Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
Encyclopedia
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is a 1989 American
slasher film
and the fifth installment in the Halloween film series
. It was directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard and starred Donald Pleasence
, who again portrayed Dr. Sam Loomis
and Danielle Harris
, who returned to play Jamie Lloyd. The film takes place exactly one year after the events depicted in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
. The Shape has returned to the sleepy town of Haddonfield, Illinois to murder his niece, Jamie, who is now mute. Dr. Loomis tries to save the day with the help of Sheriff Meeker.
The tagline for the film was "Michael lives. And this time, they're ready!"
The film's main titles do not display the "The Revenge of Michael Myers" subtitle which was used in all of the promotional material, TV spots, trailers, and merchandise. The main titles simply say "Halloween 5".
(Don Shanks) fell down the mine shaft
. The state troopers tossed dynamite down the mine to make sure that Michael was dead. But Michael somehow finds his way out and stumbles into a nearby river, where he is found by a local hermit
where he collapses in his shack and remains in a comatose state for a full year. On October 30, 1989, Michael awakens, kills the hermit, and returns to terrorize Haddonfield, where his young niece, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris
), continues to live after nearly being killed by Michael the year before.
Jamie has been committed to a children's psychiatric ward. She also has been rendered mute
due to psychological trauma
, but exhibits signs of a telepathic link with her evil uncle. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence
) is aware of Jamie's psychic link with her uncle, and tries to convince Sheriff Ben Meeker (Beau Starr
) that Michael Myers is alive. Meanwhile, Michael kills Rachel (Ellie Cornell
) with a pair of scissors, and begins to stalk her friend, Tina (Wendy Kaplan
), as well as her friends, Samantha (Tamara Glynn), Spitz (Matthew Walker
) and her boyfriend Mike (Jonathan Chapin).
Michael stalks Mike and kills him outside a car garage with a sharp rake to his head. Tina, Samantha, and Spitz go to a Halloween party in a barn. Michael kills both Samantha and Spitz in a barn who are having sex, and kills two scab deputies that Loomis asks to keep an eye on Tina for her own protection. Once the party is over, Michael chases Tina and Jamie, who has regained her ability to speak, along with Jamie's inmate Billy with a car. While in pursuit of Jamie, Michael runs into a tree and appears to be dead, but then he steps out of the car and is ready to kill Jamie. Tina runs at Michael, sacrificing herself to save Jamie. Jamie agrees to put herself in danger to help Loomis stop Michael for good. With Jamie's help, Loomis lures Michael back to the abandoned Myers house where Michael once lived.
In the old Myers house, Dr. Loomis and the police create a set up. Inside the house, Jamie is in Judith Myers' deserted bedroom seated in front of a vanity brushing her hair. It is an eerie recreation of Judith's last moments before Michael had killed her. A mysterious stranger dressed in all black (Don Shanks
), seen throughout the film, causes an attack at Jamie's hospital. Jamie has visions of Billy, which caused Meeker along with most of his back up to leave the Myers house. Eventually, Michael arrives driving a police car and tailgates the only car waiting and kills the cop by banging his head on the dashboard. When Michael gets inside the house, Loomis finds him and tries to reason with him. When attempting to take his knife away, Micheal attacks him by slashing his stomach and breaking a window behind them with his head. Michael then throws Loomis off a stair railing. After that, Michael goes upstairs and breaks down the locked door so that he can gain entry into Judith's bedroom. At this time, the police officer that had been in Judith's bedroom with Jamie, is dangling a rope out of the window and about to help Jamie climb out. But things do not go according to plan and Michael murders the officer who tried to save Jamie. However, Jamie manages to run past Michael and out of Judith's bedroom.
Later, Jamie flees through the house, hiding in an old laundry chute and being forced to abandon safety after Michael finds her and stabs the chute repeatedly. Michael chases her upstairs. Jamie attempts to hide in the attic, and finds Tina's dog Max being hanged and also finds the bodies of Mikey and Rachel. She is found by Michael, and tries appealing to her uncle's humanity but ultimately fails when he has a fit of rage after she touches him. Loomis appears, who uses a tranquilizer gun to weaken him and then proceeds to violently beat him unconscious with a wooden plank. In the end, Michael is locked up in the local sheriff
's station, to eventually be escorted to a maximum-security prison. However, the stranger in black arrives and attacks the police station causing an explosion and shoots the police; killing Sheriff Meeker and several others. Jamie walks through the station finding the bodies of gunned officers, and goes over to Michael's holding cell to discover that it is empty.
