After watching Halloween 4: The Curse of Michael Myers and that movie being even better than I remembered it being, I was pumped to see if Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers had the same affect on me. Well, let me tell you right off the bat it did not I was not feeling this one at all, and in watching it back to back with the fourth movie, it is vastly inferior in every way.
How to Download Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers was released on October 13, 1989. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
A Rushed Production That Shows
The thing is, I remember watching this as a kid and thinking it was pretty good. Even back then, I liked 4 better, but I do remember enjoying it. We do have to talk about the production of this movie! With Halloween 4 being a massive hit, Halloween 5 was fast tracked and fast tracked like no other movie I have heard of being. It is just insane how quickly this came together.
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers was released in October of 1989, just a year after Halloween 4. What is crazy is that the initial script was not done until February 1989, and they did not start filming until May 1989, but they still had it in theatres in time for Halloween.
The Mysterious Man in Black
This is the middle part of the Thorn Trilogy, and one of the biggest misses of this movie is the mysterious dude in black. There is this guy stalking the action who then makes a big play at the end…. But it is never explained who exactly this guy is, what his motives are, and so on! It adds a bit of mystery, sure, but there is no real payoff here.
© Halloween 5
Michael Returns with a Supernatural Twist
Anyway, back to the main point of the movie. After the events of Halloween 4, we find that Michael survived the mineshaft incident and has been “rescued” and brought back to health by a hermit. After about a year of being nursed back to health, Michael kills his savior and, of course, heads back to Haddonfield.
Jamie’s Telepathic Link: A Misstep?
Things in Haddonfield have not been going good. Young Jamie is in a mental hospital, is messed up, and is now mostly mute, also, she now has a strange telepathic link to Michael. Adding a bit of the supernatural to Halloween five movies in felt like a real misstep. The supernatural was a huge part of movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, but despite still having a “boogyman,” Halloween was always a man just being pure evil rather than some kind of supernatural thing.
Dr. Loomis’ Role and Rachel’s Exit
Dr. Loomis is back and Dr. Loomis realizes that he can use this telepathic link between Michael and Jamie to set a trap and put a stop to Michael once and for all. In the last movie, Jamie and her foster sister Rachel were awesome and they both return here, but they are nowhere near as cool as they were in the last movie.
Rachel, for me, was an awesome final girl, and it is great that she returned here, but they kill her off really early in the movie, and she is replaced by her friend, Tina. Tina is not as likable as Rachel was. I see no reason to have killed Rachel off as early as they did. Sure, have that as one of the final kills before Michael gets to Jamie, but the way they just toss Rachel aside did not sit well with me. It felt like it was done for shock value and not to add anything to the story.
A Sloppy Sequel with No Clear Direction
Disappointing is the best way to describe Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers. There are some fun kills for sure, that is something that the series has always had. However, there is just so much about this movie that I do not like. The stuff with Dr. Loomis trying to “heal” Michael with emotions or seeing Michael shed a tear feels like they were there to add drama and humanize Michael more. However, why then have the supernatural, telepathic stuff as well.
At the end of the day, they managed to write a script, get the movie filmed, edited and in theatres in under a year, and that is impressive as hell. Yet, you can clearly tell that this was a rushed movie and that they had some ideas but no real definitive plan of where they wanted this story to go. The movie really under performed too, and it would take a long time and the debut of Paul Rudd to bring the franchise back several years later.
