'Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers' is a rushed mess of a sequel, released only 1 year after the previous film. It once again stars young Danielle Harris as Jamie Lloyd, the niece of serial killer Michael Myers. After the events of the previous film, Jamie has been taken to a children's facility where she now seems to have a psychic link to her murderous uncle. It's a tired concept that just feels absurd, especially after what we saw at the climax of part 4. MINOR SPOILERS HERE: Jamie had seemingly been taken by the same evil force that drives Michael and she ended up stabbing her stepmother. 'Halloween 5' brushes this off and insults its audience by never following up on this ending. Instead, we have easily one of the worst slasher movies of the 80's with some of the most obnoxious and unlikable characters that are introduced only a few seconds in before you are begging for their deaths. I think the saddest thing about 'Halloween 5' however, is that Donald Pleasance and Danielle Harris are wonderful here. They give it their all, even if Harris doesn't get to speak for most of the film and Pleasance's Loomis is almost as crazy as Michael here, going very over the top with it.
Don Shanks' portrayal of Michael is a good one, and easily beats the previous film's performance by George Wilbur. The mask is also much more creepy this time thanks to KNB's excellent design. It's far superior to part 4's, which looked very cheap and ordinary but here you see the wear and tear and looks the closest to the original's when comparing the series up to this point. The effects team also provide some well made gore effects, even if they're all but excised thanks to the MPAA (Interesting Note: This is the only 'Halloween' film to have issues with the ratings board, despite the tame nature in comparison to other films of the time). I also will point out that even though the film is a crumbling structure, I do like that it seems to at least be attempting to be more intense and have genuine mood and atmosphere throughout. It has one of the more grim tones in the series, but the director quickly throws that away by focusing on the annoying teens and in particular these two bumbling policemen that even get this silly carnival music when they're around. Way to kill the mood jackasses.
'Halloween 5' is easily one of the worst in the franchise for me personally and as a whole, I don't enjoy the Jamie storyline all that much. I understand that 4, 5, & 6 do have their fans and it's nothing personal and I'm glad you can enjoy them more than I can but man are these three films a slog to sit through. Sorry Michael, but it doesn't get better from here for quite a while.
2/5
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