The success of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
that had jump-started Michael Myers' fame as the '80s slasher movie craze had begun to subside. Film franchises like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street
were on the wane. As the previous film was still in theaters, Moustapha Akkad
had already laid out plans for Halloween 5. The producers wanted to screen the film in October 1989, just one year after the previous sequel.
to write the script. After reviewing the script, director Dominique Othenin-Girard had edited the script and created new scenes for more violence.
Veteran actor Donald Pleasence
had disagreements with Akkad and Othenin-Girard, citing that Jamie should have been portrayed as "all-evil" after stabbing her stepmother. Akkad disagreed, thinking that fans wanted to see more of The Shape. In an interview, Danielle Harris explained what she thought of the idea. Harris said,
Halloween 5 had been rushed into production on May 1, 1989 before there was a solid script. The script was filmed without perfections and many suspenseful scenes, such as Tina and Samantha doing cart-wheels near The Shape, were cut to less suspenseful scenes.
Originally, Rachel's death was supposed to be by having scissors shoved down her throat. Ellie Cornell
, who played Rachel, did not like the idea and requested it be changed to being stabbed with the scissors.
The Hermit, who was shown in the beginning of the film as living in a quiet shack outside of the river with his parrot, was originally supposed to be a young man, named 'Dr. Death' in the script, who tried to bring The Shape back to life after finding him. His shack was supposed to be filled with ancient runes, tablets, and other items for resurrection. This scene was filmed, but was re-shot to an old man, instead of a younger man. The scythe that was supposed to kill Samantha was originally going to go through her forehead.
The scene where Michael Myers drives a car while wearing a different kind of mask was initially scripted to have him wear a Ronald Reagan
mask. However, the idea of a Reagan mask was soon rejected in order to keep the film devoid of any political subtexts.
The script added two "bumbling" cops, Deputies Nick and Tom, with their own "clown theme" in the background to homage a scene in Wes Craven
's The Last House on the Left
.
, Danielle Harris
, Ellie Cornell
, and Beau Starr
as Dr. Sam Loomis, Jamie Lloyd, Rachel Carruthers, and Sheriff Ben Meeker, respectively. Starr would later appear in an un-aired Halloween 5 television spot.
Karen Alston, who portrayed Darlene Carruthers in the previous film, reprised her role in the beginning of the film showing the anonymous person in the mask stabbing her as she falls into the bathtub of water. Her voice-over was recorded by Wendy Kaplan
. Kaplan won the role of Tina Williams, the loud and "willy" friend of Rachel's. After Rachel's demise, Tina inherits the role of Jamie's protector.
George P. Wilbur
, who had portrayed The Shape in the previous film, did not express interest in returning to play the role. Don Shanks was cast to play the speech-less, white-masked, murderer. Shanks had already played a similar character in the first two Silent Night, Deadly Night
films. Shanks also played the Man in Black. Wilbur, who had to wear hockey pads to appear to have a bigger build, would later portray the Shape again in the next installment, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
. Shanks did not have to wear the hockey pads because he was already built big.
Max Robinson
would play Maxwell Hart, the doctor who assists Jamie when she is having one of her nightmares in the beginning of the film. Betty Carvalho appears as his assistant, Nurse Patsey, who has a "motherly" feel to Jamie. Jeffrey Landman
portrayed Billy Hill, Jamie's best friend, who has a stuttering problem. Landman worked with a coach who taught him about stuttering to help him prepare for the role.
Newcomers such as Tamara Glynn, Matthew Walker
, and Jonathan Chapin appear as Samantha Thomas, Spitz, and Mike, who are friends of Tina and Rachel.
, who had written and produced the first two films, had sold her and John Carpenter
's rights to the series before Halloween 4. She had met director Dominique Othenin-Girard at The Sundance Film Festival
and liked his style.
