Post by ronnierocketago on Mar 21, 2010 3:58:16 GMT
HALLOWEEN 4: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1988) - **
The 80s slasher horror craze were ignited by HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH in the late 1970s, two classic riveting thrillers made with atmospheric craft precision in suspense and violence. Also some good gory kills too. By the late 1980s, the genre was creatively bankrupt. People making these movies were too busy trying to outdo each other in gruesomely creative murders and such moments are really the only reason to waste your time with them. Good thing because they didn't give a flying fuck about anything else that might be important like script, acting, cinematography, and editing. Without the slaughtering, such movies are quite a dreadful snore.
Take HALLOWEEN 4: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS here. All the kills are surprisingly run of the mill, which maybe says something about the decay of culture when I'm unphased by a thumb through a skull, strangulation, neck snapped, thrown through a window, and an electrocution. Though I must admit H4 had one great murder sequence when Myers appears wielding a shotgun in frame with a victim. I thought briefly why would he would use a firearm, then he impales the girl with the shotgun through the wall and leaves her corpse pinned there. That was good. The rest were rubbish.
Reading up at IMDB, I realized that before going forward that I might be slightly wrongly a tad too harsh on HALLOWEEN 4 director Dwight H. Little. His filmography includes the forgettable Steven Seagal vehicle MARKED FOR DEATH, the Wesley Snipes murder mystery MURDER ON 1600, the Robert Englund version of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, the sequel FREE WILLY 2, and several other unremarkable movies including the upcoming TEKKEN. A career jobber for sure, he about said as much that he was hired by producer Moustapha Akkad to effectively remake the original John Carpenter classic.
Which he does beat by beat: stationary monster reawakens, heads off to Haddonfeld killing some random citizens along the way, disposes of horny teenagers, Donald Pleasance warning everybody (and gets ignored), killer stoped cold dead by last survivor, screwy twist ending. And Little did his job, without fresh innovation, intelligence, subtlety, solid performances, passion, vision, compelling characters, acute psychology, you know all that shit that counts. This is the lazy hackman's version of HALLOWEEN. You get a cookie.
The only possibly compelling element added in CURSE is the citizen lynch mob, armed to the teeth and driving trucks to destroy Mysters. But even then this goes unfortunately nowhere, save an interesting (if surprisingly underwhelming) moment when they go SCARFACE on some poor kid sporting that iconic white mask. Soon quickly forgotten, and I must say that sheriff apparently get over pretty well that his little daughter got the bloody shiskabob treatment back at his house. I guess he had spare bastard kids somewhere. That hussy had it coming.
I must admit, Pleasance with his trademark low-key elegance makes CURSE alot more tolerable than it really deserves to be. This is such a bullshit movie, which Pleasance did as one of his many legendary paychecks, especially after the first HALLOWEEN reignited his movie career. Between 1987 and '89 alone, he did eleven pictures. One shot in particular of a wrecked Ambulance, with guts splattered all over the back and he's fazed not one bit. Appropriate considering how much carnage that character has witnessed. Later he has a confrontation with Myers, and desperately pleading for him to stop, offering offers himself as a sacrifice. No dice. A good throwaway moment in such unredeemable trash.
You know this will be controversial, but I would rather have a fuckup like HALLOWEEN III or even Rob Zombie's despised HALLOWEEN remake/remake sequel than dullard drivel like CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS. You can totally understand where the makers were intending with SEASON OF THE WITCH and ZOMBIEWEEN, even if they didn't perhaps necessarily execute. I say better to try to be different than say fuck it and further watering and dumbing the genre. Nothing can ever touch the original, so bug out, differentiate yourself. But tell that to those damn horror nerds who's only response to why they hate SEASON: "No Michael Myers" Not because it's an inept conspiracy thriller. I think those assholes deserve alot of the garbage in theatres and DVD they get if you ask me.
Other observations that come to mind:
(1) When Myers conducts his little stalking game with his targeted niece...why? He's shown to have single-handidly obliterate the local police force, so why this stupid game? He could have simply barged into the girl's house and snapped that brat like a twig, and the movie would have been over in 5 minutes.
(2) The filmmakers show how much they respect their audience when they have titles stating that it's October 31. Followed by another title: Halloween. Really? I know many horror fans can't even wipe their own ass, but that is just fucking condescending. Though to be fair, I believe Carpenter did the same. But we let him slide because he wasn't insulting us elsewhere. GHOSTS OF MARS though, yeah that was a slight dude.
(3) For a movie set in 1988, notice that the niece's mother Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis from the original) was killed off-screen. Translation, she thought A FISH CALLED WANDA was a more worthwhile endeavor than this. Also observe that the little kid's only picture of her mother was from the late 1970s, or when that Strode character was a teenager. Do you only carry high school pictures of your parents? Fucking hilarious.
(4) In these sequels I hate how Myers went from psychotic tough bastard (but still human) to supernatural killing machine impervious to all punishments, attacks, and weapons. It destroys the integrity of the original's totally awesome ending (perfect set-up, perfect conclusion) and turns him from a unique shadow of evil to a piss poor Jason Voorhees clone.
(5) On that tangent, didn't Myers in HALLOWEEN II totally burn crispy this side of fried chicken left in the rotisserie for too long? Here he has only slight scars.
(6) That twist ending came out of nowhere. It's bad when something shoddy like the derided FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V delivered the same concept better.
(7) Akkad had a reputation as a greedy producer. His infamous (alleged) declaration that he won't quit until the 20th (!!!) HALLOWEEN film didn't help him with fans. Yet he used those profits to try to fund his personal big budget movies like LION OF THE DESERT that nobody else wanted to (aside from Ghaddafi), so can I blame him? Plus the sad irony was that when he was killed by an Al-Qaeda bombing in Jordan, he was trying to make a movie about his religion being tarnished by a few extremist terrorists.
(8) Interestingly, Carpenter and HALLOWEEN co-writer/producer Debra Hill pitched to Akkad an idea for a fourth HALLOWEEN where Michael Myers did return. Without returning. Wikipedia claims it was a cerebral thriller about how Haddonfeld bans Halloween, try to erase Myers from the records. Think FREDDY VS JASON. But strong suppression only causes the "return" of his memory among the kids.
Maybe it would have been fascinating. Or another HALLOWEEN III. Either way, I rather have that than HALLOWEEN 4: THE CURSE OF MICHAEL MYERS: PORT OF CALL: NEW ORLEANS.