Michael Myers Is Back…For Revenge!

Last time we saw the silent stalker, Michael Myers, a million or more bullets passed through him from some local hicks as he was trying to kill his niece, Jamie Lloyd, but when shot all those times, he went flying down a hole and he crawled out from another exit and scrambled into a river shortly before the locals tossed dynamite into the hole to kill him for the final time. He travels down the river unnoticed until he comes to an embankment where an old man takes him in (not knowing he’s one of the most feared mass murderers of all time) and cures him of all of his injuries.

Fast-forward a year. He is 100% and as grateful as he is, Michael murders the old man and heads off into the night to find his little niece whose being treated in a children’s clinic after the events that happened at the very end of Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers, which I have to admit, was pretty surprising and good. Well, Michael’s back to do some havoc and it’s up to Dr. Loomis to stop Michael for the final time.

You’ve seen this plot a dozen times, but this time it’s actually fun to watch and is probably the second best sequel (with the first being Halloween II). I’ve been a fan of the Halloween movies for years now, so I thought that it would be a good idea to review them all (as I dug them out of my Movie Box). Halloween 5 isn’t the best movie, but it is buyable. Donald Pleasence reprises his role as Dr. Loomis and does an awesome job yet again while Danielle Harris works on her character, Jamie Lloyd, but there’s nothing really new about her besides the fact that for the first half of the film she can’t talk. What’s also pretty weird is how good she’s being treated after what happened at the end of Halloween 4 and how that lady is still alive (and loving Jamie) after a dozen stabs.

Halloween 5 isn’t the goriest in the franchise, in fact, it’s probably one of the weakest. Sure, you have guys being impaled by pitchforks (rip off of Friday The 13th Part 3…?), throats cut, and even being slashed with scissors. There’s no real gore to speak of since a lot of it was probably cut out, but it’s still fun to see peoples’ facial expressions. Michael Myers has changed for the worse in the fact that in a couple parts of the movie he hesitates to kill Dr. Loomis and Jamie when he could have killed them easily. I didn’t like this at all. If a person really talked slow and calmed him down and stuff, he would hesitate and show signs of sadness. He’s a wuss when this happens and it’s a humongous rip off of a part in Friday The 13th Part 2. And don’t let me get started on Michael Myers’ mask! I loved the guy’s mask in the first and second Halloween movies, but over the years it changed dramatically and just looks stupid instead of truly menacing. It is still creepy, though.

Dominique Othenin-Girard takes over the responsibilities of director this time around, but instead of being like John Carpenter and Rick Rosenthal before him, he creates actually a good atmosphere to the movie. He’s not the best director, but he does add a little bit more depth than all of the rest of the directors who have worked on the series (excluding John Carpenter since he’s certainly the best). His interesting camera work lets you know that Michael is around somewhere watching his victim sort of like how Steven Spielberg used his camera in Jaws so that you knew that the killer shark was around and that the victim didn’t. When peeps are getting killed, Dominique uses a bizarre camera style to showcase this event without showing much gore or standard horror cinematography…okay, so it isn’t bizarre, but it sucked donkey as$.

Donald Pleasence is the master of the Halloween movies and the only driving force behind them. If he weren’t in them, the movies wouldn’t be watchable. He plays a doctor that used to study Michael Myers so when he broke out of the mental institute in 㥖, he had to track Myers down and stop him and he has tried to stop him since then. Speaking of stopping Michael, I don’t know how he can keep coming back. At the end of the second movie, you get the clear feeling that he’s dead because of how awesome and clear it was, but why does he keep coming back? And he doesn’t bleed or get hurt in any way! I have to agree with Horror Master, Mike Bracken, when I say that if a killer (in movies) doesn’t hurt when he gets shot five times, it’s stupid. It’s not scary if a killer is just a mindless zombie killing everyone without getting hurt himself. Anyway, Danielle Harris returns this time around as Jamie Lloyd and does actually a pretty good job with her poorly written role. I hate child actors because of their horrible acting and goody-goody lines, but she actually does an okay job. Again, I have to agree with Mikey Bracken on the fact that filmmakers add children in thrilling scenes because it makes the audience really antsy if you show something cute or cuddly about to get hurt or in harm’s way. I noticed this close to the end of the film when I myself got sort of antsy when little Jamie was stuck in a duct with Michael stabbing through it and she was trapped. That was pretty scary.

I think that if you were a fan of the first and second movies in the series then you should give this one a watch since it’s actually pretty good if you look at it. The fourth movie was pretty boring and stupid, but this one’s actually nice to watch before you get Halloween 6: The Curse Of Michael Myers, which is the worst in the whole series. Overall, Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers isn’t all that bad with it’s mediocre acting, decent plot, Donald Pleasence, and the creation of a new mysterious character. What? I didn’t tell you about that knew character? Well, a new character is introduced, but nothing really happens with the person until the next movie, but it’s really surprising and really stupid so look forward to my review of that soon. This Halloween if your local rental retailer has all the good horror movies taken, pick up Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers because it’s actually a pretty good watch surprisingly.



© Jason Haskins 2003




2.65 rounded to the nearest star equals 3 mediocre stars





”Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers”

Starring Donald Pleasence and Danielle Harris

Directed By Dominique Othenin-Girard

Produced By Moustapha Akkad and Ramsey Thomas

Written By Michael Jacobs, Dominique Othenin-Girand, and Shem Bitterman

1989

97 Minutes

Rated R for Terror, Violence, Gore, and Scary Images