Trivia / Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

• Acting for Two: Stuntman Don Shanks plays both Michael Myers and the Man in Black.
• B-Team Sequel: Dwight H. Little and Alan B. McElroy, the director and writer respectively of Halloween 4, were asked to return for this installment, but both passed, as they were involved with another project at the time and wanted to move on anyway.
• Billing Displacement: Despite receiving third billing, Ellie Cornell is only in the film for the first 20 minutes.
• Christmas Rushed: Production was rushed through quickly for the film to be released in time for Halloween the year after Halloween 4. As a result, shooting started without a completed script, and numerous re-writes, cuts, and changes were made on the fly during production.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Many of the cast members have spoken out against the film, with Donald Pleasence having disagreements with the producers and the director about the script and mishandling of the film. Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell and Don Shanks even admitted that they had a hard time on set.
  • Moustapha Akkad later said he regretted killing off Rachel Carruthers, saying he would have kept her alive. At the time, she was intended as a Sacrificial Lion to show that Anyone Can Die. Akkad also regretted rushing the film into production so soon after Halloween 4, feeling that it not only hurt the overall quality, but it also resulted in very underwhelming box office because the film was competing with the home video release of 4, and excitement for another sequel didn't have enough time to build back up again.
  • Ellie Cornell (Rachel) remains unhappy with her appearance in the film, feeling it didn't do her character justice. She also dislikes the perm she had in the film and feels it was strange and unnecessary for her to be wearing only a bath towel for most of her screen-time.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Carrying on a trend established from the first movie, all the "teenagers" in this film are played by actors in their early-to-mid 20s.
  • Don Shanks was 39 years old, playing the 32 year old Michael Myers.
• Deleted Scene: A sequence was filmed of Michael attacking and killing people, including SWAT team members, in the children's clinic Jamie was in to distract the police. The final film mentions this only in passing.
• Executive Meddling: The film was facing an X rating for all the violence and gore, resulting in a lot of scenes being trimmed down. The missing trims were eventually found and included on the 2021 4K Blu-ray by Shout! Factory.
• Executive Veto: The scene where Michael Myers drives a car while wearing a different kind of mask was initially scripted to have him wear a Ronald Reagan mask. However, the idea of a Reagan mask was soon rejected in order to keep the film devoid of any political subtexts.
• Missing Episode: The trims to violence and the original opening were presumed missing for years until they were rediscovered around 2021, leading to their inclusion on Shout! Factory's 4K release of the film. Sadly without the footage of Michael taking down the SWAT team.
• Money, Dear Boy: Ellie Cornell almost backed out of the film upon learning that her character would die in the first act by having scissors shoved down her throat. She changed her mind after producers "sweetened the deal" in addition to her death scene being softened.
• No Export for You: This film had one of lowest international theatrical distributions of the series, being seen only in Argentina, Colombia, France, Germany and Turkey. Elsewhere, it was released straight to video, with large campaigns in Norway, the UK and Spain.
• No Stunt Double: Don Shanks did all of his own stunts in the film, including swimming in 30 degree water and crashing a car into a tree at 50 miles an hour, not to mention narrowly escaping the fire that ensued. It's worth mentioning that Shanks is a professional stuntman and was also the film's stunt coordinator.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Don Shanks replaces George P. Wilbur as Michael.
  • Don Shanks also plays the Man in Black. The next film retroactively makes this a case by revealing him to be Dr. Wynn, who was played by Robert Phalen in the original film
• Romance on the Set: Wendy Foxworth (Tina) and SFX artist Greg Nicotero were seeing each other during filming.
• Wag the Director: Originally, Michael was to kill Rachel by shoving a pair of scissors down her throat, but Ellie Cornell felt that this would be too gruesome and requested that the writers change it; as a result, she is instead stabbed in the chest.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally the old man that rescued Michael in the beginning was an occultist that would have been the one responsible for the tattoo on his wrist (originally meant to simply give him eternal life). The scenes were shot, but it was changed to a kindly hermit after some second guessing from the filmmakers (and some editing done around what was already shot).
  • In the laundry chute scene, Jamie was to be stabbed in the leg. The shot was cut from the film for being too disturbing. Danielle Harris still owns the prosthetic leg that would've been used for the shot.
  • Tina was meant to wear the devil costume to the party, but the director had Samantha wear it instead due to not wanting the heroine dressed as the devil.
  • In the script, Rachel had Tina's role, and Tina had Rachel's, with a vast change in character for Rachel. Also the script had a scene in the Myers' house that had The Shape fall through the floor into a cage in the basement, and the end had Michael escaping with Sheriff Meeker finding an empty cell, and other drafts had Meeker dying.
  • The film's first screenplay, which was written by Shem Bitterman, featured Jamie Lloyd and Michael Myers as dual antagonists, with a now-teenage Jamie going on a killing spree of her own, Myers attempting to kill her because she was unwittingly interfering with his own spree, and Rachel being caught in the middle. Executive producer Moustapha Akkad disliked the screenplay, feeling it felt more like a parody of the Halloween series than an actual entry in it, and also because he had already promised Danielle Harris that she would be allowed to return as Jamie, and did not think that the 12-year-old Harris would be credible as a serial killer. As a result, the screenplay was rewritten essentially from scratch by Michael Jacobs and director Dominique Othenin-Girard, though Bitterman remained credited for contractual reasons.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The man in black's identity was constantly changing due to producers not knowing whether or not he would be a blood relative of Michael Myers.

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