Halloween 5 continues one year after Part 4 leaves off and finds the traumatized young Jamie, now mute and suffering disturbing psychic visions of her evil uncle, in residence at Haddonfield Children's Clinic. This sequel is distinctively dark and European in style and cinematography, with some effectively hair-raising cat-and-mouse chase sequences between Michael and Jamie in a cornfield, a forest, and through the halls of Uncle Mike's childhood home (which has now inexplicably quadrupled in size and is reminiscent of an abandoned Brothers Grimm castle). In particular, there's a tense and terrific sequence towards the end with Jamie hiding in the laundry chute of the old Myers house which rivals the rooftop sequence from Part 4 in terms of suspense, with the ever-determined Michael quickly discovering the poor thing's hideout and repeatedly and viciously stabbing through the outside of the narrow metal tunnel with his trademark mega-sized butcher knife, narrowly missing his trapped niece's squirming body.
There's at least two show-stopping murder scenes in Halloween 5, my favorite being the garden-rake-to-the-forehead death of troubled teen Mikey (Jonathan Chapin). Perhaps the movie's "trademark" murder scene, with Myers taunting the car-obsessed kid by sneaking up and scratching the shit out of the back hood of his freshly waxed car while he sits in the front seat admiring his reflection in the rear-view mirror, getting the guy good and pissed before letting him have it. The other contender for best murder scene is a double kill in a dark barn and has horny blonde teen Spitz (Matthew Walker) getting a pitchfork plunged through his back and out his chest by Michael during sex with his gorgeous girlfriend Sammy (former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Tamara Glynn). After screaming her lungs raw, blood-drenched Sammy instinctively pulls the pitchfork from the back of her slaughtered paramour and attempts to rush Michael with it, but he easily dodges her and throws her up against a wooden stall before slashing her throat with an enormous scythe.
One thing that really seems to polarize fans of Halloween 5 is the character of Tina (played with either infectious or annoying energy by Wendy Kaplan, depending on your own personal interpretation.) For me she's always been great and is essentially the "heart" of the film, a shining source of radiant young life who is transformed during the course of the film from crazy party girl to grief-stricken heroine. Her character serves as a replacement for the unfortunate Rachel who is stabbed in the heart by Michael during the first 20 minutes of the flick, but Kaplan brings something truly special to the part, that being her own unique charm and personality. Shame her career seemed to begin and end with this, as I feel she's a great scream queen.
Expounding on Rachel's untimely death, I realize that many fans (mostly those who hate Tina) can't stand the fact that she is killed so early and replaced after her tirelessly heroic turn in Part 4, but I think it's an effective use of the kill-the-survivor-of-the-first-at-the-beginning-of-the-next technique that was pioneered in the opening sequence of Friday the 13th Part 2 when lovely Alice from Part 1 gets an ice pick thrust in her temple by Jason. I loved Rachel's character in Part 4 and didn't want to see her die, so her slaughter scene generates some tension and sets a grim tone for the rest of the film that reconfirms the fact that no one, no matter how strong or likeable, is safe from Michael's rage. I do have a bit of a problem with the writing of her character in this one though, as well as with other aspects of the script. For one thing, Rachel seems too unconcerned with the possibility of Michael returning on the anniversary of her traumatic experience in Part 4 (especially considering the fact that his body was never found) and found it unlikely that she would dumbly walk right into her death the way she does in this one.
There's other problems with the screenplay, including the earlier-mentioned glaring inconsistency in the design of Michael's house and a highly cheesy and illogical explanation for where Michael has been hiding for a year since Part 4 (turns out he's been in a temporary coma and cared for by a kindly old hermit who lives near the river after the serial killer washes up on shore near his secluded shack riddled with bullets after falling through a mine shaft in the previous entry.) But in spite of its flaws, Halloween 5 is a tense, enjoyable and occasionally scary thrill ride that warrants IMO a 7.5 of 10.
There's at least two show-stopping murder scenes in Halloween 5, my favorite being the garden-rake-to-the-forehead death of troubled teen Mikey (Jonathan Chapin). Perhaps the movie's "trademark" murder scene, with Myers taunting the car-obsessed kid by sneaking up and scratching the shit out of the back hood of his freshly waxed car while he sits in the front seat admiring his reflection in the rear-view mirror, getting the guy good and pissed before letting him have it. The other contender for best murder scene is a double kill in a dark barn and has horny blonde teen Spitz (Matthew Walker) getting a pitchfork plunged through his back and out his chest by Michael during sex with his gorgeous girlfriend Sammy (former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Tamara Glynn). After screaming her lungs raw, blood-drenched Sammy instinctively pulls the pitchfork from the back of her slaughtered paramour and attempts to rush Michael with it, but he easily dodges her and throws her up against a wooden stall before slashing her throat with an enormous scythe.
One thing that really seems to polarize fans of Halloween 5 is the character of Tina (played with either infectious or annoying energy by Wendy Kaplan, depending on your own personal interpretation.) For me she's always been great and is essentially the "heart" of the film, a shining source of radiant young life who is transformed during the course of the film from crazy party girl to grief-stricken heroine. Her character serves as a replacement for the unfortunate Rachel who is stabbed in the heart by Michael during the first 20 minutes of the flick, but Kaplan brings something truly special to the part, that being her own unique charm and personality. Shame her career seemed to begin and end with this, as I feel she's a great scream queen.
Expounding on Rachel's untimely death, I realize that many fans (mostly those who hate Tina) can't stand the fact that she is killed so early and replaced after her tirelessly heroic turn in Part 4, but I think it's an effective use of the kill-the-survivor-of-the-first-at-the-beginning-of-the-next technique that was pioneered in the opening sequence of Friday the 13th Part 2 when lovely Alice from Part 1 gets an ice pick thrust in her temple by Jason. I loved Rachel's character in Part 4 and didn't want to see her die, so her slaughter scene generates some tension and sets a grim tone for the rest of the film that reconfirms the fact that no one, no matter how strong or likeable, is safe from Michael's rage. I do have a bit of a problem with the writing of her character in this one though, as well as with other aspects of the script. For one thing, Rachel seems too unconcerned with the possibility of Michael returning on the anniversary of her traumatic experience in Part 4 (especially considering the fact that his body was never found) and found it unlikely that she would dumbly walk right into her death the way she does in this one.
There's other problems with the screenplay, including the earlier-mentioned glaring inconsistency in the design of Michael's house and a highly cheesy and illogical explanation for where Michael has been hiding for a year since Part 4 (turns out he's been in a temporary coma and cared for by a kindly old hermit who lives near the river after the serial killer washes up on shore near his secluded shack riddled with bullets after falling through a mine shaft in the previous entry.) But in spite of its flaws, Halloween 5 is a tense, enjoyable and occasionally scary thrill ride that warrants IMO a 7.5 of 10.
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