“Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers”
Year: 1988
Director: Dwight H. Little
Stars: Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 93 Mins
Plot Synopsis:
For every successful franchise, there are always a couple of them that are pretty bad. The same hold true with the Halloween franchise.
This installment takes place one year after the events of the last film. Michael Myers survived the mine explosion that was to have killed him. His young niece discovers that she has a telepathic bond with the deranged killer and he’s coming for his revenge. The only person in Michael’s way is Dr. Loomis, who plans to lure him back to his childhood home and destroy him once and for all.
Film Review:
“Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is an abomination on all levels. From the rushed production on the film to the somewhat misleading theatrical trailer, this was not a good entry at all.
Director and co-writer Dominique Othenin-Girard direction was downright horrible. One of the things that I didn’t like about his direction was the fact that death scenes weren’t build up properly. There’s no suspense or any fear to almost those entire scene. You need those elements to make you care about the characters. There was none of that here for a good majority of the film, as it feels rushed. Only in the last thirty five minutes is where you start to see some of that. By the time that done, you’ve pretty much turned off the viewer. The other problem that I with, the performances were flat out annoying to the point that you didn’t care. A lot the performances felt like that they were over acted. Most of it was the screenplay, but direction can help mask some of the screenplay’s problems. Othenin-Girard makes their performances so annoying that you’re stuck with a bunch of overacted performances.
Memo to filmmakers and Hollywood, don’t try and rush your sequel. This is end result was a train wreck of a film. Othenin-Girard along with Michael Jacobs and Shem Bitterman didn’t spend any time developing any of the events that happened in the fourth film. The ending to that film had a very good setup. The producers must have feared backlash over this and went with the safe route. Still, it’s no excuse to have a very bad screenplay or rush the film’s action. The screenplay just didn’t work with the storyline of four. The other thing that they really don’t do very well, it doesn’t incorporate any new likeable characters. I’m not going to even talk about the new characters, as there were very annoying and undeveloped. The only exception is Tina, as she became less annoying as the film went on.
Please note that this paragraph contains spoilers.
The other problem I have with was very lame ending with man in black just popping up with a machine gun to kill all the cops and breaking Michael out of jail. This is one of the worst endings to a horror film. First, this character appears for only a few minutes in the film then does something at the end to make you still wonder how he fits to the franchise’s mythology. Sorry, this doesn’t work for me, as it didn’t work in this film or in “The Curse of Michael Myers”. If this character played some sort of a role, then I could understand that. The character just comes out of nowhere with no development what so ever. It’s like he walks into the story from out of nowhere and then later does something that scratches your head. I would’ve liked to have known who the character in five instead of six, where at least you get his identity. The other thing was how he was able to get a machine gun in the first place. That felt like it came out of left field. Unless they had a scene where he actually gets the gun, it might have worked. Instead, you have a character that has a machine gun without knowledge on how he was able to attain one. This was a wasted opportunity in this film and in the next one. Also, the ending felt like it was recycled from something that happened off-screen in the last film. Instead of a knife, it was a machine gun that did the cops this time. It makes it even more horrible. They should have done something, where the man in black gets Michael, while he’s being transferred or something than what was done here. It makes the screenwriters look lazy. Don’t know if it was them or something the producer wanted. It makes your story end on sour note. No wonder, this was one of the reasons why “Halloween 6” tanked at the box office.
Blu-Ray Extras:
The back cover is misleading according to the audio commentary tracks. First on the blu-ray is a new audio commentary track with Actor/Stuntman Don Shanks and Justin Becham from Halloweenmovies.com. For the most parts, it’s a good commentary track. Shanks does a very good job going into the making of the film. From the movement of Michael Myers to his thoughts about the film, he does a good job into detail of what happened on set. The only problem with this track was there was a couple of time, where there were dead spot in a couple of the film’s scenes.
The next commentary track on the Blu-Ray features director Dominique Othenin- Girard and actors Danielle Harris and Jeffery Landman. This was also available on the “Halloween 5” DVD. The commentary track was good here. Everyone involved does a very good job providing interesting stories on the set. A worth listen to those who like the film.
After that, there is a behind the scenes featurette called “Halloween 5: On the Set”, which is your standard behind the scenes featurette and the film original promotional featurette.
Like on the “Halloween 4” Blu-Ray, there’s no retrospective featurette on the film. It would have added something to the Blu-Ray.
Final Summary:
This wasn’t a good film to sit through again. It’s easily one of the worst entries of the series with the next entry being the worst. “Halloween 5: The Revenge on Michael Myers” is one of those films where the screenwriting and direction was just lazy and uncreative. It makes you wish what could have happen, if they built on the ending of the fourth film.
Review Rating: One Star
Blu-Ray Extras: Two Stars
