Review of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) by Cannot T — 30 Apr 2010

When the town police ignore his warnings that the madman Michael Myers has escaped his mineshaft tomb, Dr. Loomis tries to persuade Myers' niece to help him trap the evil killer who has embarked on a bloody rampage through the town.

HALLOWEEN 5 is one of those movies that have a lot going for it: The ending to HALLOWEEN 4 left a huge wide door open for the sequel to do something great. Even the opening credits to this film were great. On top of that, the first few minutes of the film were great after we were introduced to a supernatural aspect, which made the movie different from all of the other HALLOWEEN movies.

However, the movie slowly starts to fall apart once one of our major characters gets killed within 20 minutes of the film. BIG MISTAKE. This is like ALIEN 3 all over again! I will not reveal the person who gets killed but we're then introduced to new and more annoying teenagers all having the same wretched lines you would ever hear from teenagers like them. However, they are probably the most annoying group of teenagers you will ever come across in a slasher flick.

There are also an additional two characters who are annoying by just the way they look! Even the background song playing when they are on screen suggests that they are the unfunny comedic relief who would get killed in a couple of minutes! Danielle Harris, Donald Pleasence, and Ellie Cornell all return to this dreadful sequel, the former having even less to do than run and scream, the middle looking older and as tired as ever, and the latter being more promiscuous than we ever saw her in the fourth film.

But let's get away from the characters in the film. This HALLOWEEN is, so far, the most impressive in terms of technicality, which includes sound effects, lighting, cinematography, etc. I was very impressed! There are more stylistic shots and more shaky-cam which enhances some suspense in some chase scenes.

But other than that, it's the same ol' same ol' but the difference here is that we're being treated with some very awful characters pounding their awful lines to our heads. There's nothing new and the movie is barely memorable once the credits roll but good technical values, though. Whatever hope the fourth film brought to the franchise has now been shot by this sequel.