She arranged a meeting with Othenin-Girard and Moustapha Akkad
. Akkad liked Othenin-Girard and he became the director. This was Debra Hill's last involvement in the series. Othenin-Girard wanted to bring the series closer to the original, but wanted more blood in the film. The original uncut version of the film featured more explicit gore and violence. Akkad did not like this decision, as it was this that made the original and Halloween 4 so popular.
After filming for two weeks, Donald Pleasence
had given his much bigger trailer to Danielle Harris once he left set. Harris's mother had been complaining about the small size of her daughter's trailer and Pleasence decided that she should have his.
Danielle Harris and Don Shanks became good friends over the course of filming, reportedly spending a lot of time together while off set.
The film began production on May 1, 1989, and was being filmed in and around Salt Lake City, Utah
, just like its predecessor. The bus that the Man in Black gets off of stops outside exactly the same store where Jamie and Rachel went to get a Halloween costume in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
.
Unable to find a small, Victorian house like the Myers House in Halloween
, the filmmakers chose a bigger, more mansion-like house because they needed a house that could provide wide rooms, hallways, an attic, a basement, and a laundry chute. Donald Pleasence accidentally broke Don Shanks's nose on the set when they were filming the scene where Dr. Loomis beats The Shape with a 2×4 block of wood.
Don Shanks was also injured when he was filming the scene where The Shape crashes Mike's Camaro into the tree. Dominique Othenin-Girard had forgotten to yell "Cut!" and fire was beginning to emerge from the car. Finally, stunt coordinator Don Hunt told Othenin-Girard to finally yell "cut". Wendy Kaplan was also injured in this scene. The car almost ran over the top of her. She was uninjured as seen in Halloween: 25 Years of Terror.
Gregory Nicotero
and Wendy Kaplan were seeing each other during filming. According to Danielle Harris, Tamara Glynn was drunk during the filming of her death scene.
In the scene in which Jamie climbs up the laundry chute, she was originally supposed to be stabbed in the leg, sending a splash of blood into the camera. The aftermath can be seen when Jamie gets out of the chute: a bloody stab wound is clearly visible on her right leg, and she walks with a noticeable limp. Danielle Harris wore a prosthetic leg for the filming, which she still owns.
An alternate opening was filmed with the Hermit replaced by a younger, hippy-like man named 'Dr. Death' with all kinds of ritualistic items in his cabin. This scene can be seen on Inside 'Halloween 5.
More scenes with the character of Billy were filmed, but were cut. The scenes include Billy meeting Rachel and Tina for the first time on his bicycle with Max the dog, Jamie telling Billy to follow Tina to the Tower Farm, and a scene showing Billy being rushed into the children's clinic, while the police find the body of Dr. Hart.
KNB Effects had designed grotesque facial makeup for Michael Myers' unmasking towards the end of the film. The producers told them to do so as an option, either showing Michael's badly scarred face or keep it in the dark. They went for the latter.
film to date. The film went straight to video outside of North America, with the exception of a few countries such as Argentina, Turkey and France. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers received poor reviews from critics. As of June 2011, On Rotten Tomatoes
the film has a 14% "Rotten" approval rating and holds a rating of 5/10 in Internet Movie Database
.
and DVD
format. It has been released, with Halloween 4, on Divimax edition and with the original Halloween in 2008 for the Halloween: 30 Years of Terror box-set.
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
and the fifth installment in the Halloween film series
Halloween (franchise)
Halloween is an American horror franchise that consists of ten slasher films, novels, and comic books. The franchise focuses on the fictional character of Michael Myers who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister, Judith Myers...
. It was directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard and starred Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
, who again portrayed Dr. Sam Loomis
Samuel Loomis
Samuel Loomis was a Connecticut furniture maker and the most celebrated maker of Colchester/Norwich style furniture.-External links:* ]]* ]]...
and Danielle Harris
Danielle Harris
Danielle Andrea Harris is an American film and television actress, best known as a scream queen for her roles in several horror films, four of them in the Halloween series: in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers as Jamie Lloyd and in Halloween and...
