HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS (1989)



HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS video artwork


DONALD PLEASENCE.....Dr. Sam Loomis
DANIELLE HARRIS.....Jamie Lloyd
ELLIE CORNELL.....Rachel Carruthers
BEAU STARR.....Sheriff Ben Meeker
WENDY KAPLAN.....Tina Williams
DONALD L. SHANKS.....The Shape/Michael Myers

Directed by DOMINIQUE OTHENIN-GIRARD
Written by MICHAEL JACOBS, DOMINIQUE OTHENIN-GIRARD, and SHEM BITTERMAN
Produced by RAMSEY THOMAS


REVIEW BY STEPHEN HOLDEN


"I prayed that he would burn in hell, but in my heart I knew that hell would not have him!" laments Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) the disfigured psychiatrist and veteran of three installments of the Halloween horror series early in episode 5. Once again, Loomis is in pursuit of Michael Myers, the seemingly indestructible killer of teen-agers, who materializes in Haddonfield, Ill., on Halloween night to cut another splattery swath.

By now each new installment of the Halloween series is rather like taking another swing through the same all-too-familiar funhouse. We know that as long as the series continues to have a commercial life Michael Myers will remain essentially invulnerable. What limited pleasures the series affords lie in appreciating the skill of various suspenseful setups and false alarms that precede the killer's inevitably anticlimactic rampage.

The series has always taken a special relish in poking fun at teen-age lust and connecting the fear and guilt surrounding it with fantasies of gore and punishment. And in their formulaic roles of sexy, curious teen-agers in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, Ellie Cornell and Wendy Kaplan toss off their lines with aplomb. Danielle Harris, as Jamie, the 9-year-old niece of the killer, with whom she has a psychic connection, delivers a brave performance in which she must endure more soul-shattering seizures than Linda Blair in The Exorcist.

Halloween 5, which was directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard and opened yesterday at area theaters, is a bit more refined in its details than the conventional horror movie. The use of overbearing electronic music to signal menace in minimized in favor of sinister rustlings, shadows and silences.

The new installment also includes one portentously sentimental touch borrowed from Phantom of the Opera. When Jamie catches a brief glimpse of Michael's partly shadowed face, a single tear glistens on his cheek.



Review © 1989 THE NEW YORK TIMES. All Rights Reserved.

Video artwork © 1989 TRANCAS INTERNATIONAL FILMS, INC.
and THE RETURN OF MYERS, A California Limited Partnership. All Rights Reserved.

Title and logo designed by Karen Rappaport




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