Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

Starring: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, Beau Starr, Wendy Kaplan, Troy Evans
Directed by: Dominique Othenin-Girard
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Thriller
1989

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: One year after Michael Myers tried to murder his niece (Danielle Harris), he returns to the hunt once again. However, his niece now has a psychic link to her murdering uncle.

Review:

Tim: Halloween has been my favorite of the 80s slasher films (I know the first one came out in '78), but at this point, the franchise has decreased in quality to the point where it's no better than any other horror movies. This film is a giant mess, and clearly, the worst film of the franchise to date. I was very disappointed in this movie.

The biggest problem I have is that it all seems so completely ridiculous. We have teenagers acting like lunatics for no apparent reason, amazingly stupid behavior from people, and overall, massive gaps in logic. The characters in this film said and did things that no rational person would do. The writing was simply atrocious. There was very little to like in this movie. Somehow, the film even manages to make Donald Pleasence look awful.

The script is mostly to blame for this disappointment. One of the bigger characters gets murdered early on, and every other character seems completely oblivious to the fact that she disappeared. This one flaw bothered me throughout the entire film. Why didn't anyone ask where she was? It makes no sense, and it only furthers the belief that this film was a lazy effort by all involved. The movie also has some poor scenes- the psychic link between Michael and Jamie made little sense to me, and was left completely unexplained. Even worse, we have a mysterious man in black, whose presence isn't touched on at all. The film's conclusion leaves the explanation up to the next film, which I found slightly unsatisfying. Oh, and we also get two bumbling cops with clown music in the background when they appear on screen. Are you kidding me?

I was disappointed in the cast. I love that Donald Pleasence came back for his fourth outing against Michael, but Dr. Loomis has lost some effectiveness over the years. He appeared fairly crazy (he was basically harassing Jamie at various points in the film) and I didn't care for him much at all. I didn't love that Michael's biggest challenge was a nine year old girl, but I admit Danielle Harris did a good job as Jamie. Her "suffocating" psychic link scenes were actually a bit chilling. Unfortunately, besides these two, the rest of the cast are made up of awful, forgettable actors who add absolutely nothing to the film. It's actually a relief when they die, so we don't have to be plagued by their pathetic acting any more.

I love the idea of Michael Myers, and I want to like these films. However, I don't want to waste my time with a poorly constructed, boring, devoid of logic movie that offers nothing particularly new. I wanted to like this, but it was impossible. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers marks a new low for the franchise.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Halloween, Halloween II, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, Scream 1-3, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street