, who returned to play Jamie Lloyd. The film takes place exactly one year after the events depicted in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 slasher film and the fourth installment of the Halloween film series, directed by Dwight H. Little and written by Alan B. McElroy. The central plot focuses on Michael Myers returning home to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd , the daughter of Laurie...
. The Shape has returned to the sleepy town of Haddonfield, Illinois to murder his niece, Jamie, who is now mute. Dr. Loomis tries to save the day with the help of Sheriff Meeker.
The tagline for the film was "Michael lives. And this time, they're ready!"
The film's main titles do not display the "The Revenge of Michael Myers" subtitle which was used in all of the promotional material, TV spots, trailers, and merchandise. The main titles simply say "Halloween 5".
Plot
The film begins with a recap of Halloween 4 after Michael MyersMichael Myers (Halloween)
Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers...
(Don Shanks) fell down the mine shaft
Shaft mining
Shaft mining or shaft sinking refers to the method of excavating a vertical or near-vertical tunnel from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom....
. The state troopers tossed dynamite down the mine to make sure that Michael was dead. But Michael somehow finds his way out and stumbles into a nearby river, where he is found by a local hermit
Hermit
A hermit is a person who lives, to some degree, in seclusion from society.In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Christian who lives the eremitic life out of a religious conviction, namely the Desert Theology of the Old Testament .In the...
where he collapses in his shack and remains in a comatose state for a full year. On October 30, 1989, Michael awakens, kills the hermit, and returns to terrorize Haddonfield, where his young niece, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris
Danielle Harris
Danielle Andrea Harris is an American film and television actress, best known as a scream queen for her roles in several horror films, four of them in the Halloween series: in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers as Jamie Lloyd and in Halloween and...
), continues to live after nearly being killed by Michael the year before.
Jamie has been committed to a children's psychiatric ward. She also has been rendered mute
Muteness
Muteness or mutism is an inability to speak caused by a speech disorder. The term originates from the Latin word mutus, meaning "silent".-Causes:...
due to psychological trauma
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
, but exhibits signs of a telepathic link with her evil uncle. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
) is aware of Jamie's psychic link with her uncle, and tries to convince Sheriff Ben Meeker (Beau Starr
Beau Starr
Beau Starr is an American actor who has starred in movies and on television. He is known for his film role as Sheriff Ben Meeker in the 1988 hit horror movie Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers; he reprised his role in the 1989 sequel Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.Starr was born...
) that Michael Myers is alive. Meanwhile, Michael kills Rachel (Ellie Cornell
Ellie Cornell
Ellie Cornell is an American actress and movie producer, known primarily for her roles in horror films. After her marriage to producer Mark Gottwald, she is sometimes credited as Ellie Gottwald.-Career:...
) with a pair of scissors, and begins to stalk her friend, Tina (Wendy Kaplan
Wendy Kaplan
Wendy Foxworth is an actress who appeared in films, on television, and in theater.-Career:She is best known for her role in the 1989 hit horror movie Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers as Tina Williams. Wendy Kaplan's most recent film role is in the 2005 movie Blood Deep...
), as well as her friends, Samantha (Tamara Glynn), Spitz (Matthew Walker
Matthew Walker (US actor)
Matthew Walker is an American film and television actor and a television director.-Life and career:Walker was born in Santa Monica, California. He has been acting professionally since the age of 17 when he appeared in a Disney Movie of the Week in 1986...
) and her boyfriend Mike (Jonathan Chapin).
Michael stalks Mike and kills him outside a car garage with a sharp rake to his head. Tina, Samantha, and Spitz go to a Halloween party in a barn. Michael kills both Samantha and Spitz in a barn who are having sex, and kills two scab deputies that Loomis asks to keep an eye on Tina for her own protection. Once the party is over, Michael chases Tina and Jamie, who has regained her ability to speak, along with Jamie's inmate Billy with a car. While in pursuit of Jamie, Michael runs into a tree and appears to be dead, but then he steps out of the car and is ready to kill Jamie. Tina runs at Michael, sacrificing herself to save Jamie. Jamie agrees to put herself in danger to help Loomis stop Michael for good. With Jamie's help, Loomis lures Michael back to the abandoned Myers house where Michael once lived.
