Personal and career troubles
On April 9, 1989, Haim appeared live onstage at Knott's Berry Farm with DJ "Hollywood" Hamilton as part of a teen anti-drugs campaign. The thousand-strong audience of girls would not stop screaming and rushing the stage, and fire marshals had to escort Haim from the building amid fears for his safety. Haim later said that he was terrified of going onstage afterward, and had resolved never to go on any stage ever again.
In November 1989, fresh out of rehabilitation, Haim released a self-promotional video titled Corey Haim: Me, Myself, and I, which followed a day in his life. Heavily scripted, Haim's monologues to camera were nevertheless unfocused and suggested that he was under the influence during filming. The film has been considered the "worst movie ever" by X-Entertainment. Haim set up a pre-recorded drug advice line for teens. He admitted on The Arsenio Hall Show that he was high while giving the advice.
In 1990, Haim co-starred with Patricia Arquette in the sci-fi actioner Prayer of the Rollerboys, performing many of his own stunts in a tale of a teen who goes undercover to expose a racist gang leader. However, as his problems with drugs continued, Haim began to lose his core audience. His performances suffered, and his film career in the 1990s declined into direct-to-video releases. In 1991, aged 19, he starred in Dream Machine, which received a direct-to-video release, as did Oh, What a Night and The Double 0 Kid, in which Seth Green had a role. Green said his experiences of working with Haim was a duality between a sweet, hardworking professional who loved acting and a tormented addict.
Additional direct-to-video films included the 1992 erotic thriller Blown Away. Co-star Nicole Eggert, who was romantically involved with Haim at the time and also featured in The Double O Kid, later stated that on-set medics would provide him with drugs to stop him from going through withdrawal. She recalled filming with Haim during the day and spending the nights with him in the emergency room.
In 1994, Haim visited Mannheim, Germany, to sign a deal with the German record label Edel and recorded an album there. However, the deal fell through and the album remained unreleased. One of the songs, the euro-house influenced "You Give Me Everything", produced by Daniel Schubert and Daniel Gonschorek, was released in 1995 as a 4-track single. Over the next two years, Haim released sequels to two of his older films, 1994's Fast Getaway II along with National Lampoon's Last Resort, 1995's Life 101, and Dream a Little Dream 2 with Feldman. Haim also unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Robin in Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever.
Brooke McCarter managed Haim through the mid-1990s, but, citing drug problems, eventually dropped him. In 1996, Haim starred in four more direct-to-video films — Snowboard Academy, Demolition High, Fever Lake and Busted — the last also co-starring and directed by Corey Feldman. Feldman was forced to fire Haim after he refused to curtail his drug use and was inconsistent on set, later saying that it was one of the hardest things he ever had to do. He had a small role in the television film Merlin: The Quest Begins. In 1997, he appeared in Never Too Late and the sequel to Demolition High, titled Demolition University, on which he was credited as an executive producer.
After Haim pulled out of the film Paradise Bar, he was sued by Lloyd's of London for $375,000 for failing to disclose his drug addiction as a pre-existing medical condition on the insurance form. In July 1997, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At this point, Haim's film roles evaporated.
In 1999, Haim shot a troubled low-budget independent film called Universal Groove in Montreal, using then-emerging digital technology. He played a film director interacting with eight characters over the course of one night on the techno club scene. Haim's return to Canada was newsworthy, with the shoot garnering local press interest and reporters from People magazine visiting the set. The film experienced fatal post-production problems, and stolen footage was leaked on the Internet. Over eight years later, the filmmakers self-released a reconstructed version of the film online.
In 2000, Haim attempted to return to the industry with the direct-to-video thriller Without Malice, with Jennifer Beals and Craig Sheffer. He hoped that playing the role of an ex-addict who conceals a murder with his sister's fiancé would offer him a transition from teen fare. The film was made in Waskesiu, Saskatchewan, where crew members recalled Haim's propping up the town's only bar until the early hours. In 2001, Haim was the subject of an E! True Hollywood Story. Airing on October 17, it showed him living in a sparse apartment above a garage in Santa Monica with his mother. Haim was disoriented and unintelligible for some of his interviews. He was seen compiling a promotional clip reel for casting agents, and a pawnbroker recalled his begging for $3 to buy a slice of pizza. Feldman spoke on the program about his attempts to help Haim kick the habit, and moved him into his house in October 2001.
Able to poke fun at himself, Haim made a cameo appearance in David Spade's Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, a film about a former child star, which included an array of actual former child stars, including Feldman. Haim also appeared in spoof horror movie The Back Lot Murders. In 2002, he guest-starred as himself in an episode of the Canadian television series Big Wolf on Campus. Haim was the subject of a 2004 song by the Irish band The Thrills called "Whatever Happened to Corey Haim?"
