Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a 1995 American slasher film directed by Joe Chappelle and written by Daniel Farrands. The film stars Donald Pleasence in his final film appearance, Paul Rudd and Marianne Hagan. It is the sixth installment in the Halloween film series, and concludes the "Thorn Trilogy" story arc established in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. Set six years after the events of Halloween 5, the plot follows Michael Myers as he stalks the Strode family, cousins of Laurie Strode, in order to kill his last surviving relatives, while Dr. Sam Loomis pursues him once more. The film also reveals the source of Michael's immortality and his drive to kill.
Shot in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1994, it underwent a series of reshoots after it performed poorly with test audiences. The film was distributed by Dimension Films, who would go on to distribute the rest of the series until 2018's Halloween. It was released on September 29, 1995, but was a box office flop, grossing $15.1 million at the domestic box office on a budget of $5 million, and was panned by critics upon release. Donald Pleasence died on February 2, 1995, nearly eight months before the film was released. The film was dedicated to his memory.
After the film's home media release, the original workprint of the film, which featured 45 minutes of alternative footage and a different ending, was discovered by fans of the series. This version, dubbed The Producer's Cut, developed a cult following, with bootleg DVD copies sold on eBay and online petitions targeting for an official release of it. In 2014, the Producer's Cut was officially released on Blu-ray.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers was followed by Halloween H20: 20 Years Later in 1998, which retconned the entire "Thorn Trilogy" storyline of the previous three films and is instead a direct sequel to Halloween II (1981).
Plot
On October 31, 1989, Michael Myers and his niece Jamie Lloyd are abducted from the Haddonfield Police Station by the Man in Black and two of his henchmen. Six years later, on October 30, 1995, Jamie gives birth to a baby, and the Man in Black, revealed to be the leader of a Druid-like cult, takes the child away. Later, a midwife helps Jamie escape with her baby, but Michael kills her. Jamie and her baby flee in a stolen pick-up truck, with Michael in pursuit. Meanwhile, Dr. Sam Loomis has retired and moved to a cabin on the outskirts of Haddonfield, where he lives as a hermit. He is visited by his friend Dr. Terence Wynn, the chief administrator of Smith's Grove Sanitarium, where Michael had been incarcerated as a boy; Wynn asks Loomis to return to Smith's Grove. They overhear Jamie's plea for help on a local radio station when she makes a call to Loomis, only to be ignored by the radio D.J. Barry Simms. Michael catches up with Jamie, and she crashes the truck into an old barn. He kills Jamie but finds that her baby is not in the truck.
In Haddonfield, Tommy Doyle, whom Laurie Strode babysat in 1978, now lives in a boarding house run by Mrs. Blankenship. Tommy is a reclusive individual who has become obsessed with finding the truth behind Michael's motives. The dysfunctional family living in the Myers house across the street are relatives of the Strode family: Kara Strode, her six-year-old son Danny, her teenage brother Tim, caring mother Debra, and abusive father, John. Tommy finds Jamie's baby at the bus station, takes him into his care, and names him Steven. Tommy runs into Loomis and tells him about the Strode family living in the Myers house. Meanwhile, Michael returns to Haddonfield, where he stalks Kara before killing Debra.
Later, Tommy, Kara, and Danny go to the boarding house, where Tommy reveals that he believes Michael has been inflicted with Thorn, an ancient Druid curse. Long ago, one child from each tribe, chosen to bear the curse of Thorn, must sacrifice its next of kin on the night of Samhain, or Halloween. Tommy believes that Steven will be Michael's final sacrifice. Later that night, while Tommy goes out to look for Loomis, Mrs. Blankenship reveals to Kara that she was babysitting Michael the night he killed his sister and that Danny is hearing a voice telling him to kill just like Michael did, indicating Danny also possesses the power of Thorn. Meanwhile, Michael kills John, Tim, Tim's girlfriend Beth, and Barry Simms. Danny and Kara managed to escape back to the boarding house where Tommy and Loomis are waiting.
The cult arrives at the boarding house, revealing that Mrs. Blankenship is a cult member and the Man in Black is Dr. Wynn. The cult drugs Loomis and Tommy and takes Kara, Danny, and Steven to Smith's Grove. Kara is locked in a maximum-security ward while the boys are kept in an operating room. Loomis confronts Wynn, who reveals that the staff at Smith's Grove have been working with the Thorn cult to study the power of Thorn and learn how to control it. Steven is implied to be the successful result of experiments to clone Michael's pure evil, and the cult plans to use Danny and Kara to clone another baby. Wynn wants Loomis to join in on his conspiracy, as he was the first to see the evil inside Michael. Loomis refuses and is knocked out by a cult member.
Tommy frees Kara as Michael pursues them through the sanitarium. They find Wynn and his team, who are about to perform a medical procedure on Danny and Steven. Michael suddenly appears and turns against Wynn and the doctors, killing them all. Tommy and Kara rescue the kids, and Michael chases them into a laboratory, where Kara notices fetuses from Wynn's failed experiments. Tommy injects Michael with corrosives and beats him unconscious with a lead pipe. Tommy, Kara, and the children leave Smith's Grove while Loomis stays behind to take care of business. Inside, Michael's mask lies alone on the lab floor, and Loomis screams in the background, leaving their fates unknown.