In the old Myers house, Dr. Loomis and the police create a set up. Inside the house, Jamie is in Judith Myers' deserted bedroom seated in front of a vanity brushing her hair. It is an eerie recreation of Judith's last moments before Michael had killed her. A mysterious stranger dressed in all black (Don Shanks
Don Shanks
Donald L. "Don" Shanks is an American actor and stuntman, known for his role as Michael Myers in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, and Nakoma, the Native American friend of the title character in the 1977 television series The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams.-Biography:Shanks was born in...
), seen throughout the film, causes an attack at Jamie's hospital. Jamie has visions of Billy, which caused Meeker along with most of his back up to leave the Myers house. Eventually, Michael arrives driving a police car and tailgates the only car waiting and kills the cop by banging his head on the dashboard. When Michael gets inside the house, Loomis finds him and tries to reason with him. When attempting to take his knife away, Micheal attacks him by slashing his stomach and breaking a window behind them with his head. Michael then throws Loomis off a stair railing. After that, Michael goes upstairs and breaks down the locked door so that he can gain entry into Judith's bedroom. At this time, the police officer that had been in Judith's bedroom with Jamie, is dangling a rope out of the window and about to help Jamie climb out. But things do not go according to plan and Michael murders the officer who tried to save Jamie. However, Jamie manages to run past Michael and out of Judith's bedroom.
Later, Jamie flees through the house, hiding in an old laundry chute and being forced to abandon safety after Michael finds her and stabs the chute repeatedly. Michael chases her upstairs. Jamie attempts to hide in the attic, and finds Tina's dog Max being hanged and also finds the bodies of Mikey and Rachel. She is found by Michael, and tries appealing to her uncle's humanity but ultimately fails when he has a fit of rage after she touches him. Loomis appears, who uses a tranquilizer gun to weaken him and then proceeds to violently beat him unconscious with a wooden plank. In the end, Michael is locked up in the local sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
's station, to eventually be escorted to a maximum-security prison. However, the stranger in black arrives and attacks the police station causing an explosion and shoots the police; killing Sheriff Meeker and several others. Jamie walks through the station finding the bodies of gunned officers, and goes over to Michael's holding cell to discover that it is empty.
Production
| "Drunk off the success of Halloween 4, we began production on Halloween 5." |
| — Moustapha Akkad on Halloween 5. |
The success of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 slasher film and the fourth installment of the Halloween film series, directed by Dwight H. Little and written by Alan B. McElroy. The central plot focuses on Michael Myers returning home to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd , the daughter of Laurie...
that had jump-started Michael Myers' fame as the '80s slasher movie craze had begun to subside. Film franchises like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
were on the wane. As the previous film was still in theaters, Moustapha Akkad
Moustapha Akkad
Moustapha Akkad was a Syrian American film producer and director, best known for producing the series of Halloween films and directing Mohammad, Messenger of God and Lion of the Desert. He was killed along with his daughter Rima Akkad Monla in 2005 in Amman, Jordan by a suicide bomber.-Early life...
had already laid out plans for Halloween 5. The producers wanted to screen the film in October 1989, just one year after the previous sequel.
Writing
The first draft of the script was written by Shem Bitterman. Bitterman's idea was that Jamie Lloyd would become evil after stabbing her stepmother to death while The Shape was after her. This idea was rejected by the studio and Akkad, who brought in Michael JacobsMichael Jacobs
Michael Jacobs is a writer and producer whose work has appeared on Broadway, Off Broadway, television and film. He is the creator/producer of several popular television series including Boy Meets World, Dinosaurs, Charles in Charge and My Two Dads...
to write the script. After reviewing the script, director Dominique Othenin-Girard had edited the script and created new scenes for more violence.
Veteran actor Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
had disagreements with Akkad and Othenin-Girard, citing that Jamie should have been portrayed as "all-evil" after stabbing her stepmother. Akkad disagreed, thinking that fans wanted to see more of The Shape. In an interview, Danielle Harris explained what she thought of the idea. Harris said,
The way Halloween 4 ended, I thought I was going to be the killer. I thought it would have been fun to come back as the killer, or Michael's sidekick. Scary, but fun.
