Review

It’s a year since events in Halloween 4, and once again it’s Halloween in Haddonfield. Michael, who managed to survive his supposed demise in the previous movie, has been receiving care from some dude in the woods. To show his appreciation, Michael notches victim number one and heads on into town.

Meanwhile Jamie, Michael’s niece, is in the Haddonfield's Children’s Hospital recovering from her own psychotic episode with mom. She is being cared for by Dr Loomis, and her stepsister Rachel. Jamie is unable to speak after the horrors of the previous movie and is having nightmares about her uncle. Well it’s Haddonfield, it’s Halloween, and there’s a surviving Strode family member, so guess Michael hasn’t finished with family matters. Add in some weird dude, Rachel’s kooky friend Tina, and we’re good to go. Much stalking and slashing ensues. Ready to revisit the Myers house?

The fifth movie in the Halloween franchise sees French director Dominique Othenin-Girard taking the helm and giving the movie a European flavour. There’s mixed results to be honest, and one of the poorer movies in the franchise results. This is probably more to do with the writers than Othenin-Girard’s work behind the camera, with the adage too many cooks spoil the broth coming to mind.

For perhaps the first time in the series, Halloween 5 goes right into slasher territory without apology. This aspect has never been Halloween’s strong point, and a lot of fans were less than impressed to see Michael turn into a Jason Voorhees clone. We get the required Last Girl, twice in fact with both Tina and Jamie squaring off against the big guy at different stages. There’s lots of stalking going down, which includes the requisite culling of the herd. And of course the discovery of Michael’s handiwork, once again with both Tina and Jamie doing the discovering part of the affair. Unfortunately this strange notion that the franchise needed to move right into slasherdom leads to the loss of the tension we have come to expect from a Halloween outing.

What’s even more annoying, for this reviewer at least, is the absolute cramming in of ideas which don’t actually work, and which go nowhere. First up we have the dude in the boots, the infamous “man in black”. He keeps popping up in the movie, but takes no part in proceedings till the final scene. Clearly this aspect is a set up for the sixth movie, but it distracts from the current one and had me wondering what the hell was going down. Each of the Halloween movies up to this one had been self contained, and you really didn’t need to know what went down in previous outings to enjoy whichever one you were currently viewing.

Strangely we get the notion that Michael is full of rage, and if he revisits his old house the “little girl” can help him overcome that. Which leads to one of the more implausible scenes in the entire franchise. Michael has tracked Jamie to the house’s attic, and is preparing to do the family stuff, when Jamie says “Uncle”. This stops Michael dead in his tracks, and leads to the infamous unmasking and tear scene. Yes, you read that correctly, Michael has a tear in his eye, which we assume is due to what’s been going down in recent Haddonfield history. Being that he’s not a wuss, Mikey quickly overcomes his emotional side and gets back to the business at hand. Sorry, I’m just not dialling into Michael doing soul-searching in the fourth movie he’s taken centre stage in. Mikey is the shape, the deranged killing machine, the evil dude, not a new age hippy!

Michael and Jamie's connection keeps running through the movie with Jamie seeing what Michael sees

Where the movie really blew it for me, however, was with the handling of the Rachel character. Rather than being the strong female role model we enjoyed in the fourth movie, Rachel is just in this one to add the T&A, and another notch on the Michael Myers carving knife of fame. Rachel comes off pretty ditzy in the movie, and must have been doing some bad drugs or something in the past year. Nothing else could explain a character that they make blonde jokes about.

On the sharp side of the knife, Othenin-Girard has the mood just right, and manages to bring off a pretty good visual experience. None of the scenes are backlit, and hence the realism is pretty high on the agenda. There’s some inherent lag in the movie, and a couple of scenes, which should have been cut to he honest. But overall I was a happy camper with the visual elements.

Danielle Harris (Jamie) is once again the consummate professional in the movie. She shines on through her scenes and gets the viewer right behind her character. Loved her portrayal of a character unable to scream, but needing to. This time around the mental link between Jamie and Michael is more in use, and Harris also nails that aspect of her role.

Donald Pleasence (Dr Loomis) once again does deranged. However for the first time in the franchise, his performance is slightly over the top and quite frankly irritating. Pleasence doesn’t look happy in Halloween 5, and considering the tougher edge the writers added to Loomis, I don’t blame him. Loomis is no longer a compassionate character, but he gets to go ballistic on Michael’s ass in one scene, which had me nodding in approval.

Ellie Cornell (Rachel) reprises her role, and had victim tattooed on her forehead. As written the role is crap; Cornell does the best she can with it, but isn’t missed once Michael says hi early in the movie. Wendy Kaplan (Tina) just rubbed me the wrong way. Her character was plain irritating from go to whoa; Michael, help the poor suffering viewers out here, dude. Beau Starr (Sheriff Ben Meeker) needed more screen time; I was digging his performance and wanted a lot more of it.

Special note of the deputies Frank Como and David Ursin: wtf was going down there? Not satisfied with turning Halloween into a Friday the 13th clone, the moviemakers also decided the franchise needed some light relief. So these bozos get some screen time to utter some appalling dialogue, set off by ducks quacking and other wacky sound effects. Really wish I was making this up, crapola on a rancid seafood stick.

T&A is really weird in this one. Ellie Cornell wanders around half dressed, shows her knickers in a quick flash, and is dimly seen through a shower curtain. We also get some blonde bimbo showing her boobs at one stage, almost like the dudes making this one had a check list and T&A was on it. Surprisingly not needed, and more yawn-inducing than anything.

John Carpenter’s score is refurbished in this one, and the result is pretty drab and dreary. Only saved when JC’s theme kicks in from time to time. Overall didn’t match the pace, or visuals being shown.

Halloween 5 looks like a rushed movie, and not enough time was spent making it hum for this bad boy. One of the weaker movies in the series, this discards its characters in the pursuit of being a slasher rather than proudly proclaiming its Halloween birthright. The tension is absent, and Michael is almost no longer simply “the shape”. Not enough care was put into the film, which should have nailed the good work done in the previous outing.

The fifth movie in the franchise was the least successful box office-wise. On a budget of 5 million it returned a paltry 11.6 million, and this would lead to the abandonment of the franchise for six years. That’s a long time for people to have to wait around for clarification on who “the man in black” actually was. During the course of making Halloween 5 the writers were toying with the mystery dude being Michael’s brother.

Wow, we have reviewed Halloween 1-5 and Resurrection. Which leaves us two further movies in the franchise to cover. The hard to source Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers, and the long awaited return of Jamie Lee in H2O. Both movies strong entries in the series. We’ll cover them in the coming weeks.

Halloween 5 is one franchise entry I can’t recommend, and you wont be missing out on anything if you give it a miss. The movie wastes the opportunities made available by the ending of 4, and doesn’t add a whole lot to our Haddonfield mythos. A by-the-numbers slasher flick that dispenses with the elements that made Halloween one of the great franchises in the horror genre. To be brutally honest, Michael Myers deserved better, and sure as hell Rachel got the raw end of the deal. A disappointing entry, which was a franchise stopper as the fans voted not to dial in.