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Halloween 5:
The Revenge of Michael Myers
(directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard, 1989)
I was in the mood to revisit this entry in the Halloween series. Its always been one of my favorites from the franchise, though a lot of other people have always complained that it's the worst one -- now I see why. Although, I still can't agree with them -- there are worse Halloween films (parts 6 and 8 come to mind.) I should be reviewing a Friday the 13th film since it's Friday the 13th, but, oh well.
The Halloween films revolve around a psycho killer named Michael Myers who stalks around a town called Haddonfield in Illinois. For some reason, he up and killed his teenage sister when he was six years old and he was sent to a mental institution for many years. He breaks out of the institution and his doctor, Loomis, played by Donald Pleasance, has to always chase after him. In the first two films, Michael's after his sister (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends. The third film had nothing to do with Michael Myers. The fourth film saw Michael going after his eight year old niece (Danielle Harris) and after failing to stop him in that film, he's back again to get her in Halloween 5.
At the end of 4, his niece, Jamie, stabbed her stepmother, leading you to think she's going to turn out to be just like her uncle. A year goes by and now she's in a children's hospital - and she's mute. However, she has some sort of psychic bond with her scary uncle Michael and can see him wherever he is. Whenever she knows he's around somebody she cares for, she starts shaking violently and almost chokes. Loomis sends a distress signal to cops, who go and try to save the intended victim. They usually do end up saved -- but only momentarily. Because of this, it is late into the film before people really start believing that Michael Myers has come back, as most people think Jamie's "warnings" are really nothing at all.
I don't know why I really need to write a review for this movie, but I'll just say that I found it interesting and enjoyable for a horror sequel, although the movie is kind of a mess. There are laughable, unintended sight gags such as Michael Myers wading through a river after he's avoided cops who just tried to bomb him. I never realized just how intelligent Michael Myers actually is for a guy who's never talked for most of his life - and, how human-like he can be, which is strange because this guy has been shot by probably hundreds of bullets and yet he never goes down. And people are still pretty confident that they have some way they can kill him. Especially Loomis.
This movie used to seem pretty frightening to me. Not that it actually did frighten me, but it looked like a pretty frightening movie. Some of the characters here aren't so bad and the majority of them end up slaughtered. It's a very bleak film, though. A young girl spends the majority of her time fearing for the life of her family and friends and it never lets up. She never gets any relief. The ending is a cliffhanger which leads to another dismal sequel that took six years to come around and wrap the story up - at least the one dealing with the little girl. Watching this movie almost seems like a waste of time unless you like scary, masked monsters hunting people down, ruining things like a blonde teenage girl's initiation to sex in a barn, occasionally wearing a Ronald Reagan mask or having emotional moments with his niece that actually make him shed a tear.
If it's ruthless, diabolical revenge you want, Michael Myers will bring it.
The Revenge of Michael Myers
(directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard, 1989)
I was in the mood to revisit this entry in the Halloween series. Its always been one of my favorites from the franchise, though a lot of other people have always complained that it's the worst one -- now I see why. Although, I still can't agree with them -- there are worse Halloween films (parts 6 and 8 come to mind.) I should be reviewing a Friday the 13th film since it's Friday the 13th, but, oh well.
The Halloween films revolve around a psycho killer named Michael Myers who stalks around a town called Haddonfield in Illinois. For some reason, he up and killed his teenage sister when he was six years old and he was sent to a mental institution for many years. He breaks out of the institution and his doctor, Loomis, played by Donald Pleasance, has to always chase after him. In the first two films, Michael's after his sister (played by Jamie Lee Curtis) and her friends. The third film had nothing to do with Michael Myers. The fourth film saw Michael going after his eight year old niece (Danielle Harris) and after failing to stop him in that film, he's back again to get her in Halloween 5.
At the end of 4, his niece, Jamie, stabbed her stepmother, leading you to think she's going to turn out to be just like her uncle. A year goes by and now she's in a children's hospital - and she's mute. However, she has some sort of psychic bond with her scary uncle Michael and can see him wherever he is. Whenever she knows he's around somebody she cares for, she starts shaking violently and almost chokes. Loomis sends a distress signal to cops, who go and try to save the intended victim. They usually do end up saved -- but only momentarily. Because of this, it is late into the film before people really start believing that Michael Myers has come back, as most people think Jamie's "warnings" are really nothing at all.
I don't know why I really need to write a review for this movie, but I'll just say that I found it interesting and enjoyable for a horror sequel, although the movie is kind of a mess. There are laughable, unintended sight gags such as Michael Myers wading through a river after he's avoided cops who just tried to bomb him. I never realized just how intelligent Michael Myers actually is for a guy who's never talked for most of his life - and, how human-like he can be, which is strange because this guy has been shot by probably hundreds of bullets and yet he never goes down. And people are still pretty confident that they have some way they can kill him. Especially Loomis.
This movie used to seem pretty frightening to me. Not that it actually did frighten me, but it looked like a pretty frightening movie. Some of the characters here aren't so bad and the majority of them end up slaughtered. It's a very bleak film, though. A young girl spends the majority of her time fearing for the life of her family and friends and it never lets up. She never gets any relief. The ending is a cliffhanger which leads to another dismal sequel that took six years to come around and wrap the story up - at least the one dealing with the little girl. Watching this movie almost seems like a waste of time unless you like scary, masked monsters hunting people down, ruining things like a blonde teenage girl's initiation to sex in a barn, occasionally wearing a Ronald Reagan mask or having emotional moments with his niece that actually make him shed a tear.
If it's ruthless, diabolical revenge you want, Michael Myers will bring it.