Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is the 1989 and fifth sequel to the popular horror film, Halloween. 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.

This is the least successful Halloween film in the franchise (and that's including Halloween: Resurrection and Halloween 6). The film was rushed into production, without even a final draft of the script. All of the mystery about this film was questionable, but the writers didn't even know what it was all meant to be (like for example, the mysterious man in black. They didn't know, who this guy was or who he was meant to be).

Plot
''The film begins with a recap of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, in which Michael Myers is shown being shot at and falling into a mine shaft. Michael, however, finds a way out just as the state police throw dynamite down the shaft, and stumbles into a nearby river. He makes his way into a small shack by the river owned by a local hermit. Once there, Michael collapses 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, continues to live after nearly being killed by Michael the year before.''

After the previous film, the severely traumatized Jamie has been staying at the Haddonfield Children's Clinic, where she is now mute and suffers from recurring nightmares and seizures, in addition to being watched over by Dr. Sam Loomis and regularly visited by her foster sister, Rachel Carruthers, and Rachel's friend, Tina. Upon Michael's awakening, Jamie develops a telepathic bond with him. Loomis realizes, that this link exists, and plans to use it to put an end to Michael's reign of terror, though Jamie is too scared and refuses to help him. Michael begins stalking Rachel and Tina, during which time Jamie regains her speaking ability. After both are killed, Jamie finally agrees to put herself in danger to help Loomis stop Michael for good. With Jamie's help, Loomis lures Michael back to the old Myers house. Upon Michael's arrival, Loomis attempts to reason with him, proposing that he fight his rage and redeem himself through a positive relationship with Jamie. Loomis' words seem to work at first, as Michael calmly listens to him and lowers his knife, but when Loomis reaches to take the knife away, Michael slashes him across the abdomen and throws him through the banister in a frenzy before moving on to pursue Jamie through the entire house.

In an attempt to escape Michael, Jamie races to the attic, where she is horrified to discover the bodies of Michael's recent victims, including the Carruthers' dog and Rachel, all gathered there, as well as a child's coffin clearly meant for her. With nowhere else to run, Jamie climbs into the coffin just as Michael approaches. Just as Michael raises his knife, Jamie attempts to appeal to any remnants of Michael's humanity by addressing him as "Uncle", causing him to hesitate. Michael proceeds to remove his mask at Jamie's request, and a lone tear rolls down his face. When Jamie reaches to wipe the tear away, however, Michael recoils in seeming revulsion and, in a blind rage, attacks Jamie, who escapes and runs into the awakened Loomis. Loomis seems to turn on Jamie, holding her out in front of him and shouting for Michael to take her, but this is quickly revealed to be a trap; Loomis drops a metal link net over Michael, proceeding to shoot him twice with a tranquilizer dart and brutally beat him unconscious with a wooden plank, suffering a stroke afterwards.

They take Michael to the local sheriff's station, while it is explained because Michael is too violent and insane, the sheriff's department contacted the US National Guard to escort Michael to a maximum-security military prison. However, a mysterious stranger, dressed in all black, has come to Haddonfield, and while Jamie sits in a patrol car outside, the stranger causes an explosion. Jamie walks through the station finding the bodies of the eight machine gunned officers. She goes over to Michael's holding cell to discover that it's empty, with the bars bent open. The film ends with Jamie, realizing that Michael is once again able to come after her, moaning in despair.

Production
The success of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers had jump-started Michael Myers' fame as the '80s slasher movie craze had began to sub-side. Film franchises like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street were coming to the end of their winning streak. As the previous film was still in theatres, 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.

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 step-mother to death while The Shape was after her. This idea was rejected by the studio and Akkad, who brought in Michael Jacobs 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 step-mother. 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, was 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, didn't 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 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 fore-head.

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.

Casting
Returning from Halloween 4 were veteran actors Donald Pleasence, 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 becomes the role of Jamie's protector.

George P. Wilbur, who had portrayed The Shape in the previous film, didn't 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.

Direction
Debra Hill, who had wrote 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 preceder. 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-ish 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 2x4 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 overtop of her.

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.

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 Mike quivering on the ground after Michael stabs him in the head with a hammer claw, 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, hippier, 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.

Box office
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 Halloween film to date. The film went straight to video outside of North America.

Home Video
The film has been made into VHS 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.

Trivia

 * Horror author Dennis Etchison 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 II and III.
 * The official website for the franchise, www.halloweenmovies.com, features a map of Haddonfield, which indicates that the hermit seen in the prologue may be another living relative of Michael Myers. His home was located on the outskirts of town along the Lost River.