Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

Dir: Dominique Othenin-Girard

1989

**

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was unnecessary but something of a guilty pleasure. It had Donald Pleasence, a neat twist ending and the shape himself, Michael Myers, was back in town. It was no masterpiece, a little too like a soap-opera in places but still a million times better then what would follow. The best part of the film was that Jamie Lloyd, daughter of Laurie Strode and niece of Michael Myers, had ‘turned’ evil following the trauma of being chased by her murderous family member. It looked as if the evil would continue through her, taking the series down an interesting and original path. People wanted to see Halloween 5 to see just how her character would develop, and therein lies the problem. The success of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers had revived Michael Myers' fame as the 1980s slasher movie craze had begun to subside. Other slashers like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street were in decline, so Halloween had a unique position to turn the genre around. While the previous film was still in cinemas, producer Moustapha Akkad had already laid out plans for Halloween 5. He wanted to screen the film in October 1989, just one year after the previous sequel, following John Carpenters original idea of releasing a new Halloween film every year on Halloween. The first draft of the script was written by Shem Bitterman. Bitterman's idea was continue the story that Jamie Lloyd had become evil after stabbing her stepmother while The Shape was after her. This idea was rejected by the studio and Akkad, who brought in Michael Jacobs to write the script. After reviewing the script, director Dominique Othenin-Girard added some new aspects like Jamie's inability to speak and her visions. Veteran actor Donald Pleasence had disagreements with Akkad and Othenin-Girard, citing that Jamie should have been portrayed as "all-evil" after stabbing her stepmother. Akkad disagreed, thinking that fans wanted to see more of The Shape (aka Michael Myers). In an interview, Danielle Harris explained what she thought of the idea. “The way Halloween 4 ended, I thought I was going to be the killer. I thought it would have been fun to come back as the killer, or Michael's sidekick.” The starts with one of the last scenes from the previous film where Michael Myers was shot and falls down a mine shaft. We learn that he survived and was found by a hermit who bandaged him up. Michael had fallen into a coma, and the hermit had been caring for him ever since. One year later, on October 30, 1989, Michael awakens, kills the hermit, and returns to Haddonfield, where his niece Jamie Lloyd (played by the returning Danielle Harris) continues to live after nearly being killed by Michael the year before. Jamie has been committed to a children's hospital, having been rendered mute due to psychological trauma suffering from nightmares and seizures. She is also being psychologically treated for attacking her foster mother under Michael’s influence. We learn that she suddenly exhibits signs of a telepathic link with her uncle. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence – who returned against his better judgement) becomes aware of Jamie's psychic link with Michael, and tries to convince Sheriff Ben Meeker (a returning Beau Starr) that Michael is still alive. Meanwhile, showing signs of a metaphysical connection to Jamie, Michael tracks Jamie to a local child mental health clinic. He kills Jamie's sister Rachel (Ellie Cornell – who said she was ecstatic to be returning to the film but was deeply disappointed to learn that her character would be killed off so early in the film) by stabbing her in the chest with a pair of scissors, and begins stalking their friend Tina (Wendy Kaplan), also killing Tina's boyfriend Mike with a sharp rake to his head. Later that night, Tina and her friends Sam and Spitz go to a Halloween party at a farm. Sensing that Tina is in danger, Jamie, having regained her ability to speak, goes to warn her; her friend Billy goes with her. While Sam and Spitz are having sex in the barn, Michael murders them. Spitz is impaled with a pitchfork and Sam is sliced across the chest with a garden scythe. Michael then leaves the barn and kills two deputies that Loomis had asked to keep an eye on Tina for her protection. After the party, Tina goes to the barn and discovers the bodies. Michael chases Tina, Jamie, and Billy with a car. Tina sacrifices herself to save Jamie, and Michael fatally stabs her in the chest. Loomis, Sheriff Meeker, and the police arrive on the scene and rescue Jamie and Billy. Jamie finally agrees to put herself in danger to help Loomis stop Michael for good. With Jamie's help, Loomis lures Michael back to his abandoned childhood home. In the old Myers house, Loomis and the police create a set-up. Jamie senses that Michael has arrived at the clinic and Billy is in danger, which causes Sheriff Meeker, along with most of his backup, to leave the Myers house. Eventually, Michael arrives at his old home and kills the two remaining officers. Loomis tries to reason with him, but Michael subdues him and then goes after Jamie. Jamie hides in an old laundry chute, but she is forced to abandon it after Michael finds her and repeatedly stabs the chute. She races upstairs to the attic where she finds a coffin that was stolen from the cemetery earlier, and the bodies of Rachel and Mike. Michael finds Jamie, but before he can kill her, she tries to appeal her uncle's humanity. At Jamie's request, Michael takes off his mask. However, Jamie touches Michael's face, sending him into a fit of rage. Loomis appears, using Jamie as bait, and lures Michael into a trap to weaken him with a tranquilizer gun. After beating Michael unconscious with a wooden plank, Loomis suffers a stroke and collapses. Michael is locked up in the sheriff’s station, to eventually be escorted to a maximum-security prison, where, Meeker says, he will remain "until the day he dies," to which Jamie responds, "He'll never die." After Jamie is escorted out to be taken home, a mysterious "Man in Black" arrives and attacks the police station, killing the officers, including Sheriff Meeker. In the aftermath, Jamie walks through the station, and discovers her uncle's cell empty, prompting her to begin sobbing in terror. The Hermit, who was shown in the beginning of the film as living in a quiet shack outside of the river with his parrot, was originally supposed to be a young man who tried to bring The Shape back to life after finding him. His shack was supposed to be filled with ancient runes, tablets, and other items for resurrection. This scene was filmed, but was re-shot with an old man, instead of a younger man. It was actually Debra Hill who introduced Dominique Othenin-Girard to Akkad after seeing his 1985 film After Darkness – the last thing she would ever do for the series – but it was clear that the inexperienced director wasn’t quite ready for the job. After darkness remains the director only good film. However in his defense, he had little time to work on the film which was rushed from the beginning. The plot was convoluted and stale, Michael Myers wasn’t scary and wasn’t quite the same as he had been previously. He was actually a lot more like Jason Voorhees. Othenin-Girard’s inexperience actually led to many injuries on set, with an actor nearly burning to death and Donald Pleasence accidentally breaking Michael Myers’ (this time played by Don Shanks) nose. It is okay for a horror film to be ridiculous, indeed, no one expects a fifth installment of any series to be anything but, but there are limits, the film just wasn’t any fun and the only thing we hadn’t seen before in the previous films was the level of absurdity and wasted opportunity.