***A mess of a sequel*** Six years after Michael Myers previously terrorized Haddonfield, Illinois, ‘the Shape’ returns in pursuit of his niece, Jamie Lloyd, who has escaped some shadowy Druid cult with her newborn. Marianne Hagan and Paul Rudd play the main protagonists while Donald Pleasence returns for his last portrayal of Dr. Loomis. Mitchell Ryan and Kim Darby are also on hand. “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers” (1995) is also known as “Halloween 6,” but it’s actually only the fifth movie featuring Michael Myers seeing as how “Halloween 3: Season of the Witch” (1982) is totally disconnected from the Michael Myers story arc. I’m a fan of “Halloween 4” (1988) and “Halloween 5” (1989), especially the former, as it was actually better than the original movie (1978) and is one of the finest examples of 80’s slashers. Naturally I was expecting a quality sequel but, wow, this installment lacked any sense of cinematic finesse whatsoever. The entire opening act is a tortuous mess and the story didn't even start to get interesting until past the 50-minute mark. Unfortunately, it failed to build on what little interest it mustered, trading it in for conventional horror thrills at a hospital à la “Halloween 2” (1981). But the characters are too weakly developed to care about; it’s like the ‘writer’ had no concept of how to establish characters or even tell a compelling story. Meanwhile the sudden-shock scares that kept surfacing were eye-rolling hackneyed and anything but scary. This installment was the equivalent of Conan the Barbarian picking up an expensive guitar and trying to play for a classy prog band like Opeth. The movie runs 1 hour, 27 minutes and was shot in Salt Lake City, Utah. GRADE: C-