PopHorror Let's Get Scared
After finishing Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers as a child, I was hellbent on seeing Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers! Would Jamie be the epitome of “all-evil?” Did her stepmom survive Jamie’s attack? It was the cliffhanger of the century! Okay, so maybe not the century, but to a 7 year old, it was pretty serious. So serious, in fact, that I scraped up all of my change so that I could rent it from Blockbuster. Once I had the funds from my piggy bank, I begged my mother to take me to go get it. Luckily, she gave in and so started the longest night of her life. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers scared the crap out of me. So naturally, my mother received no sleep that night. Give me a break! I was only 7. She forbade me from watching it again and that was supposed to be that. However, I disobeyed that order the next day and watched it with my grandma. Well, I was in a lot of trouble when she got home, but it was worth it.
Halloween 5 follows a mute Jamie Lloyd as she is once again terrorized by her uncle, Michael Myers, on Halloween night. Donald Pleasance returns to play Dr. Loomis and do what he does best. I have to say, Dr. Loomis is probably the bravest man in history. Who would willingly put themselves in the line of fire repeatedly, especially when that includes Michael fucking Myers? I sure wouldn’t! However, with him wearing the most ridiculous mask to date, I guess he is a little less scary.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is a pretty sloppy sequel if you’re not a 7 year-old. What was once believable as a kid is no longer so easy to excuse. For instance, the way Rachel died was ridiculous. My spouse and I bitch about this all the time. Why on earth, after everything she went through just a year earlier, would she go back in that house? Who cares if the cops searched it? We are talking about evil on two legs here! Do you know who knows just how evil Michael Myers is? Rachel fucking Caruthers knows how evil he is! However, she just blows it off as nerves and walks right back in to her doom. Ellie Cornell, I absolutely love you. Unfortunately, your character, Rachel, has been falling off the stupid tree for a year and hit every branch on the way down.
Apparently, Ellie got them to change her character’s death. Originally, she was supposed to die by having scissors shoved down her throat. Well, Ellie was not having that and thought it was too gruesome for Rachel’s demise. So, they rewrote it so that she would just be stabbed with the scissors in the chest. Personally, I love Rachel and all, but after her poor judgement, I think she deserved the scissors in her throat. After all, if she would have… I don’t know… remembered anything that helped her survive the year before, she wouldn’t have received scissors anywhere. (okay, okay… I’ll lay off Rachel. Seriously though, you need to get it together, girl!)
Now that we have put that out there, I would like to give this film some credit. Suspense is making a comeback in Halloween 5. There are plenty of chase scenes, edge-of-your-seat moments, and cringeworthy fakeouts to keep even the most hardcore of horror fans satisfied. One of my favorite scenes is towards the end. Jamie is fleeing from Michael and has hidden in a laundry shoot. Michael figures out where she’s at and starts stabbing the aluminum shoot while Jamie desperately tries to climb up and out. It is reminiscent of Laurie strode in Halloween 2. You remember when she is running from him in the hospital basement? Well, imagine that but a hell of a lot scarier because it’s a small girl, and he is just stabbing away!
One of the best additions to Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is Tina, Rachel’s best friend. She is fucking hilarious. She doesn’t take much seriously, but that is what’s so fun about her. “I’m never sensible if I can help it!” she says to Dr. Loomis. It is literally my favorite line in the movie. Without her, I don’t think this film would have been very enjoyable, post-Rachel’s demise. As ditzy as she comes off, she still makes it her priority to make sure that Jamie is safe. She even sacrifices herself to save the kid.
The director, Dominique Othenin-Girard, pushed for more violence and more gore. There were many creative differences with this approach. While the first three films featuring “The Shape” left a lot to the imagination, Dominique wanted to put the gore front and center. I’m not totally against this but I can see why Moustapha Akkad took issue with it. Halloween had always tried to remain classier than its competition. After seeing the final product, I think that Dominique met them halfway.
While it is not my favorite in the series, Halloween 5 definitely brings back some fond childhood memories. Some critics called it a “bridge movie” because it connects Halloween 4 and 6. Then, there are those who say it was an edgy entry that sharpened the franchise’s knife. I agree with both of them, oddly enough. It does possess a lot of filler that never gets explained, at least not until the sequel. So, avoid pairs of scissors, bad judgement, and sensibility. It is time for you to go rent and watch Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.
