| Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Dominique Othenin-Girard |
| Produced by | Ramsey Thomas |
| Written by | Michael Jacobs Dominique Othenin-Girard Shem Bitterman |
| Starring | Donald Pleasence Danielle Harris Ellie Cornell Beau Starr Wendy Kaplan Tamara Glynn |
| Music by | Alan Howarth |
| Cinematography | Robert Draper |
| Editing by | Charles Tetoni Jerry Brady |
| Studio | Magnum Pictures Inc. |
| Distributed by | Galaxy International Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 13, 1989 |
| Running time | 96 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5 million[1] |
| Box office | $11,642,254[1] |
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is a 1989 American slasher film and the fifth installment in the Halloween film series. It was directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard and starred Donald Pleasence, who again portrayed Dr. Sam Loomis and Danielle Harris, who returned to play Jamie Lloyd. The film takes place exactly one year after the events depicted in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. The Shape has returned to the sleepy town of Haddonfield, Illinois to murder his niece, Jamie, who is now mute. Dr. Loomis tries to save the day with the help of Sheriff Meeker.
The tagline for the film was "Michael lives. And this time, they're ready!"
The film's main titles do not display the "The Revenge of Michael Myers" subtitle which was used in all of the promotional material, TV spots, trailers, and merchandise. The main titles simply say "Halloween 5".
Contents |
The film begins with a recap of Halloween 4 after Michael Myers (Don Shanks) fell down the mine shaft. The state troopers tossed dynamite down the mine to make sure that Michael was dead. But Michael somehow finds his way out and stumbles into a nearby river, where he is found by a local hermit where he collapses in his shack and remains in a comatose state for a full year. On October 30, 1989, Michael awakens, kills the hermit, and returns to terrorize Haddonfield, where his young niece, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), continues to live after nearly being killed by Michael the year before.
Jamie has been committed to a children's psychiatric ward. She also has been rendered mute due to psychological trauma, but exhibits signs of a telepathic link with her evil uncle. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is aware of Jamie's psychic link with her uncle, and tries to convince Sheriff Ben Meeker (Beau Starr) that Michael Myers is alive. Meanwhile, Michael kills Rachel (Ellie Cornell) with a pair of scissors, and begins to stalk her friend, Tina (Wendy Kaplan), as well as her friends, Samantha (Tamara Glynn), Spitz (Matthew Walker) and her boyfriend Mike (Jonathan Chapin).
Michael stalks Mike and kills him outside a car garage with a sharp rake to his head. Tina, Samantha, and Spitz go to a Halloween party in a barn. Michael kills both Samantha and Spitz in a barn who are having sex, and kills two scab deputies that Loomis asks to keep an eye on Tina for her own protection. Once the party is over, Michael chases Tina and Jamie, who has regained her ability to speak, along with Jamie's inmate Billy with a car. While in pursuit of Jamie, Michael runs into a tree and appears to be dead, but then he steps out of the car and is ready to kill Jamie. Tina runs at Michael, sacrificing herself to save Jamie. Jamie agrees to put herself in danger to help Loomis stop Michael for good. With Jamie's help, Loomis lures Michael back to the abandoned Myers house where Michael once lived.
In the old Myers house, Dr. Loomis and the police create a set up. Inside the house, Jamie is in Judith Myers' deserted bedroom seated in front of a vanity brushing her hair. It is an eerie recreation of Judith's last moments before Michael had killed her. A mysterious stranger dressed in all black (Don Shanks), seen throughout the film, causes an attack at Jamie's hospital. Jamie has visions of Billy, which caused Meeker along with most of his back up to leave the Myers house. Eventually, Michael arrives driving a police car and tailgates the only car waiting and kills the cop by banging his head on the dashboard. When Michael gets inside the house, Loomis finds him and tries to reason with him. When attempting to take his knife away, Micheal attacks him by slashing his stomach and breaking a window behind them with his head. Michael then throws Loomis off a stair railing. After that, Michael goes upstairs and breaks down the locked door so that he can gain entry into Judith's bedroom. At this time, the police officer that had been in Judith's bedroom with Jamie, is dangling a rope out of the window and about to help Jamie climb out. But things do not go according to plan and Michael murders the officer who tried to save Jamie. However, Jamie manages to run past Michael and out of Judith's bedroom.
