This is where the order of the thorn and possibly the death of the Halloween Franchise began. I say that due to the fact the series went downhill, fast after this movie. Perhaps Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers should have been the end of the series. But with Halloween, evil never truly dies. Just look at what is happening, Halloween will return for its 40th anniversary in 2018. The only time Halloween did not come back for the decade anniversary was 2008, thanks to Rob Zombie, why in the hell didn’t they just wait a year for that movie to be released.
Synopsis:
After lying in a coma for a year, Michael Myers (Donald L. Shanks) awakens and stalks his way back to his small hometown in Illinois, intent on killing his niece, Jamie (Danielle Harris), who has been confined to a mental institution since Michael’s last attempt to slay her. Suspecting a psychic link between Michael and Jamie, psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) joins forces with Sheriff Ben Meeker (Beau Starr) and attempts to stop Michael’s latest rampage.
With this one, it takes place a year later and Michael wakes from his coma and kills the man who took care of him, some hermit in the forest. It was just amazing that Michael survived the assault from the police. He is hard to kill like Steven Seagal. With this, Jamie Lloyd is in a crazy home after attempting to kill her foster mother. From here they clean up last year’s mess by killing off one of the more interesting characters, Rachel, Jamie’s adoptive sister. We get these bozo cops and the film ends up following, possibly the worst character of all time…T..t…t…Tina.
Tina is Rachel’s best friend and seemingly more important than Rachel at this point, makes sense right? To be fair Rachel is supposed to be out of town. But why would Jaime lean so hard on Tina and why would Dr. Loomis be so pushy to a friend of the family. Tina and her little group of friends are super forgetable and this movie really strays from the other 3 that came before. I mean, even the Myers house changed…WHAT?
I don’t get how the home of the most notorious killer in Haddonfield and possibly Illinois’ house could change so much over 11 years time, and still look like shit. I can only wonder about what the production director was thinking, not to mention the Akkads? Moustafa Akkad loved the series, but did not see this big difference? What about Donald Pleasence who had been in all 4 main parts of the series. Forget the issues with Tina and her friends or her dickhead boyfriend, the house is ridiculous.
I really, just absolutely hate, hate the way Rachel was handled. Ellie Cornell who played Rachel has talked about how displeased she was with the way her character was treated in the film. It was sad to see one of the better final girls in horror, she out did Michael Myers so many times during Halloween 4, her death was a joke. She should have been killed more heroic and lasted longer in the movie, nope, scissors in the chest…Fuck!
Oh and the man in black, comes to town and does nothing, shrouded in mystery until the end when he breaks Michael out of prison. Yes, this leads to the Order of the Thorn. Many fans don’t buy in to this Thorn bullshit, I did originally, but it does not hold up over the years. I believe this and the death of Donald Pleasense lead to the death of this series and why when H20 was released, they ignored the Jamie Lloyd trilogy. This is also the second to last movie we get to see Dr. Loomis.
Donald Pleasence is amazing in each movie. He is reason enough to come back for each installment. I think part of my issue with H20 and Resurrection, they lack the Loomis character. For me the series died with Donald Pleasence. I am not a fan of H20 or Resurrection. One thing to note, I did like the casting job of Loomis in Rob Zombie’s Halloween. Malcolm McDowell was a great choice.
Halloween 5 has many issues, there is no doubt about that at all, but it is kinda enteraining.
Halloween 5: the Revenge of Michaeel Myers has a rating of 5.2 on IMDB.com
I give it a 5.8.
