Halloween 6: The Curse Of Michael Myers Ending Explained: Loomis And Michael, Together Again
The Shape is back! Well, of course he is. He can't be killed, after all, and the "Halloween" franchise must go on to ensure that Michael Myers will still be terrorizing the fine folks in Haddonfield for generations to come. "Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers" continued the trend established in "Halloween 4" and "Halloween 5" of weirdly copying the sequel titles of the "Pink Panther" movies starring Peter Sellers. There was "The Return," then "The Revenge" and now it was time to dive a little deeper into "Halloween" lore, for better or worse.
Honestly, it was something of a miracle that "Halloween 6" even got made at all. After becoming the first in the series to actually premiere on Friday the 13th, "Halloween 5" was the lowest grossing movie of the franchise when it opened in October of 1989. After the development for "Halloween 6" stalled multiple times due to legal issues, the film finally came out in 1995, six full years after the last installment. At one point in 1994, Quentin Tarantino along with producer Lawrence Bender and director Scott Spiegel ("Intruder") even expressed some interest in the project. If Tarantino had actually ended up directing, perhaps the ending for "Halloween 6" wouldn't have become the most controversial and, frankly, most ridiculous conclusion in the entire franchise.
There is, of course, the original theatrical ending and the famed producer's cut of the movie that was finally officially released in the massive 15-disc Deluxe Edition "Halloween" collection in 2014 after being bootlegged by hardcore fans for years.
What you need to remember about the plot of Halloween 6
In order to properly explain what happens in "Halloween 6," it's necessary to remember what occurred at the end of "Halloween 5." In that film, it's revealed that Michael Myers' psychic niece Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris) isn't actually evil, and only injured her mom after the ending of "Halloween 4" shows her stabbing her mother with a pair of scissors in a clown costume. "Halloween 5" catches up with Jamie, who is living in a mental institution, unable to speak.
After a controversial recasting, Harris was replaced by J.C. Brandy to play Jamie in "Halloween 6." The fabled "Curse of Thorn" (the runic symbol introduced in "Halloween 5") is seen again after a group of misguided Druids — known as The Cult of Thorn and led by their mysterious leader, the Man in Black — abducts Jamie. Six years later on (you guessed it) October 30, 1995, Michael Myers returns to Haddonfield to murder Jamie and her newborn child. (Oh yeah, and Michael happens to be the father.)
In a fairly perplexing turn of events, the Strode family moves into the Myers home to try and break the curse controlling The Shape. In a fun nod to the original "Halloween," they are still trying to sell the Myers property nearly 20 years after the first babysitter murders occurred. The trauma that Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) has suffered in trying to warn everyone over and over again about Michael's inherent evil has finally caught up with him, and our heroic psychologist is more unhinged in this sequel than he's ever been.
Released just two months after "Clueless," "Halloween 6" also features Paul Rudd playing a grown-up Tommy Doyle (whom Laurie babysat in the original) who tags along with Loomis to expose the Cult of Thorn and make sure that Michael's murder spree is stopped once again.
What happened at the end of Halloween 6?
For the sake of posterity, the theatrical cut should be explained first. Just imagine being among the first audiences to see "Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers" in theaters before the existence of the infamous work-print was discovered. In that original version, the Man in Black is revealed to be none other than Loomis' old friend and colleague, Dr. Terence Wynn (played in the original film by Robert Phelan and in the sixth entry by Mitch Ryan). The culmination of the movie takes place back at Smith's Grove Sanitarium where it appears that Wynn and others have been studying how to harness the pure evil inside Michael and learning how to wield it.
Meanwhile, Michael manages to murder most of the remaining members of the Strode family before heading to Smith Grove. There, The Shape suddenly betrays the cult, killing Dr. Wynn before stalking Tommy, Kara Strode (Marianne Hagan), Danny Strode (Devin Gardner), and Jamie's child, Steven. During the pursuit, Tommy injects Michael with a strange green liquid that some fans believe is the same fluid seen in "Halloween 3: Season of the Witch." Tommy unleashes all of his pent-up rage and supposedly beats Michael to death with a pipe. The end! Just kidding.
With everyone else safely outside, Donald Pleasence's Loomis ventures back inside. (Look, if you were Loomis, you'd probably want to make sure Michael was dead, too.) Discovering Michael's mask on the hospital floor, Pleasence lets out one of his famous blood-curdling screams, leaving the fates of Michael and Loomis open-ended for a potential sequel.
