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Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

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Film
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
Halloween 5 Poster
Directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard
Produced by Ramsey Thomas
Written by Screenplay
Michael Jacobs
Characters
John Carpenter
Starring

Donald Pleasence
Danielle Harris
Ellie Cornell
Beau Starr
Jeffrey Landman

Music by Alan Howarth
Cinematography Robert Draper
Editing by Charles Tetoni
Distributed by Galaxy International Pictures
Release 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)

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) is the fourth sequel to the popular horror film Halloween. 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 Lloyd, who is now mute. Dr. Loomis tries to save the day with the help of Sheriff Ben Meeker.

This is the least successful entry in the Halloween film franchise. The film was rushed into production, without even a final draft of the script. The tagline for the film was "Michael Lives. And This Time They're Ready!"

Plot[]

The film recapped the conclusion of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers in its opening, after the credits. Michael was relentlessly shot dozens of times by state police before he fell down into a mine shaft, but he survived the long fall and a dynamite blast as he crawled out a side tunnel and then floated downstream in a rushing river. Later, he stumbled into a riverside shack inhabited by a local hermit, and collapsed onto the wooden floor.

One year later[]

Halloween Eve, one year later, during a thunder and lightning storm, eight-year-old Jamie was undergoing monitoring-testing as she tossed and turned at Haddonfield Children's Clinic. She woke up screaming (although her cries were muted) as she recalled the final nightmarish scene of the previous film, in which she wore her clown costume (with mask) and stabbed her stepmother, Darlene Carruthers, as a bath was being prepared for her. She now retained a telepathic, psychically possessed link between herself and her uncle Michael, after touching his hand, and their movements mirrored each other. The traumatized girl experienced frightening visions and a seizure-like presence as she wrote on a chalkboard: "He's coming for me." Michael Myers awoke from his year-long coma at the same moment, donned his mask, and killed the hermit. Dr. Sam Loomis interrupted the girl's emergency treatment to open her trachea, asserting that she would stabilize.

The recuperating, mute Jamie was visited in her clinic room by her foster sister, Rachel Carruthers, her ebullient friend Tina Williams and their dog, Max. Shortly later, they were joined by Dr. Loomis. A rock thrown through her window contained a note: "THE EVIL CHILD MUST DIE!" Dr. Loomis feared that the whole series of events, at Halloween-time, might happen again - the inhabitants of the town were irrationally scared. As Rachel returned to her red-brick Haddonfield home with Max, the masked killer watched her from nearby bushes. In her art class, Jamie sensed a premonition of death (believing Max was in danger), as Rachel was being stalked at her house. Dr. Loomis phoned Rachel, interrupting her taking a shower and getting ready for the weekend party. Nude and wrapped in only a towel, Rachel fled from her house when ordered by Dr. Loomis to vacate immediately. Afterwards, police found no evidence of foul play and Max returned safely. Later however, as Rachel dressed in her upstairs bedroom, Myers again appeared in her closet as she dressed. In another room, after Rachel found a framed picture of her foster sister Jamie with cracked glass, she was suddenly stabbed in the chest/shoulder with a pair of scissors wielded by Michael. This violent death again caused shaking and convulsions throughout Jamie's body.

In the police department, the crazed Dr. Loomis recalled the emotionless killer of the previous Halloween with Sheriff Ben Meeker (Beau Starr): "You never saw his eyes. You never saw that nothing, no expression, blank... My memory goes back twelve years to the night when I offered...(he removed his black glove to show his disfigured, scarred, fire-burned hand) Look at that. I prayed that evil would burn in Hell, but in my heart, I knew that Hell would not have him." They were summoned to the local cemetery. Party girl Tina arrived at the Carruthers home (where there was no evidence of Rachel), looking forward to a weekend Halloween party (while Rachel's parents were away) with her blonde friend Samantha Thomas, and with their respective boyfriends: car enthusiast Mike and Food Mart store-clerk Spitz. Although Michael was in the house spying on them, nothing happened, although he soon turned up outside the Children's Clinic. A terrorized Jamie thought she was being stalked by Myers as she fled through the clinic's corridors, laundry room, and basement's furnace room although it was only the clinic's gardener.

Dr. Loomis badgered Jamie - begging her to help him find Michael - he asserted frantically: "We both know he's alive. But you know where he is! Why, why are you protecting him?... You can't hide from him. He can always get to you...Today in the cemetery, somebody dug up a coffin - it was a coffin of a nine-year-old girl. What do you think he's going to do with that! Huh? You're nine years old, aren't you, Jamie?... Tears won't get you anywhere. Help me to find him. We'll find him together. There's a reason why he has this power over you. Do you ever wonder what it is?"

A Chicago-bound bus arrived in Haddonfield, where an unidentified, black-dressed, trench-coated figure with silver steel-tipped boots disembarked. Dr. Loomis took his gun into the Myers home in town - it was completely in disrepair and overgrown with weeds. He called out: "Michael" as he roamed through the dusty, vacant rooms: "Have you come home, Michael? I know what you want from her." The mysterious stranger with boots (and a tattooed rune on his wrist, similar to the one on Michael's wrist) was also in the house.