Later, Jamie flees through the house, hiding in an old laundry chute and being forced to abandon safety after Michael finds her and stabs the chute repeatedly. Michael chases her upstairs. Jamie attempts to hide in the attic, and finds Tina's dog Max being hanged and also finds the bodies of Mikey and Rachel. She is found by Michael, and tries appealing to her uncle's humanity but ultimately fails when he has a fit of rage after she touches him. Loomis appears, who uses a tranquilizer gun to weaken him and then proceeds to violently beat him unconscious with a wooden plank. In the end, Michael is locked up in the local sheriff's station, to eventually be escorted to a maximum-security prison. However, the stranger in black arrives and attacks the police station causing an explosion and shoots the police; killing Sheriff Meeker and several others. Jamie walks through the station finding the bodies of gunned officers, and goes over to Michael's holding cell to discover that it is empty.
| "Drunk off the success of Halloween 4, we began production on Halloween 5." |
| — Moustapha Akkad on Halloween 5.[2] |
The success of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers that had jump-started Michael Myers' fame as the '80s slasher movie craze had begun to subside. Film franchises like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street were on the wane. As the previous film was still in theaters, Moustapha Akkad had already laid out plans for Halloween 5. The producers wanted to screen the film in October 1989, just one year after the previous sequel.
The first draft of the script was written by Shem Bitterman. Bitterman's idea was that Jamie Lloyd would become evil after stabbing her stepmother to death 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 had edited the script and created new scenes for more violence.
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. In an interview, Danielle Harris explained what she thought of the idea. Harris said,
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. Scary, but fun.[3]
Halloween 5 had been rushed into production on May 1, 1989 before there was a solid script. The script was filmed without perfections and many suspenseful scenes, such as Tina and Samantha doing cart-wheels near The Shape, were cut to less suspenseful scenes.
Originally, Rachel's death was supposed to be by having scissors shoved down her throat. Ellie Cornell, who played Rachel, did not like the idea and requested it be changed to being stabbed with the scissors.
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, named 'Dr. Death' in the script, 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 to an old man, instead of a younger man. The scythe that was supposed to kill Samantha was originally going to go through her forehead.
The scene where Michael Myers drives a car while wearing a different kind of mask was initially scripted to have him wear a Ronald Reagan mask. However, the idea of a Reagan mask was soon rejected in order to keep the film devoid of any political subtexts.
The script added two "bumbling" cops, Deputies Nick and Tom, with their own "clown theme" in the background to homage a scene in Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left.[4]
Returning from Halloween 4 were veteran actors Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell, and Beau Starr as Dr. Sam Loomis, Jamie Lloyd, Rachel Carruthers, and Sheriff Ben Meeker, respectively. Starr would later appear in an un-aired Halloween 5 television spot.
Karen Alston, who portrayed Darlene Carruthers in the previous film, reprised her role in the beginning of the film showing the anonymous person in the mask stabbing her as she falls into the bathtub of water. Her voice-over was recorded by Wendy Kaplan. Kaplan won the role of Tina Williams, the loud and "willy" friend of Rachel's. After Rachel's demise, Tina inherits the role of Jamie's protector.
George P. Wilbur, who had portrayed The Shape in the previous film, did not express interest in returning to play the role. Don Shanks was cast to play the speech-less, white-masked, murderer. Shanks had already played a similar character in the first two Silent Night, Deadly Night films. Shanks also played the Man in Black. Wilbur, who had to wear hockey pads to appear to have a bigger build, would later portray the Shape again in the next installment, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Shanks did not have to wear the hockey pads because he was already built big.[5]
Max Robinson would play Maxwell Hart, the doctor who assists Jamie when she is having one of her nightmares in the beginning of the film. Betty Carvalho appears as his assistant, Nurse Patsey, who has a "motherly" feel to Jamie. Jeffrey Landman portrayed Billy Hill, Jamie's best friend, who has a stuttering problem. Landman worked with a coach who taught him about stuttering to help him prepare for the role.
