Halloween 5 - Die Rache des Michael Myers

Halloween 5 was a step down compared to others. A better director probally would have done better with the script, which wasn't that bad.

Donald Pleasence again trys to put away Michael Myers, but this time takes a swat team into the Myers house with him. Well of course they are no match for Myers, but Loomis does manage to capture Myers in chains and beat him to a pulp.

Good performances, but badly filmed. It looks like a made for cable movie.

**/****

Halloween 5 is a disappointing movie for Halloween fans and horror movie fans. It lacks in plot, scares and suspense.

It's one year later after the events of Halloween 4. Michael survives the shootings and on October 31st he returns to Haddonfield. Jamie (the heroine of H4) is in Haddonfield's Children's Hospital after attacking her step-mother the previous year. She is being treated by Dr. Loomis with the aid of her step-sister Rachel and Rachel's friend Tina. Lurking and stalking, Michael forms a plan to lure Jamie out of the children's hospital where events lead up to a confrontation at Michael's childhood house.

OK, I like Donald Pleasence even though his performance went down a little and is a little cheesy. Danielle Harris does the best spending half the movie being mute. It's a great performance. Ellie Cornell is back as Rachael. She is a great character but gets killed off in the first ten minutes. The rest of the movie is filled with terribly acted, stupid teenagers. Even some of the characters from the Friday the 13th movies are better. The characters are all hateful and the script doesn't make much sense.

It's a typical slasher movie, which I don't like that much. Halloween 5 spends too much time on teenagers with silly teen lust combined with slasher stuff. There's even a part with 2 bumbling cops with three stooges like music playing in the background. It's just stupid. The story feels like it doesn't know what to do next. But it does excel when it cuts to the real story of Meyers chasing the girl and the doctor's relentless pursuit.

But the climax wasn't that bad, even though Michael's "demise" was absolutely ridicules with Loomis beating Michael with a piece of wood. Michael's childhood home looks completely different than how it looked in the first. The chase scenes with Jamie and Michael were pretty good. And a scene with Jamie hiding in a vent and Michael stabbing at it was pretty suspenseful. And it was different while being believable. That was the best part in the whole movie. Also the atmosphere is pretty good and very creepy. I would have given this 1 star if it wasn't for that.

So besides the climax Halloween 5 is pretty bad. You can tell it was rushed because of the success of Halloween 4.

2 stars (out of 4)

There are some cool scenes in this movie. And there are some neat ideas. But it falls flat because of large number of plot holes and it's too fast for it's own good. I feel the movie would have been better if it focused more on the children. Scenes where the kids are in danger are one of the best in the movie. Danielle Harris is perfect in her role as little Jamie and Donald Pleasence gives his best, but it's not enough to save this movie from being a little more than a regular slasher, which is a shame given the greatness of character and setting. It's not the worst thing you will watch, it's just OK. Sadly, though I still haven't watched the rest, I feel that story elements introduced in this movie will take things too far. But I digress. 6/10 from me. If you are horror movie fan, watch it for fun :)

Sure, they wasted their one chance to change the direction of the Halloween series (the right way). The year long coma is BS, yes, indeed. Sure, the psychic connection between Jamie and Michael is a little goofy, ill-explained, beyond the scope of a Halloween movie, and exists for no real reason, and yes, other people wearing a mask similar to Michael and pretending to be Michael is getting old (not to mention predictable.) The mask doesn't resemble any of the previous masks really, the Myers house had an inexplicable make-over . . . I could keep these complaints rolling for some time (don't even get me started on the man in black), but despite all my reasons to not like this film . . . I prefer it over #4.

I found Halloween 5 to be strangely fun, which horror tends to be when you stop caring for the cast. While I like Danielle Harris and Donald Pleasance in the leads, most of the supporting characters I didn't really like at all, so when Myers starts the party rolling I'm rooting for team Thorn. And this time around, Miky proves he has a dark sense of humor. I especially like his choice in masks in Halloween 5 . . .

But is it scary? No, but there are a few genuine intense moments towards the end as Michael inevitably runs out of victims and closes in on the stars. I liked all the chases involving Danielle Harris and confrontations between Donald Pleasence and evil personified . . . even if said confrontations are on the silly side.

Speaking of Harris, despite her character not being able to talk in the script, she manages to rise far above the material and actually pull it off. Or in other words, while her character was written by a hack and sloppily thrown together, she works wonders with the very little she's given. It makes me really wish she got writing worthy of her performance, but like a professional, she makes the best of it . . . and to think the studio wouldn't let her reprise her role after this? A slap to the face after an insult . . . oy.

I remember reading on the VHS box of Halloween 5 the exclamation, `Michael finally unmasked!' And couldn't help but chuckle as I recalled him being mask-less at least once in every Myers-inclusive Halloween until this film. Granted, this is the first time he, himself, takes it off. Oh well.

As for the film's ending, I can't forgive because it lead to the atrocity known as Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers which felt Halloween 5 was extremely flawed but still fun . . . so it set out to make a sequel that was all flaw and no fun . . . or something.

After the success of HALLOWEEN 4, it was predictable that the studio would go on with another sequel. The only good thing about this one is that it picks up the story exactly where the last film left off, giving an explanation for the fact that little DANIELLE HARRIS is behind bars in a clinic for disturbed children. But within the first half-hour of the story, it's obvious that this is no HALLOWEEN 4.

As someone else pointed out, DONALD PLEASANCE is just about as psychotic as Michael Meyers in his quest to find the serial killer who seems to be eradicating all the citizens of Haddonfield every time it's Halloween. ELLIE CORNELL as Rachel is killed off early in the story and, unfortunately, there are no other likable members among the youthful cast to root for. It's as if they were scripted, all of them, to deserve their fate.

Without a good plot structure and much too much repetition, this one begins to sink before the midway point. All of the fright sequences are done competently enough but just don't have the same tension or creepiness of the better ones in this series.

Summing up: Not helped by Donald Pleasance's decision to ham it up unmercifully to draw attention--but it doesn't work. They should have quit after HALLOWEEN 4.