Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

1989

Directed by Dominique Othenin-Girard

Welcome back to Movie Monday, where we continue our journey through my personal list of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Today we’re landing at number 50 with 1989’s Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, a film that managed to take everything promising about its predecessor and drive it straight into a mine shaft. Remember, this list is purely my opinion—what I consider cinematic garbage, you might treasure as a guilty pleasure. But honestly, if you love this movie, we need to have a serious conversation about your taste in horror films.

The Shape of Things That Came Before

To understand just how spectacularly Halloween 5 fails, we need to look at what came before it. John Carpenter’s original Halloween (1978) was a masterclass in tension and atmosphere, establishing Michael Myers as an unstoppable force of evil. Halloween II (1981) continued the story with some solid scares, even if it didn’t quite capture the magic of the original. Then came Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), which completely abandoned Michael Myers in favor of killer Halloween masks and corporate conspiracy—a bold choice that audiences absolutely hated.

After that misstep, the franchise needed to win back fans, and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) did exactly that. It brought Michael back to Haddonfield, introduced his niece Jamie Lloyd (played by Danielle Harris), and delivered genuine thrills. Most importantly, it ended with a shocking twist: young Jamie, seemingly corrupted by her uncle’s evil, attacks her foster mother with a pair of scissors. The implication was clear—evil was hereditary, and the Myers legacy would continue through Jamie. It was a brilliant setup that promised an exciting new direction for the franchise.

And then Halloween 5 happened.

The Plot: Or What Passes for One

Halloween 5 picks up exactly one year after the events of Halloween 4. Michael Myers, who we saw fall down a mine shaft at the end of the previous film, has somehow survived and been nursed back to health by a hermit living in the woods. Because apparently Michael Myers has the same regenerative powers as Wolverine now.

Jamie Lloyd is now mute and institutionalized at the Haddonfield Children’s Clinic, having been traumatized by her actions in the previous film. But here’s where things get weird—and not the good kind of weird. Jamie has developed a telepathic connection with Uncle Michael, experiencing visions and convulsions whenever he’s about to kill someone. Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence), still obsessed with stopping Michael after all these years, wants to use this connection to finally defeat the Shape once and for all.

Meanwhile, Michael returns to Haddonfield to continue his quest to kill Jamie, systematically eliminating her foster sister Rachel and her friends. The film builds to a confrontation at the Myers house, where Michael removes his mask and sheds a single tear before Dr. Loomis manages to capture him. But just when it seems like Michael is finally caught, a mysterious Man in Black appears and frees him, setting up plot threads that wouldn’t be resolved until Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers six years later.

If that sounds confusing and unsatisfying, congratulations—you understand exactly how audiences felt in 1989.

Rush Job: How to Ruin a Franchise in Record Time

The most damning thing about Halloween 5 is how obviously rushed it was. Producer Moustapha Akkad was so eager to capitalize on Halloween 4‘s success that he fast-tracked production to meet an October 1989 release date—exactly one year after the previous film. This breakneck schedule shows in every frame.

The original director and writer from Halloween 4, Dwight H. Little and Alan B. McElroy, both declined to return, which should have been a red flag. Instead, Akkad brought in director Dominique Othenin-Girard, whose main qualification seemed to be his availability. The first screenplay was written by Shem Bitterman in just three days—three days!—and it showed. When Othenin-Girard came aboard, he reportedly threw Bitterman’s script in the trash right in front of Akkad, which sounds dramatic until you realize they were still revising the screenplay while filming had already begun.

This chaotic production resulted in a film that feels like it was assembled from spare parts. Plot threads are introduced and abandoned, character motivations make no sense, and the whole thing has the coherence of a fever dream. When your movie’s screenplay is still being written during production, you’re not making a film—you’re conducting a very expensive improv exercise.

The Man in Black: A Mystery Nobody Asked For

One of Halloween 5‘s most frustrating elements is the mysterious Man in Black character who appears throughout the film, watching events unfold from the shadows. This figure shows up at key moments, always dressed in a long black coat and cowboy boots (apparently a nod to Johnny Cash), but the film never explains who he is or what he wants.

This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if the mystery was intriguing or if it paid off in any meaningful way. Instead, the Man in Black feels like a plot device the filmmakers threw in because they thought it would be “mysterious” and “cool.” The character serves no purpose in the actual story of Halloween 5, existing solely to set up future sequels. It’s the cinematic equivalent of a “To Be Continued” sign—except this continuation wouldn’t come for six years, and when it did arrive in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, the explanation was somehow even more confusing than the mystery itself.

The Man in Black subplot epitomizes everything wrong with Halloween 5: it prioritizes franchise building over storytelling, introduces elements without considering their impact on the current film, and treats the audience like they’ll accept any nonsense as long as it has the Halloween brand attached to it.

