I'm a bad person. I really am. I know I paid for a movie that was downloaded illegally. How do I know this? Because it's not possible to buy a LEGAL copy of the movie that Halloween fans refer to as the “producer's cut” of Halloween 6. The studio, despite their protestations to the contrary, refuses to release this movie, even though there's no doubt in my mind that they'd make money on it because I know many fans who would buy it. The problem is that the “producer's cut” is rumored to be the original cut of the movie, but then Donald Pleasance died after shooting was completed, and because the movie is set up in such a way that he has a huge role and the studio felt he would be needed for a sequel, they went in and re-shot the movie, adding gore and minimizing the role of Dr. Loomis so his presence wouldn't be necessary should there be another movie in the series.

Now this is a silly decision for many reasons. Just because Loomis plays a large role in this movie doesn't mean his death couldn't be explained in the next film. Some irate fans speculate that the studio doesn't want to release this movie because that would be tantamount to admitting that they were wrong, but I don't buy that. Its been over ten years since the movie was released, and diehard fans like me would still buy both versions (many of us already own a version of part 6, we just want a more complete collection).

The “producer's cut” has a much more well-developed story than the version released by the studio. The whole Michael Myers mythos is explained with much rambling about ancient curses and societies and rites and cults. Michael Myers was trapped under the influence of Thorn, and the movie explains that this is the reason for his murderous rage. He hears voices telling him to kill and he must obey. Now that Michael has been around for awhile and has killed many, the society of Thorn needs a new killer, and since Michael has been driven to kill until every remaining member of his family is dead, the members of Thorn decide to help him kill off the final member of his family as a blood sacrifice, and then they shall call a new killer.

Yeah, it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo, but it's fun to some extent. At least the movie is trying to have a back story. The studio version of the movie didn't bother much with back story and thus the characterization was weak and that made the rest of the movie weak. This movie focuses much more on character. The ending, with Michael stopped dead in his tracks by the working of magic to counter his own is pretty effective as well. The acting is...well, it's passable on most counts. I like the character of Kara Strode and her father, but they're really the only characters who are developed at all, in this movie or the studio version. Everyone else exists basically to forward the plot, except for Dr. Wynn and Dr. Loomis who both seem very old and very tired in this movie, which fits pretty well with the plot, so its not a bad thing, it's just sad to see everyone else as window dressing for the few “important” characters in the movie.

On the dark side of this movie, as with the original version, Paul Rudd isn't even trying and that pisses me off. He's a good actor but in this movie he's terrible which tells me that he was phoning in his performance and that's inexcusable. I don't care if this is his first movie and he hated it, acting is his JOB and thus refusing to even TRY with the material is unprofessional and annoying. The studio version of the movie, while flawed, had some really good gore which is conspicuously absent from this movie, as is the famous Halloween score, which only appears once and thus feels forced and out of place. It's as though this movie doesn't want to be a Halloween movie at all as it barely has Michael Myers killing anyone and only plays his theme once. Basically, this movie is a good companion piece to the studio version and I'd like to own good versions of both, but this movie is hardly the holy grail that fans hold it up to be. It's slow, plodding, free of gore, lacking in Michael Myers action, and even missing his famously creepy score.

The movie is one to watch if you're a fan of the Halloween franchise, but if you didn't like the studio version of part 6 you probably won't like this one either.

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