Paul Rudd's Greatest Scene in "Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers"

A lifetime ago, I used to write movie reviews for The Daily Press’s weekend section, but it was before I had much in the way of street cred (as if I have that much now), so it was basically a situation where I’d get in free to the movie in exchange for writing a review for the paper. These reviews were invariably for films for which the paper didn’t get advance screenings, and one of them was Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, a film which has precisely two things going for it, only one of which was important at the time.

1. It was the final film appearance of Donald Pleasance as Dr. Loomis.

2. It was the first film appearance of Paul Rudd.

Okay, maybe it wasn’t his first film appearance, but it was early enough in his career and a big enough role for him at the time that his credit was “Starring and Introducing Paul Stephen Rudd.”

I won’t even bother detailing the entire plot of the film, partly because it’s a convoluted mess, but mostly because you need to know very little to appreciate Paul Rudd’s greatest scene.

Around the hour and 13-minute mark of the film, there starts a sequence where Tommy (Paul Rudd) is trying to help Kara (Marianne Hagan) escape from her cell by smashing the lock with a fire extinguisher. As he’s doing so, he suddenly realizes that Michael Myers is shambling towards him, and…I don’t really know how to describe the facial contortions that Paul Rudd pulls off during these moments, so I’m glad there’s a clip available for you to see them for yourself.

For lack of any better explanation, I think he’s trying to react like a real person, as opposed to a typical character in a horror movie. There’s terror there, sure, but there’s also lot of “this is crazy” mixed some “there’s no way this is actually happening” and a fair amount of “oh, man, if I was watching this movie instead of living it, it would be fucking amazing.”

But don’t trust my word for it. See it for yourself.