Newcomers such as Tamara Glynn, Matthew Walker, and Jonathan Chapin appear as Samantha Thomas, Spitz, and Mike, who are friends of Tina and Rachel.
Debra Hill, who had written and produced the first two films, had sold her and John Carpenter's rights to the series before Halloween 4. She had met director Dominique Othenin-Girard at The Sundance Film Festival and liked his style.
She arranged a meeting with Othenin-Girard and Moustapha Akkad. Akkad liked Othenin-Girard and he became the director. This was Debra Hill's last involvement in the series. Othenin-Girard wanted to bring the series closer to the original, but wanted more blood in the film. The original uncut version of the film featured more explicit gore and violence. Akkad did not like this decision, as it was this that made the original and Halloween 4 so popular.[5]
After filming for two weeks, Donald Pleasence had given his much bigger trailer to Danielle Harris once he left set. Harris's mother had been complaining about the small size of her daughter's trailer and Pleasence decided that she should have his.
Danielle Harris and Don Shanks became good friends over the course of filming, reportedly spending a lot of time together while off set.[6]
The film began production on May 1, 1989, and was being filmed in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, just like its predecessor. The bus that the Man in Black gets off of stops outside exactly the same store where Jamie and Rachel went to get a Halloween costume in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.
Unable to find a small, Victorian house like the Myers House in Halloween, the filmmakers chose a bigger, more mansion-like house because they needed a house that could provide wide rooms, hallways, an attic, a basement, and a laundry chute. Donald Pleasence accidentally broke Don Shanks's nose on the set when they were filming the scene where Dr. Loomis beats The Shape with a 2×4 block of wood.
Don Shanks was also injured when he was filming the scene where The Shape crashes Mike's Camaro into the tree. Dominique Othenin-Girard had forgotten to yell "Cut!" and fire was beginning to emerge from the car. Finally, stunt coordinator Don Hunt told Othenin-Girard to finally yell "cut". Wendy Kaplan was also injured in this scene. The car almost ran over the top of her. She was uninjured as seen in Halloween: 25 Years of Terror.
Gregory Nicotero and Wendy Kaplan were seeing each other during filming. According to Danielle Harris, Tamara Glynn was drunk during the filming of her death scene.
The film had been fighting an X rating with the violence, blood, and gore. Some scenes were trimmed down to keep it Rated R, including a shot of Mikey quivering on the ground after Michael stabs him in the head with a garden fork, a shot of glass embedded in Officer Eddy's face after Michael punches through the windshield, and Billy's leg being hit by the Camaro.
In the scene in which Jamie climbs up the laundry chute, she was originally supposed to be stabbed in the leg, sending a splash of blood into the camera. The aftermath can be seen when Jamie gets out of the chute: a bloody stab wound is clearly visible on her right leg, and she walks with a noticeable limp. Danielle Harris wore a prosthetic leg for the filming, which she still owns.
An alternate opening was filmed with the Hermit replaced by a younger, hippy-like man named 'Dr. Death' with all kinds of ritualistic items in his cabin. This scene can be seen on Inside 'Halloween 5'.
More scenes with the character of Billy were filmed, but were cut. The scenes include Billy meeting Rachel and Tina for the first time on his bicycle with Max the dog, Jamie telling Billy to follow Tina to the Tower Farm, and a scene showing Billy being rushed into the children's clinic, while the police find the body of Dr. Hart.
KNB Effects had designed grotesque facial makeup for Michael Myers' unmasking towards the end of the film. The producers told them to do so as an option, either showing Michael's badly scarred face or keep it in the dark. They went for the latter.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers opened on October 13, 1989 at #2 and earned $5,093,428 to 1,495 theatres. It quickly fell from the box office with a scant $11,642,254 – the least successful Halloween film to date. The film went straight to video outside of North America, with the exception of a few countries such as Argentina, Turkey and France. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers received poor reviews from critics. As of June 2011, On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 14% "Rotten" approval rating and holds a rating of 5/10 in Internet Movie Database.
The film has been made into VHS and DVD format. It has been released, with Halloween 4, on Divimax edition and with the original Halloween in 2008 for the Halloween: 30 Years of Terror box-set.
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