The Tower Farm massacre[]

After loading his trunk with three cases of stolen beer from Spitz' food store for their planned Tower Farm Halloween party later that night, Michael Myers scratched Mike's freshly-waxed and polished convertible with a garden claw implement. When he challenged the masked killer, Mikey was grabbed by the throat and stabbed in the forehead with the three-pronged claw tool, before being dragged away. A costume pageant was being planned at the Children's Clinic - Jamie dressed as a pink princess with a tiara, and one of her young friends, Billy Hill, was dressed as a pirate. During the pageant, Jamie fainted and convulsed again - because of the impending danger to Tina.

In front of the Carruthers house where the black-garbed stranger stood, Tina - costumed as a sexy room service maid, was picked up by the masked Michael driving deceased Mikey's car. He was wearing her present - a grotesque, bulbous-nosed mask. She wasn't aware that Mikey was dead, and called him a "psycho-boyfriend" when he screeched to a halt in the middle of the street, to stop for cigarettes at a gas station convenience store. Stuttering out a few words, Jamie was able to warn Dr. Loomis about Tina's location (identified as Bill's gas station at 5th and Main, known for selling giant cookies), and police were radioed to intercept and protect her there, as Michael (with his own mask) drove away. When Tina was reunited with Jamie at the clinic, the young girl was able to speak, and expressed fears that Tina was going to be the next victim of the "boogeyman." Two state deputy police officers, Deputy Nick Ross and Deputy Tom Farrah, who were ordered to follow Tina, drove her to the Tower Farm party - unknowingly leading Michael Myers to her location. Seen intermittently and intercut into the next few scenes, Jamie and Billy ran on foot to the farmhouse, to warn Tina about her life being in grave danger.

At the Tower Farm, Tina, Samantha, and Spitz played a prank on the two idiotic officers - the two females pretended to be assaulted by a knife-wielding masked 'Michael Myers" (Spitz in costume). In the farm's barn adjacent to the farmhouse, the trio ran after some kittens. When Tina returned to the house, Spitz and Samantha prepared to make love among some straw bales. Spitz was impaled with a pitchfork stabbed into the middle of his back, splattering blood onto Samantha's breasts underneath him. And then Samantha's body was sliced with a curved scythe. Outside, the two deputies, Ross and Farrah, innocently assuming that Spitz was still wearing the 'Michael Myers' mask, were both stabbed multiple times with a pitchfork in their squad car. Afterwards, Tina, who went looking for her missing friends in the barn found their bloodied bodies as they rolled onto her. She fled screaming to the house, she saw the two dead patrol officers in their vehicle. When the two children arrived at the farm, they and Tina were chased by Myers. During the chase, Michael fatally stabs Tina.

Sheriff Meeker and multiple police cars arrived on the scene, as Dr. Loomis saves the two young children. Loomis asked Jamie in the ambulance: "Now are you willing to help me?" and she agreed to help in his quest to kill the evil Myers. Loomis spoke facing into the woods that surrounded the crime scene, luring Michael back to his old house in town - with Jamie as bait: "Michael? It will destroy you too, one day, Michael? This rage which drives you. You think if you kill them all, it will go away. It won't! You have to fight it in the place where it's strongest, where it all began. If you want to get rid of this rage, Michael, go home, GO HOME! Go to your house! I shall be there waiting for you! You will find her waiting for you!

Loomis plans Michael's defeat[]

Jamie sat conspicuously in view, in front of the second-story window in the large Victorian-style Myers house protected by Deputy Charlie Bloch, planted there while other officers and Dr. Loomis surrounded the home or guarded from the inside. The massive operation was circumvented when a distress call from the clinic diverted most of the police force to that location. Dr. Loomis predicted: "Now you'll come, won't you, Michael?" Outside the house, Deputy Eddy Grey's parked police car was rammed from behind, and his face was repeatedly smashed against the steering wheel - his death cries were heard on Deputy Bloch's walkie-talkie. At gunpoint, Dr. Loomis coerced Deputy Bloch to remain in the house and proceed with the original plan. Deputy Bloch attempted to escape with a rope ladder extended from the second-floor window, as Michael burst through the door. He emptied his gun into Myers with ten shots, with no visible effect, and then was hanged in one of the rope ladder nooses outside the window, as Jamie fled to another room. Sheriff Meeker supervised as the bodies of two victims of Myers as they were taken out on stretchers at the Children's Clinic. Jamie's screams echoed in the laundry chute as she dropped to the basement, and then valiantly struggled to climb away from Myers' frenzied stabbing knife through the metal. She managed to emerge from the chute on the next floor up, and then found herself in the candle-lit attic of the Myers house (littered with the displayed bodies of victims, including the dog Max, Mikey, and Rachel). As the killer approached, she laid in a coffin (the one that Michael had earlier dug up in the cemetery after removing the dead body of a nine-year-old girl) ready to accept death. As he raised his sacrificial knife, she called out: "Uncle!" She pointed at her eye, and requested that he remove his mask so that she could see his eyes: "Let me see." Michael paused, then removed his mask. She responded, "You're just like me" - watching as a single tear streaked down his face. When she reached to wipe it away from his cheek, "Let me," he reacted wildly and continued his raging pursuit. She ran down the stairs, directly into the arms of Dr. Loomis, who cried out, "You want her. Here she is... A little girl. Come and get her." He led Myers into a trap in the living room, using Jamie as the prize. A heavy metal chain net was dropped from the ceiling on Myers. Dr. Loomis fired four tranquilizer darts into the seized madman, and then beat him unconscious with a wooden plank.

