Horror/Thriller
1 hour and 38 minutes
Rated: R
Written by: Michael Jacobs, Dominique Othenin-Girard, and Shem Bitterman
Directed by: Dominique Othenin-Girard
Produced by: Ramsey Thomas
Cast:
Donald Pleasence
Danielle Harris
Ellie Cornell
Beau Starr
Wendy Kaplan
Tamara Glynn
He's Back With A Vengeance
While they're never, creatively speaking, a particularly good idea, horror film franchises are an unwelcome inevitability in life that we all just have to hold our breath and accept. Most of us, myself included, are completely guilty of badmouthing the entire concept of sequels/prequels/remakes and still shelling out the money to go and see them - 99.99% of the time being totally disappointed as was to be expected. The Halloween franchise is no different than any other, in that it has its highs and it has its lows (most sequels proving to be more low than high). Halloween 5 should've been another warning indicator to the producers of the franchise (specifically executive producer Moustapha Akkad who is the only man to be involved with all of the Halloween films) that perhaps this cash cow wasn't worth milking anymore.
Halloween 5 is a bridge movie through and through. What is meant by this is that it serves the purposes of being a sequel for another sequel to follow immediately. It picks up where its predecessor, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, left off - which makes about as much sense as Halloween 4 picking up where Halloween II left off .... slim to none. One of the brilliant factors to Halloween 4 (and Halloween II while I'm at it) is that it has a nice, solid, conclusive ending. One that assures its viewers that this is it concerning the conclusion of Michael Myers. Unfortunately, as horror fans know all too well, nothing is conclusive in successful horror franchises, and more sequels are waiting to be made upon the immediate release of their predecessors.
Halloween 5 is a jumbled, chaotic mess, and the story is so ridiculous at times it is comically painful. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that the film was entirely rushed. After the major success of Halloween 4, Akkad was so eager to get Michael back up on the silver screen that filming of Halloween 5 began before a script had even been finalized! This is absolutely noticeable and detrimental to the film and its legacy in the Michael Myers cannon. The story has too many subplots to count and none of them are ever fully explained (perhaps intentionally so). Jamie Lloyd's telekinetic link to Michael, for one, is really quite an embarrassing subplot. While supernatural elements were previously present in other Halloween films, this telekinesis story is so ludicrous it is abandoned completely halfway through the second act of the film. Jamie's mute condition is also irritatingly unexplained and abandoned altogether.
What is also irritating about Halloween 5 is the open-ended conclusions to the characters and the film itself. Many of the main players, Jamie, Dr. Loomis, Tina, Sheriff Meeker, etc., all are left in situations by the end of the film where it becomes unclear as to whether they are dead or alive. This is intentionally poor film-making at its finest, with the producers clearly using it as a gamble. They're unaware if Halloween 5 will be a success, so if it bombs and there's no sequel, they can say the characters died; the opposite for if the film succeeds. Although, less of a gamble is the film's cliffhanger conclusion. Regardless of Halloween 5's success or failure, Akkad was clearly already planning Halloween 6 before Donald Pleasence was even out of his makeup chair.
The kills within the film seem rather tamed down. This is shocking giving the nature of 1980s horror films, and in particular horror film sequels. Surprisingly, the effects were handled by the masters at KNB EFX Group! It makes one wonder why they were even called? It'd be like hiring Michelangelo to do a paint-by-numbers portrait. Though its predecessors were less gory, Halloween 5's deaths feel more dull and stale, and certainly less imaginative.
The acting is handled decently enough. Beau Starr is terrific as Sheriff Meeker once again, but unfortunately is given perhaps ten minutes of total screen time, and his character plays no significant role in the film's climax. Danielle Harris is kept mute throughout the first half of the film, and it's rather embarrassing to watch. When she's not allowed to scream and cry, Harris becomes a much less convincing performer. Besides, who the hell wants to see a scream queen not screaming? Donald Pleasence proves he is the strongest actor in the entire Halloween franchise yet again, however, the character of Dr. Loomis feels mistakenly written here. In previous films, it is the impression of the audience that Loomis feels obligated to stop Michael before he hurts anyone else. Because he fails so many times, and ultimately feels he failed Michael as a patient, Loomis can't rest until this obligation is fulfilled. In Halloween 5, however, Loomis is a reckless lunatic who has become obsessed with the cat-and-mouse game between himself and Michael. He still wants to stop Michael, but ultimately doesn't seem to care who gets hurt in the process (he even blatantly offers up Jamie to Michael just so Michael will walk into his trap).
The film does have a nugget or two of decently written, suspenseful moments. There are a few good jump scares, and Donald Pleasence's performance alone is engaging enough to keep anyone interested. The film's climax does build some nice tension, although the conclusion to this is dull and once again unexplained. Somehow Michael is caught in a trap that was never mentioned previously in the storyline at any given time. When Loomis literally throws the switch, viewers are just as confused as Michael as to what the hell just happened.
While it has its moments of pure entertainment, Halloween 5 struggles to overcome its many problems that began with its hasty conception. The returning actors do their best, and Pleasence still appeases, but the storyline of the film is so messy that the performances are not strong enough to hide it from its own mediocrity. More annoying is its clear placement in the Halloween franchise as a "bridge" or "filler" sequel, and it is because of this that Halloween 5 has become, deservingly so, one of the more forgotten films within this iconic franchise.
3.5/10
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