In 1989, director Dominique Othenin-Girard’s Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers polarized Halloween fans. From the introduction of the character of the Man in Black and the early beginnings of The Cult of Thorn mythos to a psychic connection between uncle and niece, this fifth film in the franchise (and the fourth which followed the iconic character of the babysitter-slashing Myers, who first found fame in originator John Carpenter’s seminal 1978 horror classic Halloween) was indeed a departure from its predecessors.
But what of the man who donned the infamous coveralls and mask for this fifth entry? Thirty years since its release, we caught up with stuntman and actor Don Shanks to discuss his experience, and touched on topics ranging from the film’s deleted scenes to working with young lead Danielle Harris, as well as his prolific career in the film and stunt industry, navigating Hollywood as a Native American, and a whole lot more.
Commencing with his role of Indian brave Nakoma in the 1974 film The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, and kicking into high gear in 1977 in the hit television series of the same name (you can dig deep into that in Part 1 of our interview series here), prior to assuming The Shape’s mantle Shanks had cut his teeth on an entirely different slasher film, the 1984 flick Silent Night, Deadly Night (you can dig into that in Part 2 here, as well as his recollection of shooting the infamous ‘lost’ “Dr. Death” scene from Halloween 5).
As for Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers itself? With principal photography kicking off in May of 1989, a mere five months before its scheduled release on October 13th, 1989 (in a year already saturated with slasher sequels, including Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan and A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, along with dozens of other hopeful contenders), Shanks didn’t have much time to prepare for the role – or to prepare for the evening on which series regular Donald Pleasence accidentally broke his nose with a two by four, either.
Shanks recalled of that spring night in 1989 in Salt Lake City, Utah (where the majority of principal photography took place), “(It was our fault that) we didn’t let Donald know. The board we were using was foam, but it had a piece of PVC in it, and so as long as you hit with the right side of it, you’d be fine. But if you hit with the other?”
Don Shanks and Donald Pleasence in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
“He was getting tired,” expounded Shanks of Pleasence and the scene, which finds the actor’s character of Loomis dropping a chain net onto Myers before striking him repeatedly, “and he caught me (with the prop), and blood was running out of my mask, and (stunt coordinator) Don Pike ran over asked if I was OK. I said that I was, and not to worry about it, and not to say anything (to Pleasence). But the next day my eyes were black, and that’s a pretty good sign that you broke your nose.”
Aside from that unfortunate incident, Shanks recalls that working with the actor, “Was great. That scene where we were on the staircase (in the Myers house) and he’s talking to me – I swear I was getting lulled by his voice. It’s almost hypnotic, just listening to him. And (even at his age) he wanted to do all his own stunts. So when I slam Loomis into the window (in the film)? That was actually Donald Pleasence.”
A famously committed actor, the classically trained Pleasence’s desire for authenticity was additionally illustrated in his request to Shanks for him to remain on set – for a scripted scene in which the latter doesn’t appear.
“They were to shoot the scene which takes place right after I wreck the car (at the Tower Farm), and they had wrapped me for the night,” remembers Shanks. “And there was a knock on the door and I answered it. It was Donald and he said, ‘Might I impose on you? I have to shoot the scene where I’m talking to you and I won’t see you, but I just want to know that you’re out there. Would you mind?” I’d already wrapped for the night, but I was like, ‘It’s OK. Cool.’ So I was out there in the trees when he’s saying, “If you want to get rid of this rage, Michael, go home. Go home. Go to your house.’”
Shanks also holds fond recollections of the film’s young lead Danielle Harris, who had returned to reprise her role of Jamie Lloyd in Halloween 5, which she’d originated in its predecessor.
“I thought she was a trooper,” effused Shanks. “I mean, for eleven years old, she was like a little person. She was always there, and she always wanted to do her own stunts.”
One of those stunts required Danielle’s character to be marauded by Myers while trapped within a metal laundry shoot, while The Shape stabs violently through it with an actual butcher knife.
Danielle Harris in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
“That whole thing, she wanted to do it,” offered Shanks of the sequence, “And I was stabbing blind. I couldn’t see where she was. So we worked it out, and I put marks on the inside where she had to be, and I would stab through it.”
“Even when we were doing the chase (at the farm), she wanted to be there. I was tearing up the place in that car (with her running in front of it), and there was so much fog!”
Inarguably one of the more visually arresting moments of the film, the scene finds Myers, having previously dispatched the character of Mike and having stolen his prized 66’ Camaro, chasing down not only Harris, but actors Jeffrey Landman and Wendy Kaplan (the latter in the role of Tina Williams) in it. And as Shanks tells it, it was for Kaplan that things got a bit dicey.