Halloween 5 had been rushed into production on May 1, 1989 before there was a solid script. The script was filmed without perfections and many suspenseful scenes, such as Tina and Samantha doing cart-wheels near The Shape, were cut to less suspenseful scenes.
Originally, Rachel's death was supposed to be by having scissors shoved down her throat. Ellie Cornell
Ellie Cornell
Ellie Cornell is an American actress and movie producer, known primarily for her roles in horror films. After her marriage to producer Mark Gottwald, she is sometimes credited as Ellie Gottwald.-Career:...
, who played Rachel, did not like the idea and requested it be changed to being stabbed with the scissors.
The Hermit, who was shown in the beginning of the film as living in a quiet shack outside of the river with his parrot, was originally supposed to be a young man, named 'Dr. Death' in the script, who tried to bring The Shape back to life after finding him. His shack was supposed to be filled with ancient runes, tablets, and other items for resurrection. This scene was filmed, but was re-shot to an old man, instead of a younger man. The scythe that was supposed to kill Samantha was originally going to go through her forehead.
The scene where Michael Myers drives a car while wearing a different kind of mask was initially scripted to have him wear a Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
mask. However, the idea of a Reagan mask was soon rejected in order to keep the film devoid of any political subtexts.
The script added two "bumbling" cops, Deputies Nick and Tom, with their own "clown theme" in the background to homage a scene in Wes Craven
Wes Craven
Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street and Wes Craven's New Nightmare, featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, the...
's The Last House on the Left
The Last House on the Left (1972 film)
The Last House on the Left is a 1972 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Sean S. Cunningham.The story is inspired by the 1960 Swedish film The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman, which in turn is based on the 13th century Swedish ballad "Töres döttrar i Wänge"...
.
Casting
Returning from Halloween 4 were veteran actors Donald PleasenceDonald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
, Danielle Harris
Danielle Harris
Danielle Andrea Harris is an American film and television actress, best known as a scream queen for her roles in several horror films, four of them in the Halloween series: in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers as Jamie Lloyd and in Halloween and...
, Ellie Cornell
Ellie Cornell
Ellie Cornell is an American actress and movie producer, known primarily for her roles in horror films. After her marriage to producer Mark Gottwald, she is sometimes credited as Ellie Gottwald.-Career:...
, and Beau Starr
Beau Starr
Beau Starr is an American actor who has starred in movies and on television. He is known for his film role as Sheriff Ben Meeker in the 1988 hit horror movie Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers; he reprised his role in the 1989 sequel Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.Starr was born...
as Dr. Sam Loomis, Jamie Lloyd, Rachel Carruthers, and Sheriff Ben Meeker, respectively. Starr would later appear in an un-aired Halloween 5 television spot.
Karen Alston, who portrayed Darlene Carruthers in the previous film, reprised her role in the beginning of the film showing the anonymous person in the mask stabbing her as she falls into the bathtub of water. Her voice-over was recorded by Wendy Kaplan
Wendy Kaplan
Wendy Foxworth is an actress who appeared in films, on television, and in theater.-Career:She is best known for her role in the 1989 hit horror movie Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers as Tina Williams. Wendy Kaplan's most recent film role is in the 2005 movie Blood Deep...
. Kaplan won the role of Tina Williams, the loud and "willy" friend of Rachel's. After Rachel's demise, Tina inherits the role of Jamie's protector.
George P. Wilbur
George P. Wilbur
-Biography:Wilbur played Michael Myers in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, the fourth and sixth films of the Halloween film series. He was the first actor to portray Michael Myers more than once during the film series...
, who had portrayed The Shape in the previous film, did not express interest in returning to play the role. Don Shanks was cast to play the speech-less, white-masked, murderer. Shanks had already played a similar character in the first two Silent Night, Deadly Night
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a 1984 slasher film produced by Ira R Barmak, directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr. and starring Robert Brian Wilson, Lilyan Chauvin, Gilmer McCormick, Toni Nero, Linnea Quigley, Britt Leach, and Leo Geter...
films. Shanks also played the Man in Black. Wilbur, who had to wear hockey pads to appear to have a bigger build, would later portray the Shape again in the next installment, Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is a 1995 American horror film and the sixth installment in the Halloween series. Directed by Joe Chappelle from a screenplay by Daniel Farrands, the plot involves the "Curse of Thorn", a mystical symbol first shown in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers...
