[MacBlayne]

Starring Paul No-"Stephen"-This-Time Rudd!

Well, this is it. The reason I bought the boxset. The legendary Producer's Cut.

And it's pretty bad as well. But it's weirdly fascinating in that it commits to the bizarre Druid angle instead of chickening out for a limp clone explanation in the theatrical cut.

SPOILER:

Jamie Lloyd's exit is nowhere as disgusting in this version. But I still have major issues with it. This cut has that Jamie was kidnapped at the end of Halloween 5. Over these six years she was abused and impregnated by Michael Myers. I find this to be too unpleasant for a Halloween film. Although, maybe it's because Danielle Harris was so damn effective in the fourth and fifth film, that I wanted to hug her and shield her from Michael. For this happen to her, just made me feel a little ill.

SPOILER:

On a more positive note - while the ending is, as Intel would put it, dumb-dumb-dumb-dumb-dumb, it did provide a more dignified ending for Dr. Loomis. I still would not have gone with this ending since Donald Pleasance died during production (I would have ended on a more hopeful tone - Tommy, Kara, Danny and baby Stephen starting a new life thanks to Dr. Loomis' intervention) but it doesn't disrespect Mr. Pleasance's memory. Plus, this version has Dr. Loomis weep a bit over Michael's body - as he has failed Michael. It was a lovely character moment.

One thing I really liked about this film was the sense of melancholia that permeated throughout the film. That these characters were doomed because fate demanded, no, needed them to be doomed. That Michael himself was a victim of a horrific necessity. Of course, this is ruined by making the antagonists mustache-twiringly evil.

I think if you were to take the Dr. Loomis - Michael Myers dynamic from Parts 4 and 5, and combine it with Part 6's doomy tone, you would have an interesting existentialist horror film. However, this could just be me wanting to watch Phantasm 4 again.

The extras are pretty good at explaining the whole sordid history behind the film's production (short answer: f***ing Miramax!). Daniel Farrands also goes into detail about what his original script was in the commentary. To be honest, it sounds pretty poor as well - fan-fiction with exploding helicopters. However, Farrands does admit that, looking back, he's not too fond of his script either.

Funnily enough, after all the vilification he has received from Halloween fans over the years, director Joe Chappelle comes out of the debacle looking good. Cast and crew say he was a decent guy and easy to work with. While it's obvious that he was just a director-for-hire and had no real devotion for the series, he wasn't going out of his way to piss off fans. He just suffered from being in the middle of producer / studio arguments, Farrands' script being constantly rewritten, a reduced budget (money was taken out of this and put into Hellraiser: Bloodline), and his locations were suddenly hit by a freak snow storm which forced him to shoot mostly interior scenes.