arkansas--everyone is freakin' related to a previous film somehow.
Halloween
6 has more plot dependent coincidences than the entire
Friday the
13th series (and that is really freakin' impressive.) Oh, and let's
not forget the cued lightning which reveals Michael outside the window
at just the right moment. Yeah right, I buy that . . .
During the total 15 minutes where the film is not busy explaining something about Michael or Thorn or one of it's ungodly number of coincidences, you have stale Friday the 13th style stalking sequences or (even worse) the "good guys" doing something stupid. Someone jumps out a window for the sole purpose of making the trailer look cool and intense. But don't worry though, you'll probably be asleep by the time it happens... all the mythology crap which ruins the image of Myers is told, retold, and elaborated. Loomis explained enough about Michael in Halloween 1 & 2; we did not need a 65 minute explanation. Oh yeah, and Halloween 6 also has an ending which has nothing to do with the film itself. The only thing the rumored producer's cut has over the theatrical cut is the fact its ending actually goes with the film. It's just as stupid as the theatrical ending, but it does tie in with the other 70 - 80 minutes of the film. Oh yes, and the producer cut's music is far superior to the theatrical cut. I like hearing Halloween on guitar and drums, but it is not scary or haunting. The producer's cut has the real music. This film might be worth watching again if I found out director Joe Chappelle made a cameo to get killed by Myers. But to my knowledge, he sits safely behind the camera throughout the whole film so oh well.
- Howard Stern was originally offered the role as radio "shock jock" Barry Simms, but turned it down. - Debra and John Strode were named after 'John Carpenter' and 'Debra Hill' who produced the first two films of the series - The name of Mrs. Blankenship is a reference to Halloween III: Season of the Witch, in which Ellie says her father had an appointment with Minnie Blankenship. - When Michael was chasing Tommy, Kara, Danny and baby Stephen down the hallway, Michael was played by A. Michael Lerner. The Smith's Grove Doctor running from Michael also was A. Michael Lerner's real life father. - Danielle Harris wanted to reclaim her role as Jamie, but turned it down when Dimension Films refused to pay her the $5,000 she wanted. - Joe Chappelle wrote the ending for the theatrical version of the film. - Many of Donald Pleasence's scenes were edited out of the film because Joe Chappelle found him "boring". - As a result of Donald Pleasence's death, as well as creative differences between Joe Chappelle and the producer, and an allegedly bad test screening of the original work (the famous producer's cut) re-shoots were done as well as lots of editing, to the anger of most of the cast and crew. Many vowed never to make another Halloween movie again after all the changes. - The script went through eleven different drafts. - In the original draft of the movie, when John came home from work, he turned on the TV and the scene of the boy dying from the mask in Halloween 3: Season of the Witch was shown. - The producers of the movie wanted Brian Andrews to reprise his role as Tommy Doyle from the original Halloween. However, Andrews did not have an agent, so they could not get in contact with him. He regrets missing the opportunity. - Although the infamous Producer's Cut of the film was never officially released, bootleg versions were made available a few months after the film's release.
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