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Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael MyersRating:
Release Date: 09 July, 2002 Retail Price: $19.98 OUR Price: $17.98 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: Complete Cast (7 total) |
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers Reviews
Visit Lovely Haddonfield
Beginning with H20, the Halloween series now completely ignores the events of Halloween 4, 5, and the Curse of Michael Myers, so these films fall into limbo.
Since they couldn't get Jamie Lee Curtis to commit to the middle films, they tried to follow the story of Michael killing off members of his family. Halloween 4 is the best of the bunch, 5 is a step down, and the whole house collapsed with the appalling Curse of Michael Myers.
The redeeming features of 4 and 5 are clearly Donald Pleasance and Danielle Harris. Pleasance is totally game as the obsessed Dr. Loomis, and indeed, in this version he seems ready for the loony bin himself as Michael Myers once again returns from death to stalk the hapless citizens of Haddonfield. If you recall, Michael was hit by a truck and shot about 100 times at the end of 4, but nothing can stop Halloween financier Mustapha Akkad from resurrecting his favorite son for some more trick or treating. You'll also recall a bold move at the end of 4 to send the series on a different path and make Michael's niece Jamie take over the family business of butchering. Once again, the producers went safe and dropped that idea, preferring to let Mike do the slaughtering.
Danielle Harris once again plays Jamie (the daughter of Jamie Lee's character). She gives an impressive performance for a child actor in this one and is completely convincing as a terrorized 11 year-old that is now psychically linked with Michael. I also liked the completely inept and moronic cops who exist to, well, die. A shame they kill of Ellie Cornell, but the laws of slasherdom state that survivors of the previous film generally must die in the next installment just to show that like an elephant, Michael (or Jason, or Freddy) never forgets.
The ideas are definitely there, and people are game, but the execution is so-so. The look of the film is good--it has a real Halloween, autumn feel to it and was filmed in Salt Lake City, Utah. There is a subplot involving a mysterious man who is following the action and makes for an ultra violent ending. (He and Michael share strange symbolic markings.) By the end of 5 we get the bizarre image of Michael in a jail cell (with the mask still on!) before we get the cliffhanger ending. Sad that it would take six years for a sequel to explain what happened. The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) is terrible, an example of trying to over engineer a slasher series to embarrassing ends. The score is by Alan Howarth and is not as good as the subtle soundscapes he contributed to 4, but he tries to inject some life into the famous themes and cues.
Part 5 is weaker than Part 4 and boils down to pretty much by-the-numbers slasher material, done with a bit more style and with some good acting. Once again, it seems that they can't get the Michael Myers mask right, and this version is terrible. Perhaps they try something different every time, but really, can they not just get a decent reproduction of the masks in Part I or II?
I like the approach they took on with H20 and Resurrection, but these middle parts have Loomis, whose obsession and pronouncements of 'pure evil' define Michael as much as the mask and the kitchen knife.
Definitely far from the series' finest hour, but recommended for die-hard fans, of course. The DVD now includes a short making of featurette as well.
Disapointing, entertaining nonetheless
After a superior predecessor (HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS) the fifth instalment proves to be a little dissapointing. It is at this point that even horror fanatics begin to toy with the question- will HE ever die? Still though the movie still holds many shocks and scares. The movie continues straight after Halloween 4 in where Michael presumed dead after being knifed, shot several times, and falling into a mineshaft manages to escape just before the town nuke the place! Fortunately Michael having found refuge is taken in by a hermit. But, one year later, as soon as he awakens he kills the hermit. Myers continues to pursue his niece Jamie (Danielle Harris) and he'll do anything to get her. Donald L.Shanks the man responsible for playing the monster does an excellent job at showing the brutality potential of Michael Myers. Another element that proves original in the film is the introduction of the emotional Michael of where we discover that he must kill in order to stop the fury in his head. We are also introduced to the DARKMAN of whom we know nothing about and of whom is more explained in the later sequel. Halloween 5 pretty much follows it's predecessor in that the same themes are there- Michael hunting down his family members while madman Dr.Loomis plays the protector and the man responsible for possibly killing Myers. However, as with all Halloween films there are many holes such as Myer's house which seemed to have gone under a chrysallis formation. Once a two storey house, now it has become a mansion.
Apart from plotgaps and acting this film is quite an average yet worthy sequel to the now stale Halloween series.
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