. Shanks did not have to wear the hockey pads because he was already built big.
Max Robinson
Max Robinson
Max Robinson was an American broadcast journalist, and ABC News World News Tonight co-anchor. He was the first African American broadcast network news anchor in the United States and one of the first television journalists to die of AIDS...
would play Maxwell Hart, the doctor who assists Jamie when she is having one of her nightmares in the beginning of the film. Betty Carvalho appears as his assistant, Nurse Patsey, who has a "motherly" feel to Jamie. Jeffrey Landman
Jeffrey Landman
Jeffrey Landman is an American child actor. He is known primarily for his first and only major role, in the 1989 horror film Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers as Billy Hill, the friend of Jamie Lloyd, who is a patient at the clinic with her.-External links:...
portrayed Billy Hill, Jamie's best friend, who has a stuttering problem. Landman worked with a coach who taught him about stuttering to help him prepare for the role.
Newcomers such as Tamara Glynn, Matthew Walker
Matthew Walker (US actor)
Matthew Walker is an American film and television actor and a television director.-Life and career:Walker was born in Santa Monica, California. He has been acting professionally since the age of 17 when he appeared in a Disney Movie of the Week in 1986...
, and Jonathan Chapin appear as Samantha Thomas, Spitz, and Mike, who are friends of Tina and Rachel.
Direction
Debra HillDebra Hill
Debra Hill was an American screenwriter and film producer, who co-wrote the horror film Halloween, its first sequel Halloween II, and The Fog.-Early life:...
, who had written and produced the first two films, had sold her and John Carpenter
John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction.- Early life :Carpenter was born...
's rights to the series before Halloween 4. She had met director Dominique Othenin-Girard at The Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and liked his style.
She arranged a meeting with Othenin-Girard and Moustapha Akkad
Moustapha Akkad
Moustapha Akkad was a Syrian American film producer and director, best known for producing the series of Halloween films and directing Mohammad, Messenger of God and Lion of the Desert. He was killed along with his daughter Rima Akkad Monla in 2005 in Amman, Jordan by a suicide bomber.-Early life...
. Akkad liked Othenin-Girard and he became the director. This was Debra Hill's last involvement in the series. Othenin-Girard wanted to bring the series closer to the original, but wanted more blood in the film. The original uncut version of the film featured more explicit gore and violence. Akkad did not like this decision, as it was this that made the original and Halloween 4 so popular.
After filming for two weeks, Donald Pleasence
Donald Pleasence
Sir Donald Henry Pleasence, OBE, was a British actor who gained more than 200 screen credits during a career which spanned over four decades...
had given his much bigger trailer to Danielle Harris once he left set. Harris's mother had been complaining about the small size of her daughter's trailer and Pleasence decided that she should have his.
Danielle Harris and Don Shanks became good friends over the course of filming, reportedly spending a lot of time together while off set.
The film began production on May 1, 1989, and was being filmed in and around Salt Lake City, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, just like its predecessor. The bus that the Man in Black gets off of stops outside exactly the same store where Jamie and Rachel went to get a Halloween costume in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a 1988 slasher film and the fourth installment of the Halloween film series, directed by Dwight H. Little and written by Alan B. McElroy. The central plot focuses on Michael Myers returning home to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd , the daughter of Laurie...
.
Unable to find a small, Victorian house like the Myers House in Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
, the filmmakers chose a bigger, more mansion-like house because they needed a house that could provide wide rooms, hallways, an attic, a basement, and a laundry chute. Donald Pleasence accidentally broke Don Shanks's nose on the set when they were filming the scene where Dr. Loomis beats The Shape with a 2×4 block of wood.