How to Waste a Perfect Setup

Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of Halloween 5 is how completely it squanders the brilliant ending of Halloween 4. The previous film concluded with Jamie becoming a killer herself, suggesting that Michael’s evil was somehow hereditary or infectious. This opened up fascinating possibilities: Would Jamie become Michael’s apprentice? Would she struggle against her dark impulses? Would the film explore the nature of evil itself?

Instead, Halloween 5 immediately backpedals on this setup. Jamie is now presented as a traumatized victim rather than a potential killer, robbing the character of her most interesting dramatic potential. The telepathic connection between Jamie and Michael feels like a weak substitute for the more direct corruption we were promised. Even Danielle Harris, who played Jamie, thought the character should have remained evil, saying in later interviews that “it would have been fun to come back as the Killer or Michael’s sidekick.”

This retreat from the bold choices of Halloween 4 reveals a fundamental lack of confidence in the material. Rather than commit to the darker implications of their premise, the filmmakers chose the safer path of making Jamie a traditional final girl. It’s a creative decision that makes the entire film feel like a missed opportunity.

Behind the Scenes: When Everyone Knows It’s Bad

The production of Halloween 5 was plagued by problems that extended far beyond the rushed schedule. Donald Pleasence, returning as Dr. Loomis, was openly dissatisfied with the script and the direction his character was taking. He reportedly had numerous disagreements with director Othenin-Girard about how to play Loomis, feeling that the director wanted him to be “totally heavy and overbearing.” Despite his professionalism on set (actress Wendy Kaplan noted that Pleasence treated the material “like he was doing Shakespeare”), his frustration was evident.

The physical production was equally chaotic. Don Shanks, who played Michael Myers, was injured multiple times during filming, including nearly being burned alive when the director forgot to yell “cut” during a car crash scene. The film’s mask was poorly received even by the cast and crew, featuring an elongated design with “teardrop-shaped eyeholes” that made Michael look more sad than menacing.

When even the people making the movie can see it’s a disaster in progress, you know you’re in trouble.

The Decline from Promise to Disappointment

What makes Halloween 5 so particularly disappointing is how much promise it had to build on. Halloween 4 had successfully revitalized the franchise, grossing a respectable amount at the box office and setting up intriguing storylines for future installments. The character of Jamie Lloyd, as played by Danielle Harris, was genuinely compelling, and the film’s ending created anticipation for what would come next.

Halloween 5 took all of that goodwill and flushed it down the drain. The film grossed only $11.6 million against a $5.5 million budget, making it the lowest-grossing film in the franchise at that point. Critics were universally harsh, with Variety calling it “pretty stupid and boring fare” and noting that the series had become “practically indistinguishable from the Friday the 13th pics.” The film currently holds a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and even that seems generous.

More damaging than the poor box office or critical reception was how the film damaged the franchise’s momentum. Halloween 4 had proven there was still life in the series, but Halloween 5 made it clear that quick cash grabs would be prioritized over quality storytelling. It would take six years for another Halloween film to reach theaters, and when Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers finally arrived, it was somehow even worse than Halloween 5.

A Teenager’s Perspective: Seeing Through the Nonsense

I first encountered Halloween 5 as a young teenager, probably renting it from a video store after enjoying the earlier films in the series. Even at that age, with my relatively inexperienced eye for filmmaking, I could tell something was seriously wrong with this movie. The plot made no sense, the scares felt forced, and the whole thing seemed to actively disrespect the films that came before it.

There’s something particularly disappointing about watching a franchise you love get treated so carelessly. The original Halloween had shown me what horror could be at its best—atmospheric, intelligent, and genuinely frightening. Halloween 5 showed me what horror looked like when it was made cynically, without care or creativity. It was a valuable lesson, even if it was a frustrating one.

Looking back now, Halloween 5 serves as a perfect example of how not to make a sequel. When you prioritize speed over quality, franchise building over storytelling, and profit over creativity, you end up with exactly this kind of mess. It’s a film that exists only because someone thought there was money to be made, not because anyone had a story worth telling.

The Verdict

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers earns its place at number 50 on my worst movies list not just because it’s a bad film, but because it represents such a spectacular waste of potential. Coming off the success of Halloween 4, this should have been the film that cemented the franchise’s return to relevance. Instead, it nearly killed the series entirely.

The rushed production, confused storyline, and complete abandonment of the previous film’s most interesting elements combine to create a movie that feels like it was actively trying to disappoint its audience. When your teenage viewers can see through your nonsense, you know you’ve failed as filmmakers.

Halloween 5 is a master class in how to squander goodwill, waste talent, and turn a promising franchise direction into a confusing mess. It’s the kind of sequel that makes you appreciate the original films even more, if only because it shows you how badly things can go wrong when nobody cares about quality.

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Next Week: We’re taking a break from my worst movies list as we enter a new month. Join me next Monday as we dive into Disney’s 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty—a film that ended up being one of my favorites as a child and, unlike this week’s movie, knows how to tell a coherent story.