Halloween 5: Why Rachel Carruthers’ Death Was A Missed Opportunity

Halloween 4 introduced fan favorite supporting character Rachel Carruthers, only to abruptly kill her off in Halloween 5, a real missed opportunity. After the critical and commercial flop of Halloween 3: Season of the Witch – which took years to become a cult favorite – the Halloween franchise took about six years off before returning with Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Jamie Lee Curtis declined to return as Laurie Strode, leading producers to write the character out via an offscreen car crash death between films.

For Halloween 4, a new protagonist was needed to serve as Michael’s prime target, and that became Jamie Lloyd, the daughter of Laurie. After the death of her parents, Jamie was adopted by the Carruthers family, with teenage Rachel Carruthers (Ellie Cornell) now serving as her foster sister, friend, and general protector. Their relationship is soon put to the test by Michael awakening from the coma he’d been in since the end of Halloween 2, heading off to take his niece’s life.

Rachel isn’t about to let that happen, even if Michael has her greatly outmatched in just about every respect. Against the odds, Rachel and Jamie both survive his rampage in Halloween 4, but don’t quite get a happily ever after. Rachel is killed by Michael early in Halloween 5, and it just feels like an outright waste of a good character.

Halloween 5: Why Rachel’s Death Was A Missed Opportunity

Not long into Halloween 5, Rachel takes a shower, does her hair, begins to get dressed, then ends up on the receiving end of scissors to the chest by Michael Myers. Needless to say, fans at the time were surprised to see her go in such quick, unceremonious fashion. The kill itself isn’t bad, and is notable for being one of Michael’s only kills done in broad daylight. For his part, producer Moustapha Akkad wanted Rachel to die to show that no one is truly safe from Michael, although he later expressed regret for the decision.

While Rachel dying at some point during Halloween 5 would’ve been fine, as it only makes sense that she can’t avoid Michael forever, the missed opportunity is how precious little she got to do in Halloween 5. The chemistry of the Rachel/Jamie team is sorely missing in Halloween 5, just one of the many ways it’s much worse than Halloween 4. In her place we get Jamie getting shouted out by a crazed Dr. Loomis, and it just doesn’t work as well.

Rachel surviving through more of the film, long enough to figure into the climax, would’ve been a far better use of her than what fans got. She should’ve at least gone down protecting Jamie, even if some might’ve called that cliche. She even could’ve been the first victim for the mysterious Man in Black, establishing that ridiculous character as more of a threat. Either way, Rachel deserved better than to get knocked off like a typical slasher victim.

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