HALLOWEEN 5: LA VENGANZA DE MICHAEL MYERS

You've got to help me Jamie. You've got to help me find him. We both know he's alive.

Halloween 5: The Return of Michael Myers picks up where part 4 left off, only Michael is not dead, obviously! He's come back to Haddonfield intent on finally killing his niece, Jamie (Danielle Harris), who due to trauma has lost the ability to speak and now has a psychic link with mad uncle Michael. Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is once again on hand to be nutty and spout ominous warnings, while all other folk in Myers' way are doomed.

It starts off quite promising, with shades of Frankenstein (1931) offering hope that maybe this wont be a sequel reeking of cash cow formula. Unfortunately it proves to be a false dawn, evidence that the writers were out of ideas, it lacks scares or a narrative spark to ignite suspense sequences. Harris is once again superb, Pleasence good fun as usual as he hams for all he is worth, while an extended sequence in a barn keeps fans of the series happy. It's passable fun for the slasher crowd, but ultimately it's unimaginative and a low point for the Halloween franchise. 5/10

It's always neat when a slasher movie keeps a protagonist from its previous entry in the franchise for more than just an opening sequence. Maybe because it doesn't happen very often. Halloween 5 does have that going for it, as well as the standard "Invincible dude stabs some folk for your enjoyment" to a certain degree, and that's great, but beyond this there's not a whole lot good about The Revenge of Michael Myers. It did teach me some very incorrect things about the letter þ though, so I mean... There's that...

_Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole.

Michael Myers attacks trick-or-treaters on Halloween

Michael Myers survives his descent into a mind shaft from the previous movie and holds up with a hermit for a year before returning to his hometown in Illinois to attack his niece during Halloween and any trick-or-treaters who get in the way. As usual, Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is on his trail.

“Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers” (1989) has the best sense of Halloween up to this point in the Michael Myers story arc with a considerable amount of the runtime involving the entertaining shenanigans of trick-or-treaters. While it’s not great like the previous entry it’s pretty much on par with the original 1978 movie and I actually prefer it even though it’s less classy/arty and more blunt. Remember the infamous closet scene in the original? This one has a similarly effective sequence revolving around a clothes chute and Jaimie Lloyd.

Ellie Cornell returns from the previous movie as Rachel and looks better, but it’s charismatic raven-haired Wendy Foxworth as Tina who’s the main protagonist (aside from Jaimie, that is) with blonde Tamara Glynn offering support as Samantha. There’s also a Fonzie wannabe and his bud.

This is the first movie in the series to throw in a little camp and comic booky-ness like the “Friday the 13th” franchise did with “Part III” (1982) and subsequent installments. The campiness has to do with the two goofy deputies and the comic booky-ness relates to the mysterious man-in-black and the corresponding twist at the end, which is supposed to segue into “Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers” (1995). Like “Friday the 13th Part III,” there’s a long sequence involving a similar-looking barn.

As with “Halloween 4,” the movie was shot in the greater Salt Lake City area, Utah.

GRADE: B