What the end of Halloween 6 means
The theatrical ending respects the slasher formula that John Carpenter's original classic helped invent. Before the new timeline established by David Gordon Green's so-called Laurie Strode trilogy chose to bypass the sequels, the central conflict in the "Halloween" franchise has really been between Michel Myers and Dr. Loomis. They are the two constants battling each other, even if Michael is too obsessed with the Strode family tree to realize it.
This ending also has a more somber reason for existing. Sadly, Donald Pleasence passed away in February 1995, making it impossible for him to appear in any of the extensive reshoots that went on during production. "Halloween 6" director Joe Chappelle and producer Paul Freeman began doing a fair amount of on-set rewrites that, combined with a poorly received test screening, led Dimension Films to revert back to this original ending that left the door open for Loomis in future sequels.
For the fans, the original ending actually treats Pleasence with more reverence and respect instead of choosing to focus more on further mythologizing the Cult of Thorn. The Shape should have probably remained more of a human representation of pure evil that's never fully explained. While the producer's cut (more on that in a second) is an improvement overall, the original ending is more in line with the true spirit of the original "Halloween" and a better send-off for Pleasence's last performance as Loomis (unless you count the character's brief appearance in "Halloween Kills").
The underlying meaning of the theatrical ending also hits a little harder, since it's heavily implied that Michael finally killed Loomis in the final moments. This, of course, isn't ever verified, leaving it up the next group of filmmakers to decide whether or not to bring Loomis back for another confrontation. Obviously, "Halloween H2O" went in an entirely different direction in the post-"Scream" era of the slasher genre.
What has the cast and crew of Halloween 6 said about the ending?
"Halloween 6" screenwriter Daniel Farrands really should have the final word on the most controversial installment in the entire franchise. At age 14, Farrands made his own backyard version of "Halloween" and was obsessed with John Carpenter's original after seeing the TV premiere on NBC in 1981. He was eventually given the chance to pitch his take on the sequel, leading him to fully immerse himself in research covering every single movie in the series. Farrands focused specifically on the occult elements introduced in part 5 and expanded upon them in his script that he originally titled "Halloween 666."
Contrary to popular opinion, the sequel was never called "The Origin of Michael Myers" and Farrands only came up with "The Curse of Michael Myers" as an in-joke during production that producer Malek Akkad wound up really responding to. "I suppose that title was my own subversive and subconscious way of telling the audience that this was not the film they were meant to see," Farrands told Halloweenmovies.com. "Other than that, I like the notion that 4, 5 and 6 sort of stand as their own trilogy: "The Return," "The Revenge," and "The Curse."
As the capper to the Thorn Trilogy, "Halloween 6" has gone on to largely be looked at as one of the stronger sequels, mostly thanks to how seriously Farrands took the material. In one version before Donald Pleasence's tragic passing, Loomis' death was going to be a surprise twist ending and would have paid homage to Carpenter's atmospheric ghost story, "The Fog." Farrands even wrote the part of Dr. Wynn with Christopher Lee in mind, which would have given Pleasence a formidable horror legend to go toe-to-toe with in his final performance.
The producer's cut alternate ending for Halloween 6
The hallowed work-print edition, known as "The Producer's Cut" gained more and more notoriety after getting passed around by fans on the VHS and DVD grey market. It became legendary and, eventually, the first theatrical screening of this version of "Halloween 6" played at New Beverly Cinema just before Halloween night in 2013. Daniel Farrands was in attendance. It's now widely available and the finale is considered part of the definitive version of the film, which Farrands lovingly refers to as "Tommy's magic acorns" ending.
The producer's cut changes things up considerably, showing Tommy standing up to Michael using a strange ritual. He combines his own blood with a circle of stones he places on the ground. Thanks to "the power of the runes" (ugh), Tommy utters the pagan word "Samhain" causing Michael to freeze up just enough for Tommy to wrestle free of his grasp and escape. The big twist comes when Loomis goes back inside to remove Michael's mask, revealing that it's actually a disguised Dr. Wynn. If Christopher Lee had, in fact, been cast as Wynn, that moment could have had a lot more impact.
Loomis looks down at his arm to see that the runic Thorn symbol has magically appeared on his arm, effectively making him the new leader of the cult. Over time, the ending has been embraced by fans and even Farrands himself. As the writer told Halloweenmovies.com:
"I didn't mind having Loomis take on the 'curse' ... the implication that he would now become Michael's protector rather than his destroyer was a great twist and, had Donald lived a while longer, I think that idea would have made a really interesting chapter in the series."
Instead of "Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later," should there have been a Thorn Quadrilogy in its place? With a new Michael Myers cinematic universe in the works, maybe the upcoming TV series can resurrect the Cult of Thorn again and still manage to keep Donald Pleasence's vital legacy intact.