Michael Myers and his sweet niece

HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS 

(1989)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(originally viewed on Halloween, 1989)

"Halloween 4" ended with a nice twist that hardly salvaged the film overall. The sweet niece of Michael Myers seemed to embody his spirit, but this new sequel does not follow up on such a cool idea. Michael Myers is simply resurrected a year later, precisely on October 31st, where he seems to be strongest. And the niece, well, she is still scared of her uncle who wears the William Shatner mask.

"Halloween 5" begins effectively with an opening credit sequence that seems to slash across the screen, perfectly complementing John Carpenter's famous eerie piano score. Soon enough though, we are back to the usual shenanigans. Dr. Loony Loomis (Donald Pleasance) still has that nasty facial burn scar and is still on the hunt for Michael Myers, who still plans to kill his niece (Danielle Harris, reprising her role from the last sequel). What is so special about killing a perfectly nice schoolage girl? Is it because of her blood relation to Laurie Strode? And what does Loomis hope to accomplish by capturing Michael Myers? Killing him with bullets doesn't help, nor does burning him to a crisp. And who the heck is that Shadow-like character who walks around ominously with silver-tipped shoes?

The film does have some good scares courtesy of director Dominique Otherin-Girard, and some degree of sensitivity to its characters (I could have lived without the close-up shot of murderous Mikey shedding a tear though). Girard does handle individual sequences ably enough, particularly the chilling if improbable finale inside a prison where Michael Myers is held. Good old Mikey put in jail for what he did? Say it ain't so Myers.

So, "Revenge of Michael Myers" is truly superior to the third and fourth chapters in the series but it is not good enough to say, hey, the spirit of Michael Myers is back! A man who wears a Shatner mask and walks at a snail's pace is an idea that can't hold water after several movies. This is a competent enough shocker for Michael Myers completists - the rest of you beware.