"The mask still doesn't look right."

Following the success of Halloween 4, Moustapha Akkad had Halloween 5 rushed into production. The film opened one year after Halloween 4 had premiered and was revealed to be a pretty bad movie and the worst movie of the series (until Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers arrived). Halloween 5 has been re-released in a new Blu-ray Disc by Anchor Bay.

(SPOILER WARNING: In order to describe Halloween 5, I must divulge the ending of Halloween 4. So, read with caution if you haven't seen Halloween 4.) Halloween 5 picks up a year after Halloween 4. Michael Myers had been shot multiple times and in the resulting melee, fell down a well. As the film opens, we see that an old man has nursed Michael back to health. Now that it's Halloween night again, Michael arises, kills the old man, and heads for Haddonfield. Meanwhile, young Jamie (Danielle Harris) is in a children's clinic. The events of the previous Halloween have left her mute and suffering from violent nightmares. However, she now appears to have a psychic link with Michael, and despite the fact that she can't speak, she tries to warn Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence). Jamie's stepsister, Rachel (Ellie Cornell), and her friend, Tina (Wendy Kaplan) try to comfort Jamie and promise to see her on Halloween night arrives.

As Halloween arrives, Tina plans to go to a party with her boyfriend, Mikey (Jonathan Chapin), and another couple, Samantha (Tamara Glynn) and Spitz (Matthew Walker). The party is being held on a farm, and Michael Myers follows the teens there. Meanwhile, Jamie gets her voice back and convinces her young friend, Billy (Jeffrey Landman), that they must get to the farm to stop Michael. In the mean time, Loomis has convinced Sheriff Meeker (Beau Starr) that Michael Myers is back and that a trap should be set for him. As the various characters try to avoid or catch Michael Myers, a mysterious man in black boots arrives in town.

Despite the fact that I've seen both a few times (don't ask me why), I sometimes get Halloween 4 & 5 confused. But, then I remember that Halloween 5 is the movie where Michael Myers drives a vintage Camaro for 1/4 of the film and I recall just how bad this movie is. While Halloween 4 wasn't a great movie, it at least tried to have some respectability, Halloween 5 borders on being garbage.

As usual, the problem comes down to the story. In attempting to find a "hook" for Halloween 6 (according to the commentary), a new subplot, the man in black, was added to the movie. Here's a tip: When you movie doesn't really have a plot, don't start adding subplots. Presumably, the man in black is meant to be intriguing and give the motivation to learn his identity. Instead it takes away from the film's main story (which is pretty paltry to begin with). And then we have mute Jamie. Is her inability to talk really a reaction to trauma or the result of the fact that the writers couldn't think of anything for her to say? The introduction of new teenaged characters only hurts the film and Tina (who looks like the singer from Quiet Riot) may be one of most annoying movie characters ever. And don't get me started on the comic relief cops who are accompanied by sound effects which would be ejected from a Warner Bros. cartoon.

At best, Halloween 5 is boring and contrived, but in its worst moments, the movie is incredibly stupid. Yes, we learned in Halloween that Michael Myers can drive a car, but that doesn't mean that we want to see him do it. This is a killer who is known for his slow, deliberate walk. Thus, it's truly idiotic that he spends a good portion of the film behind the wheel of a Camaro, using it not only as transportation, but a potential weapon. Is this supposed to be scary? (Spoiler warning) And then we have the film's nadir, when Michael Myers is in a jail cell still wearing his mask. Are you kidding me? Is this Arkham Asylum all of a sudden? A talented director would have done something like have Michael's face in shadows in the cell and then panned over to the mask in an evidence bag on a desk. (That's merely a suggestion.) But no, director Dominique Othenin-Girard gives us a notorious mass-murderer who is arrested and allowed to keep his mask on. That must have been one hell of a mugshot. (End spoiler)

The abysmal nature of Halloween 5 raises an important question for Halloween fandom. Are you a fan of Halloween as a piece of cinematic art, or are you a Michael Myers fan? I fall into the former category, as I think Carpenter's film is a masterpiece of style and minimalism, and while I find the sequels interesting, I think they're derivative. But, there are legions of fans out there who like the Michael Myers character and will watch him in anything. For one, I find Halloween 5 insulting to both groups as Myers stops being a stalker and becomes a killing machine not very dissimilar to Jason in the Friday the 13th films. Friday the 13th has long-since been called a copy of Halloween, but by with Halloween 5 it was difficult to tell who was copying who.

HALLOWEEN 5 drives a Camaro onto Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 30 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing only a slight hint of grain and no obvious defects from the source material. The daytime scenes show very nice colors and a good amount of depth. The nighttime scenes, which dominate the movie, are a tad dark and look a bit flat. The level of detail is good and the image is never soft. The Disc carries a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 1.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The musical score sounds very good and provides good bass effects. However, for the movie sounds, the front and rear channels seems to mirror each other. There are very few distinct surround effects, nor do we get detailed stereo effects.

The Halloween 5 Blu-ray Disc contains a few extras. We begin with a new AUDIO COMMENTARY featuring Actor Don Shanks (Michael Myers) and Justin Beahm of Halloweenmovies.com. We also get an AUDIO COMMENTARY featuring director Dominique Othenin-Girard, and actors Danielle Harris & Jeffrey Landman which was lifted from a previous DVD release. "Halloween 5: On the Set" (16 minutes) features behind-the-scenes video footage from the movie's shoot. We also get interviews with Beau Starr and Wendy Kaplan. It's interesting to see how raw all of this looks, but it's also very dated looking. "Halloween 5: Original Promo" (6 minutes) is a fairly standard EPK which offers behind-the-scenes footage, cast interviews, and some oddly enthusiastic narration. The final extra is the THEATRICAL TRAILER for the film. The last DVD release of Halloween 5 also included a 15-minute featurette called "Inside Halloween 5" which offered some modern comments from the cast and crew, but it's absent from this Blu-ray Disc release.