Wendy Kaplan in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
“Well, we had very few doubles,” Shanks said of the production’s apparently anemic approach in hiring stunt people, “(and for that scene) we were using the car for lighting. (Cinematographer) Rob Draper was in the back seat, and we had the headlights on Wendy and we were chasing her, so we had to be fairly close. So we had done it three times, and she asked Rob between takes, ‘When does the camera see my face?’ And Rob said, ‘Well, I really don’t see it.’ So, I think it was on the fourth take that she turned towards us (during the chase), and when she did she stepped on her cape, and it pulled her down and screamed. My heart was jumping out of my chest. I said, “My god!” and slammed on the brakes. I put it right on top of her. I didn’t run over her, but I could have. And I was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And she said, ‘Well, I want them to see my face.’ I told her, ‘It’s not worth getting killed over!’ But she was a trooper too. They all were!”
“There’s one shot (though from that sequence) that I wish I had,” said Shanks, “where I had the mask on, and there was so much fog that it was coming out of the eye holes.”
Having previously dived into the “Dr. Death” alternate opening, conversation then turned to the other ‘lost’ footage from Halloween 5: the long rumored SWAT team massacre at the hands of Myers.
“Oh, I took out Haddonfield’s SWAT team,” confirmed Shanks. “I killed a whole bunch of people.”
Expounding of the filmed scenes, “They took place at the hospital, the place where Danielle’s character left from,” he offered of the location in Orem, Utah which stood in for Haddonfield Children’s Clinic. “If you remember, the police get on the radio (in the film) and they say, ‘He’s here,’ and the whole SWAT team (which is stationed) at the Myers house gets in their cars and they drive off, and there’s one guy left up (in the house) with Danielle in the bedroom, and then there’s one guy down below in a police car (on the street), and over the radio he hears people screaming. So that’s where the (SWAT massacre) scene was to be – just before that.”
Of the extent of the sequence, Shanks said, “Well, I think we didn’t spend that much shooting it, because it was mostly second unit, with Don Pike directing instead of Dominique. So we were doing it fast.”
Speed of set-ups aside, Shanks does indeed recall the kills.
“There’s one guy, and I mean they show it, when they’re taking out one of the bodies, whose head is twisted around,” recalled the actor. “They put the wardrobe on him backwards, and he looks like his head’s been twisted one hundred and eighty degrees. And another, the direction was, ‘Take an M16 rifle, and you’re just walking through these guys and killing them.’ There’s Donre Samson, a big tall black guy that I kill, and another one, I put the M16 through his head, and another guy, I break his neck and stomp on him, you know. The whole idea was that you’d hear everybody screaming (over the radio) when he’s killing everybody. So we did all these really quick shots. You know: ‘Pick this guy up. Knock this guy down. Stab this guy.’”
In addition to the body count Shanks racked up in Halloween 5 as The Shape, he additionally tallied up a few as the film’s other antagonist, the nebulous Man in Black, a character whose identity and connective tissue had yet to be determined at the time of filming.
Gorezone Magazine. January 1990. Issue #11.
“Well, I wasn’t sure where they were going with that,” said Shanks of the conceit, “because in the scene where Danielle’s in the coffin, we were shooting stuff where I didn’t have the Myers mask on. And I was asking (executive producer) Moustapha (Akkad) about it, and he was like, ‘I’m not going to use the footage here, I’m going to use it later.’ So my thought was that in Halloween 6 that they’d cut back to scenes that were in Halloween 5 that would show that the Man in Black (and Myers) were the same person. Because later (after production) when Moustapha had called me and said, ‘We’re thinking about doing Halloween 6, and we would like you to go out and promote part 5,’ he also said, ‘but don’t say anything about the Man in Black.’”
And while Shanks would not return to reprise either role in 1995’s Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers (those would go to George P. Wilbur and Mitchell Ryan as Myers and the Man in Black, respectively), the actor said of working with Halloween 5’s director Othenin-Girard (whose unique stamp on the franchise forced many a challenge for its immediate follow-up), “If you look at Halloween 5, it has certain artistic qualities to it, which is what he brought to it. You know, there’s little inner meanings and nuances, that when you watch it, aren’t in the other ones. Like the “Dr. Death” scene: the occult items (in it) happened through Dominique. He’d gotten in touch with (local) witches to get them, and he wanted it shot on a certain day, or it had to be a certain date, I don’t remember which. But numbers were a big thing with him for some reason. His (hotel) room even had to be have certain number, and his bed had to face a certain direction.”
“And that’s just what Dominique did.”
As for what Shanks, now sixty-nine years old (and surprisingly still fit, regardless of the spinal fractures he endured as a stunt man in the 80’s) is up to, “I’m still riding horses,” he said. “I have one friend, and she’s been doing horse rescues and stuff, and so I help her train the horses. You know, just taking it easy.”
“Although,” he added, “She did just start doing Mongolian archery. That’s where you shoot targets with a bow on horseback.”
“I think I might try that.”
