Probably due to the failure of 1982’s Halloween III: Season of the Witch, the movie franchise remained dormant until 1988’s Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers kicked it back to life. Another sequel came out a year later, but 1989’s Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers delivered another box office disappointment, so the series went into hibernation once again.

This meant no movies for another six years until 1995’s Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers revived the premise. In 1989, homicidal maniac Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur) terrorized his young niece Jamie (Danielle Harris).

At that time, members of a cult abducted Michael and Jamie, and in 1995, teenaged Jamie (JC Brandy) gives birth to a baby. Thanks to a helpful midwife, Jamie and infant escape but Michael remains hot in violent pursuit.

Back in Haddonfield, the town bans the celebration of Halloween as a reaction to their collective past, but citizens remain fascinated with their hometown nutbag. The Strode family – adoptive relatives of Jamie’s mom Laurie, Michael’s sister and his original intended victim – now lives in the old Myers home, some serious fate-tempting if ever I heard of it.

In 1978, Laurie babysat Tommy Doyle, and now as an adult (Paul Rudd), he obsesses over Michael and the entire case. He still lives across the street from the Myers/Strode house and pursues the truth.

Michael’s old caseworker/psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) also tempts fate, as he now resides on the outskirts of Haddonfield. All these paths come together when Michael returns and does his hack-slash-kill thing.

Curse represents Pleasence’s last appearance in a Halloween movie, as he died about seven months before the movie’s fall 1995 release. I wish I could claim he went out on top, but Curse just brings more of the same old silliness.

I admit I feel half-surprised that the Halloween producers didn’t retain control of Pleasence’s corpse and Weekend at Bernie’s the man for more sequels. Pleasence seems disengaged here, perhaps a by-product of his ailing state, but more likely a response to the mediocre material given to him.

1995’s Clueless represented a semi-breakout role for Rudd, but Curse sure didn’t help him capitalize on that success. If anything, it seems like it probably set back Rudd’s career.

Given Rudd’s later fame, his presence creates an intriguing aspect of Curse, though not due to his wholly awful work. He overplays Tommy’s obsession and personality quirks to bring a completely unconvincing performance.

If Rudd faded from view after Curse, I’d assume he was a crummy actor, but given our experience with him over the last 24 years, it seems more likely he just didn’t bother to exert himself here. Young actors can’t be picky, so he likely took the role for experience and held his nose.

Curse requires a lot of that, as it really does stink to high heavens. Although the plot boasts potential to deliver some interesting twists – what with the cult and the continued trauma of the town and other characters – it sticks with the most basic slasher drama.

As such, it feels an awful lot like the last two movies, neither of which did much with the material either. As the Halloween series progressed, it became tough to distinguish Michael from Friday the 13th’s Jason, and that continued similarity occurs here as well.

This means we get more anonymous young people for Michael to slaughter and little we could call a plot. Given his history, Tommy seems ripe for exploration, but Curse just treats him as a plot device.

The same goes for everything else in the film. We get generic roles who exist as Michael-fodder, and nothing of interest ever develops.

I can’t say Curse acts as the worst of the Halloween sequels because I have two more to go. It might not be crummier than Return and Revenge, anyway, as both of those came with substantial flaws.

Nonetheless, I can’t find anything to recommend here. Curse might not be the weakest of the franchise, but it’s up for debate.

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not a terrible transfer, the image didn’t hold up especially well.

Sharpness varied from semi-decent to mushy. Close-ups tended to look pretty acceptable, but anything wider felt tentative and lackluster.

I saw no issues with jagged edges or shimmering, but edge haloes popped up too much of the time. As for print flaws, I saw sporadic instances of specks and marks. Though these didn’t dominate, they became a persistent distraction.

Expect a fair amount of grain from Curse. On the surface, that seemed like a good thing, as it meant I didn’t worry about digital noise reduction, but I thought the image was grainier than it should’ve been, and I sensed some artifacts created issues as well.

Colors felt bland. The movie opted for a mix of blues and reds much of the time, and these came across as decent at best, with a lot of shots that seemed too dense.

Blacks were somewhat crushed and inky, whereas shadows tended to appear a little murky. At times the movie could look pretty decent, but too many issues interfered.

Don’t expect anything more from the lackluster DTS-HD MA 2.0 soundtrack of Curse, as it seemed restricted. The soundscape failed to open up in a satisfying manner and came across as borderline monaural at times.

The score managed to use the side and rear speakers in a reasonable manner, but effects became less involving. These elements occasionally broadened across the channels, but not in a way that allowed them to create an engrossing mix.

In addition, 5.1 was the norm by 1995, so a 2.0 mix felt primitive. Even with a more active soundfield, this one would seem dated.

Audio quality didn’t stand out as memorable either. Speech lacked edginess and remained intelligible, but the lines seemed a little dull at times.

Music appeared reasonably full, whereas effects were erratic. Though those components showed occasional life, they could also seem a bit shrill. All of this ended up as a mediocre mix.

No extras appear here.

If you want to see a fairly young Paul Rudd in a cheap horror movie, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers will entice you. If you desire to view a compelling, taut fright-fest, though, I’d avoid this awful sequel. The Blu-ray comes with mediocre picture and audio and it lacks supplements. Leave this one to Halloween completists.

Note that this version of Curse appears as part of a “Halloween Triple Feature” along with 1998’s H2O and 2002’s Resurrection.

An individual version of Curse exists as well, though it appears to use the same picture/audio as this version. There’s also a longer “Producer’s Cut” Blu-ray of Curse.