Myers was taken into police custody and placed temporarily in the Haddonfield Police Department's jail, for future transport to a maximum-security facility by the US National Guard, where Meeker claimed, "he'll stay 'til the day he dies." But Jamie responded, "He'll never die." In a patrol car outside, as Jamie awaited transportation back to the clinic, an explosion rocked the jail. The black-garbed stranger with silver steel-tipped boots had entered the police department, and murdered Sheriff Meeker, Deputy Tony, and six other officers. In the aftermath, Jamie walked through the carnage all around and looked at Michael's cell to find it empty. She sobbed and screamed: "No, no!"

Cast[]

Characters[]

Production[]

The success of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers 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 reaching the end of their winning streak. As the previous film was still in theatres, 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.

Writing[]

The first draft of the script was written by Shem Bitterman. Bitterman's idea was that Jamie Lloyd would become evil after stabbing her step-mother 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 the script edited 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 step-mother. 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."

Halloween 5 was rushed into production on May 1, 1989, before there was a solid script. The script was filmed without refinements and many suspenseful scenes, such as Tina and Samantha doing cart-wheels near The Shape, were cut in favor of less suspenseful scenes.

Originally, Rachel's death was supposed to be by having scissors shoved down her throat. Ellie Cornell, who played Rachel, disliked the idea and asked it be changed to being stabbed with the scissors.

The Hermit, who was shown at 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 hommage a scene in Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left.

Casting[]

Returning from Halloween 4 were 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 unaired Halloween 5 television spot.

Karen Alston, who portrayed Darlene Carruthers in the previous film, reprised her role at 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 receives the role of Jamie's protector.

George P. Wilbur, who had portrayed The Shape in the previous film, expressed no interest in returning to play the role. Don Shanks was cast to play the speechless, 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 already had a large build.

Max Robinson would play Maxwell Hart, the doctor who assists Jamie when she is having one of her nightmares at 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.

Filming[]

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.

After filming for two weeks, Donald Pleasence gave his much bigger trailer to Danielle Harris once he left the 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.

The film began production on May 1, 1989, and was being filmed in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, just like its preceder. 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.

Unable to find a small, Victorian house like the Myers House in Halloween, the filmmakers chose a bigger, more mansion-ish house because they needed a location 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 2x4 block of wood.

Don Shanks was also injured when 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 as the car almost ran over top of her.

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.

Editing[]

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 Mike quivering on the ground after Michael stabs him in the head with a hammer claw, 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 scene, which she still owns.

An alternate opening was filmed with the Hermit replaced by a younger, hippier, 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.

Victims[]

Survivors[]

  • Jamie Lloyd - Kidnapped by Dr. Wynn, her uncle Michael, and all the other cult members and taken to Smith's Grove Sanitarium after the police station massacre.
  • Dr. Samuel Loomis - After defeating Michael, he suffers a stroke, and retires and moves to a quiet hut on the outskirts of Haddonfield, where he lives a solitary existence.

Reception[]

Critical reaction[]

Halloween 5 was panned by critics and audiences alike. Many felt that 5 was the silliest film yet in the series. Certain elements were singled out for criticism, such as Michael's mask, Jamie's newfound telepathy, and the obvious difference of the Myers house from earlier films.

It holds a 14% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Box office[]

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.

Home video[]

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.

Notes and trivia[]

  • The filming location for the Myers house in this film was in Salt Lake City, Utah.
  • Jamie Lloyd was instructed to sit in front of a vanity mirror and brush her hair in an attempt to recreate her aunt Judith Myers's final moments before her murder.
  • Don Shanks was originally set to wear Michael's mask from Halloween 4 to keep things consistent from film to film, but the mask did not fit Shanks, prompting another mask to be made for the production.
  • On September 30, 2021, it was revealed that not only would Halloween Kills be released in theaters and on Peacock on October 15, but that the original 1978 film, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers would be in select theaters across the country.[1]
  • Jamie screaming "No, no!" was sampled in the 2017 slasher film Happy Death Day.

Pop culture references[]

  • Horror author Dennis Etchison makes a reference to there being a Halloween 5, a few 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 was known for having previously written the Halloween II and III novelizations and an unused script for Halloween IV, elements of which were adapted in the sixth film and possibly also referenced in Revenge, when Tina and her friends jokingly suggest that Haddonfield should ban its residents from celebrating Halloween.
  • 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.

External links[]

References[]

  1. ↑ Halloween Kills Producer Looks Back on the Power of Michael Myers and Teases Franchise's Future - Comicbook.com
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