Don Shanks was also injured when he was filming the scene where The Shape crashes Mike's Camaro into the tree. Dominique Othenin-Girard had forgotten to yell "Cut!" and fire was beginning to emerge from the car. Finally, stunt coordinator Don Hunt told Othenin-Girard to finally yell "cut". Wendy Kaplan was also injured in this scene. The car almost ran over the top of her. She was uninjured as seen in Halloween: 25 Years of Terror.
Gregory Nicotero
Gregory Nicotero
Gregory Nicotero is an American special effects creator and actor. In 1988, along with Robert Kurtzman and Howard Berger, he formed KNB Efx Group, a special effects studio which has gone on to work on over 400 film and television projects...
and Wendy Kaplan were seeing each other during filming. According to Danielle Harris, Tamara Glynn was drunk during the filming of her death scene.
Editing
The film had been fighting an X rating with the violence, blood, and gore. Some scenes were trimmed down to keep it Rated R, including a shot of Mikey quivering on the ground after Michael stabs him in the head with a garden fork, a shot of glass embedded in Officer Eddy's face after Michael punches through the windshield, and Billy's leg being hit by the Camaro.In the scene in which Jamie climbs up the laundry chute, she was originally supposed to be stabbed in the leg, sending a splash of blood into the camera. The aftermath can be seen when Jamie gets out of the chute: a bloody stab wound is clearly visible on her right leg, and she walks with a noticeable limp. Danielle Harris wore a prosthetic leg for the filming, which she still owns.
An alternate opening was filmed with the Hermit replaced by a younger, hippy-like man named 'Dr. Death' with all kinds of ritualistic items in his cabin. This scene can be seen on Inside 'Halloween 5.
More scenes with the character of Billy were filmed, but were cut. The scenes include Billy meeting Rachel and Tina for the first time on his bicycle with Max the dog, Jamie telling Billy to follow Tina to the Tower Farm, and a scene showing Billy being rushed into the children's clinic, while the police find the body of Dr. Hart.
KNB Effects had designed grotesque facial makeup for Michael Myers' unmasking towards the end of the film. The producers told them to do so as an option, either showing Michael's badly scarred face or keep it in the dark. They went for the latter.
Reception
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers opened on October 13, 1989 at #2 and earned $5,093,428 to 1,495 theatres. It quickly fell from the box office with a scant $11,642,254 – the least successful HalloweenHalloween (franchise)
Halloween is an American horror franchise that consists of ten slasher films, novels, and comic books. The franchise focuses on the fictional character of Michael Myers who was committed to a sanitarium as a child for the murder of his older sister, Judith Myers...
film to date. The film went straight to video outside of North America, with the exception of a few countries such as Argentina, Turkey and France. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers received poor reviews from critics. As of June 2011, On Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
the film has a 14% "Rotten" approval rating and holds a rating of 5/10 in Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
.
Home video
The film has been made into VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
format. It has been released, with Halloween 4, on Divimax edition and with the original Halloween in 2008 for the Halloween: 30 Years of Terror box-set.
Popular culture references and notes
- Horror author Dennis EtchisonDennis EtchisonDennis William Etchison , is an American writer and editor of fantasy and horror fiction. Etchison refers to his own work as “rather dark, depressing, almost pathologically inward fiction about the individual in relation to the world.”Stephen King has called Dennis Etchison “one hell of a fiction...
makes a reference to there being a Halloween 5, a couple of years before the actual movie is conceived, in his 1986 novel Darkside. The lead character in the book composes film scores, seemingly for mostly cheap horror flicks, and Halloween 5 is a project in his near future. This was before Michael Myers was confirmed to return to the series. Etchison also wrote the tie-in novels for Halloween IIHalloween IIHalloween II is a 1981 slasher film directed by Rick Rosenthal, and written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. It is the second installment in the Halloween series and is a direct sequel to the Halloween set on the same night of October 31, 1978 as the seemingly unkillable Michael Myers continues to...
and IIIHalloween III: Season of the WitchHalloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 science fiction horror film and the third installment in the Halloween film series. It is the only Halloween where the story does not revolve around Michael Myers. Directed and written by Tommy Lee Wallace, the film stars Tom Atkins as Dr. Dan Challis,...
.