The search is underway for long lost footage cut from 1989’s Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers. Halloween II had been conceived as the final chapter of the Michael Myers story, with the character meeting his demise in a fiery explosion at the movie’s conclusion. This led to Halloween III: The Season Of The Witch, which told an original horror tale based around the season itself. The plan was to turn the series into an anthology with Halloween as the recurring theme, but lukewarm box office and fan anger at the absence of Michael doomed this concept to one movie.
Michael was later brought back to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the original with 1988’s Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers. This entry proved to be a solid hit so work began immediately on Halloween 5: The Revenge Of Michael Myers. This rush to get the movie made had a negative impact on the final product, as it started shooting without a complete script. The previous movie ended with Michael’s niece Jamie seemingly inheriting his evil and stabbing her stepmother. While the original concept for 5 featured both Jamie and Michael Myers as killers, producers felt this would be in bad taste so that angle was dropped in favor of Michael stalking Jamie again.
Halloween 5 isn’t a particularly beloved entry in the series, featuring nonsensical story beats like Jamie’s psychic connection to Michael and a mysterious Man In Black who appears throughout the story. It’s also laden with bad dialogue and annoying teenage characters, but it has some charm as a low-budget slasher movie too. A fair amount was trimmed from Halloween 5 prior to release, but now the HalloweenMovies Twitter account has revealed they’re actively searching through the original footage for these missing scenes.
The most famous Halloween 5 deleted scene was the original opening, which took place in the immediate aftermath of the fourth movie. Michael escapes from pursuing cops and his unconscious body was originally found by a devil worshipper named Dr. Death. He takes Michael back to his place, tattoos the cult of Thorn tattoo on his wrist and resurrects him the next year with a spell. Michael isn’t particularly grateful though and gruesomely kills him upon awakening. Other missing footage includes deleted gore, such as Michael wiping out an entire S.W.A.T team and Jamie being stabbed in the leg. There are also reports Michael’s burned face was seen during his brief unmasking.
While Halloween 5 – along with every other sequel – is no longer canon due to Blumhouse’s Halloween, this is exciting news for fans of the series, since it was long assumed these scenes were lost. The search has just begun, so it could be some time before anything is found. In the meantime, a writer has just been selected for the next Halloween, with the cast of the previous movie all expected to return.
More: Blumhouse’s Halloween Sequel Reportedly Finds Writer; Cast To Return
Source: HalloweenMovies
