review

HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS

HALLOWEEN 4 was a box office success and, to no one's surprise, another sequel was quickly thrown into production. For fans of a franchise that took several years off before re-emerging into the public consciousness, the thought of another sequel coming to theaters so soon was very pleasing to the fanbase. That sequel, however, would not be a good one. HALLOWEEN 5 was rushed into production with an incomplete script, a virtually untested director, and a set release date. The shoot was apparently an unhappy one, some reports claiming a virtual mess with producer and director arguing over details, a special effects crew uncertain over what would be needed, and a group of actors who were less than enthused to be acting in the film. All the confusion and turmoil that people claimed went on behind the scenes may or may not be true but one thing is very, very certain: HALLOWEEN 5 is a mess.


Loomis confronts Myers in Halloween 5

Beginning with a brief reprisal of the closing events of HALLOWEEN 4, Myers is shown escaping from the mine shaft - and narrowly avoiding being blown to hell by a few sticks of dynamite! - and being washed down a river where he attacks a man living in an old shack before collapsing unconscious. Strangely enough, a masked man, riddled with bullets and bleeding profusely, doesn't stop the old coot from taking Myers in and caring for him for over a year. A year later, a well-rested Myers rises up and kills his caretaker. So much for gratitude.


Myers stalks Jamie in Halloween 5

Meanwhile, little Jamie has been rendered mute and is in a children's clinic for treatment. Ever since she touched her uncle's hand, she has been psychically linked to him - Myers' awakening sends the little girl into convulsions. The doctors believe she is ill, but Doctor Loomis knows better. He knows they are connected and he wants her to help him get to Myers. Rachel is quickly put down by Myers, robbing the film of one of its only strengths, and is replaced by a character who has simply got to be one of the single most annoying characters ever written. While Rachel was a strong character and someone the audience could identify with, her replacement as main protagonist, Tina, is the kind of character FRIDAY THE 13TH writers do so well - the utterly obnoxious sexpot you long to see die in the most brutal way imaginable. That we spend more time with Tina then we do with Jamie or Loomis is one of many missteps the screenwriters make.


Donald Pleasance and Danielle Harris in Halloween 5

Add to this insult our choice of secondary characters. We have the shy virgin and her goofball boyfriend, Tina's bad boy boyfriend, and a pair of comic relief cops - the film actually plays cartoony sound effects while they're on screen! - none of them worthy of our attention, none of them worthy of our sympathy. Even Loomis is reduced to a simple rant machine, spewing overblown speeches over and over again. This is a film that wants us to hate everyone in it. Only Danielle Harris earns our sympathies. Again knocking it out of the park, she gives a performance this film does not deserve.


Ellie Cornell in Halloween 5

The utter contempt director Dominique Othenin-Girard and screen writers Michael Jacobs and Shem Bitterman show for the franchise doesn't end with their choices of character. Take the Myers house, for example. What was a normal three-story suburban house in the original is re-imagined here as a freaking gothic mansion spook house simply to justify their chase scenes at the end. As if anyone wouldn't notice! Add to that a mysterious - and unexplained - Man in Black who has the same tattoo on his wrist that Myers has - again, I don't quite remember that from the previous installments - and there's more than enough here to give fanboys fits.


Tina thankfully bites the bullet

This is a true-to-form, run-of-the-mill slasher, complete with numerous false scares, gratuitous violence, and cliched situations. Its only creepy scene, which takes place near the films end, has Loomis, by now gone full-blown batshit, holding the screaming Jamie in his arms, taunting the slowly approaching Myers to "come and get your little girl". A late night tryst in an old barn could have been a perfectly unsettling event in capable hands but Othenin-Girard blows it with his leaden, unimaginative directing, even more evident a little later when Myers chases Jamie through a field with his car.


Loomis face to face with Michael

Sadly, this is where the franchise that was so sucessfully resurrected after so many years began to quickly tumble downhill. Othenin-Girard's unexplainable and utterly unnecessary screenplay additions would prove so disasterous that the next film in the series was dead in the water well before it ever got underway. If you really need confirmation of HALLOWEEN 5s total failure perhaps this is it: it set in motion plot elements and revelations that could only be reconciled by completely throwing out three films and starting all over again with HALLOWEEN H20. Knowing that nothing could ever make sense of the mess that this mid-franchise trilogy created, Dimension Films decided to act as if HALLOWEEN 4 - 6 never happened. Watching HALLOWEEN 5 again, I can't help but wish I could do the same.



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