Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
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| Halloween 5 | |
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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 Wendy Kaplan Beau Starr |
| Music by | Alan Howarth |
| Cinematography | Robert Draper |
| Editing by | Charles Tetoni Jerry Brady |
| Distributed by | Galaxy International Pictures |
| Release date(s) | October 13, 1989 |
| Running time | 96 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5 million |
| Gross revenue | $11,642,254 |
| Preceded by | Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) |
| Followed by | Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) |
| Official website | |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is the 1989 sequel to the popular horror film, Halloween. It was directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard and starred Donald Pleasence, who again portrayed Dr. Sam Loomis. The original music score was composed by Alan Howarth. The film was marketed with the tagline "Michael lives. And this time they're ready!"
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[edit] Plot
The film begins with a recap of Michael Myers being shot at and falling into a mine shaft, from the end of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, but Michael finds a way out and stumbles into a nearby river. He stumbles into a small shack by the river owned by a local hermit. Once there Michael collapses and remains in a comatose state for a full year. On October 30th, 1989, Michael reawakens, kills the hermit and returns to terrorize Haddonfield, where his young niece, Jamie Lloyd (played by Danielle Harris) continues to live after nearly being killed by Michael the year before.
Jamie has been unable to speak since attacking her foster mother in a state of shock at the end of part four, but exhibits signs of a telepathic link with her evil uncle. Dr. Sam Loomis realizes that this link exists, and plans to use it to put an end to Michael. Michael begins stalking Rachel (Jamie's foster sister) and her friend Tina (played by Wendy Kaplan). After both are killed Jamie agrees to put herself in danger to help Loomis stop Michael for good. With Jamie's help, Loomis lures Michael back to the old Myers House.
Michael makes many attempts to kill Jamie, finally getting the chance to kill her in the attic. In a desperate move, Jamie tries appealing to Michael's humanity by saying "Uncle." This causes Myers to pause. When Jamie asks to see his face, he takes off his mask. A lone tear runs down his face. Jamie reaches up to wipe it away, and Michael is thrown into a rage. The killer pursues Jamie who runs into Loomis. The good doctor seems to turn on the girl as he shouts for Michael to come and take her. It turns out that he has used the girl as bait and Michael walks beneath a heavy chain net that is dropped over him. After two ineffectual shots from a tranquilizer gun, Loomis ends up beating him repeatedly with a 2 x 4. They take Michael to the local sheriff station. However, a mysterious stranger, dressed in all black, has come to Haddonfield. Jamie, sitting in a patrol car outside, hears an explosion. Jamie walks through the station finding the bodies of the dead officers. She goes over to Michael's jail cell to discover that it's empty. As Jamie sobs realizing Myers is once again able to get to her, she says No...NO!. The scene then goes black.
[edit] Cast
- Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis
- Danielle Harris as Jamie Lloyd Carruthers
- Ellie Cornell as Rachel Carruthers
- Wendy Kaplan as Tina Williams
- Beau Starr as Sheriff Ben Meeker
[edit] Development
After the immediate success of Halloween 4, the producers felt that a fifth installment was inevitable. The '80s slasher craze had largely subsided by this time and this was most likely the contributing factor to why Halloween 5 was rushed into production before the script had been perfected. The producers wanted to hit an October 1989 release for the film most likely to make one last chip-in on the almost dead slasher movie fad. Halloween 5 went into production in May of 1989 and was completed on time.
Similar to Halloween 2, there was a lot of tension on the set of this particular entry. The director wanted more gore, which was opposed by executive producer Moustapha Akkad.[1] Also, veteran actor Donald Pleasance cited differences in the plot with the director, as did Akkad. They felt that Jamie should have killed her stepmother and should have been completely evil, but the director's vision is the one we see in the final cut of the film.[citation needed]
[edit] Reception
Halloween 5 is one of the least successful films in the franchise. The film received mostly negative reviews and took in almost $12,000,000 on a budget of around $6,000,000. Due to the film's negative reviews and low ticket sales the film was released straight to video outside of North America. Many believe this is due to the film being rushed into production. Others believe it is because Halloween 5 was competing with Halloween 4, which was being released on video and TV.
[edit] Production notes
- 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.
- Although the film is titled Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, during the opening credits the title is just Halloween 5.
- The bus that the Man in Black gets off of stops outside the exact same store where Jamie and Rachel went to get a Halloween costume in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.
- Rachel was originally supposed to be stabbed in the throat with scissors but the actress, Ellie Cornell, felt it was too gruesome for an end for her character, so it was changed.
- Don Shanks revealed in an interview that many of the scenes involving the Man In Black had him playing the character, because of speculation that he was a blood relative of Michael Myers. He also admitted that even the writers were uncertain about the Man In Black's identity.
- 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.
- On the audio commentary for the DVD, it's stated that Gregory Nicotero and Wendy Kaplan were seeing each other during filming.
[edit] Pop culture references
- Horror author Dennis Etchison makes a reference to there being a Halloween 5, a couple of years before the actual movie is conceived, in his 1986 novel Darkside. The lead character in the book composes film scores, seemingly for mostly cheap horror flicks, and Halloween 5 is a project in his near future. This was before Michael Myers was confirmed to return to the series. Etchison also wrote the tie-in novels for Halloween 2 and 3.
- The official website for the franchise, www.halloweenmovies.com, features a map of Haddonfield which indicates that the hermit seen in the prologue may be another living relative of Michael Myers. His home was located on the outskirts of town along the Lost River.
[edit] References
- ^ Halloween: 25 Years of Terror DVD documentary
[edit] External links
- Official site
- Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers at the Internet Movie Database
- Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers at Allmovie
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