Halloween Marathon: Halloween 4 The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Double review day! I’m kind of proud of myself 🙂

After my little mix-up, this weekend I went out and bought Halloween 4 The Return of Michael Myers and we’re back in business and on track.  We even decided to give Part 6 a second whirl to make sense of a few details we didn’t really seem to get the first time because we didn’t see the 4 &5 before it 😉 Before we skip ahead too much, lets check out Halloween 4!

Director: Dwight H. Little

Cast: Donald Pleasance, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, George P. Wilbur, Michael Pataki, Beau Starr, Kathleen Kinmont, Sasha Jenson

10 years after the horrible events after Halloween 2, we are made known that Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) and Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur) survived the fire alive. Michael Myers was sent back to the sanitorium until maximum security however, a sentence had passed that he was to be transported that very night to a prison facility.  During the transport, he managed to escape and upon contacting Dr. Loomis, he knew that Michael would head for Haddonfield to get Jamie (Danielle Harris), Laurie’s young daughter who was under the care of Rachel (Ellie Cornell) who had babysitting duties for this new addition to her family.  As Dr. Loomis asks for help from Haddonfield Sheriff Meeker (Beau Starr) and his team to recapture Michael, its a race with time before Michael follows and kills his young niece.

I’ve taken a day or two to digest this movie as I can’t really decide if I liked it or not.  Its a half-half deal.  Its way more enjoyable than Halloween 3 and even Halloween 2.  It had some nice jump scares. The mask looked a tad different 10 years after and I’m not totally sure if I found it scarier or not but its was good. I’ve come to the conclusion that the Halloween series are generally not too scary, maybe because it is quite dated but it has this lingering feeling (at least this one had one), where I would walk in my room and run to turn on the lights in case some crazy man had gotten into my perfectly sealed house.  But thats just me, I have delayed reactions sometimes.

There’s a lot to like in this one.  For one, the cast itself was awesome.  We still have Donald Pleasance playing Dr. Loomis.  Honestly, I feel bad for the man.  He’s gone through so much just to protect everyone from Michael Myers and no one ever listens to him.  Ignorance, right? Imagine how frustrating it must be for him.  Next, I loved the little girl Danielle Harris that played Jamie, also Michael’s niece, who is the target in this one.  She was totally engaging to watch.  I think this is like Aliens in a way, where the focus on kids always add a little bit more sympathy and attachment to the flick itself making it have a deeper impression. Although I wonder, unless forced, why in the world would you choose a clown costume for Halloween? WHY?

That point leads to the fact that I found this a good story.  The continuation really works well to show the significance of Michael and his little niece even if they’ve never met before.  It shows ties and little bits here and there that bring together the previous killing spree to this one.  Plus, its a good lead up to the next one (I’ve seen it by the time I’m writing this) and it works well to build up to the fifth instalment.  The only thing I find incredibly irritating and ridiculous is that Michael Myers never dies and its all because he’s either lucky or the police/Dr. Loomis never remember to bring bigger and better guns or be ready to attack.  There’s only so much coming back from the dead I can take before it seems stupid unrealistic.  Sometimes, thats how I feel about these movies.  Although, I have to say, this one did a really clever ending for the 4th one.  Consider me impressed!

Overall, I’d say this one is pretty great as a fourth instalment (but I think its just the third because the actual third was unrelated anyways).  I’d say if you have seen the previous 2 that this one is definitely worth your time.  It has a good story and great characters and the atmosphere has a dark, creepy feeling as always :). Just the ending itself is reason enough for a viewing so yes, I recommend this! 🙂

What did you think of Halloween 4? Did you enjoy it?

Halloween 5 will be up tomorrow 🙂 Seems like this week will be a busy week in movie reviews. I already have two more to go up and another two set aside to watch during this week 🙂 Just a little heads up, I’ll be hitting some thrillers territory though, I need a little break from straight out horror.