Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers: Review By slysnide

Since the third installment in the 'Halloween' franchise was a flop, John Carpenter & Debra Hill (RIP) officially severed ties with the series, selling the rights to producer Moustapha Akkad (RIP) who went on to be called Mr. Halloween as he produced 5 more sequels on his own including this one. Made on a budget of $5,000,000 it only raked in $17,768,757 at the box office which made for a $12,768,757 profit in comparison to the $11,900,000 profit of the flop predecessor "Season of the Witch" (1982). Though that really isn't very impressive as that film cost 50% less to make, yet this only made an extra $868,757 than #3 did. So this too was technically a flop, but till this day the fans don't see it that way...and neither do I.

Filmed in the same general area as the original, director Dwight H. Little of "The Phantom of the Opera" (1989) & "Marked for Death" (1990) made a decent horror film out of Alan B. McElroy's screenplay which was culled from the story by him, Danny Lipsius, Larry Rattner, and Benjamin Ruffner. What they really accomplished here was taking the story back to the Midwestern suburbs of South Pasadena (lolz!) rather than a hospital or factory. And most importantly for the fans they brought back Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur), though he seemed much less like 'The Shape' of the original and semi-Shape of the sequel. As I've stated before, that's attributed to how much the stuntman did or didn't study the original performance by Nick Castle.

There were two things notably different. The first was the opening credits. Rather than a real or digital jack o'lantern, there were just images of farmland with few Halloween decorations. The overcast weather, abandoned look of the place, and winds rustling through made for the creepiest opening credit of all the films. Though the movie didn't take place on farmland, thus making this weird. And so the next thing different was the mask. As the 1975 model was no longer available to tamper with and the original was long gone, a new mask was picked up and given a makeover for Michael Myers' standards. It was a good mask, but not better or as good as the one on the poster which is actually a still taken from the original...as was everything else on the poster.

Now a decade later, recently uncomatosed Michael Myers escapes an ambulance that he was being transported in to a new sanitarium and returns to Haddonfield Illinois to kill his niece Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), the daughter of the now supposedly dead Laurie Strode. Seeing Donald Pleasance parade around his eerie sense of paranoia about Michael's escape was funny as the whole idea is a bit comical, which such a thing is required for a horror movie as the genre is so entwined with humor, like Bob's Ghost. But it's always a treat to see him return to reprise this role every time. I think he's among the few in his age group to bother doing such a thing for a horror franchise.

Being 1988, then you can already guarantee that the film is much bloodier than the previous three, and the body count is therefore much higher. This made for many unneeded characters, and an unnecessary romantic subplot consisting of a love triangle between the lead teenage cast of the film. One of them is Rachel Carruthers (Ellie Cornell) who is the step-sister to Jamie, and is actually more or less the replacement of Laurie Strode for the film. She doesn't really think of Jamie as a nuisance, but really would rather spend time with Brady (Sasha Jensen), who she has a crush on. While Rachel doesn't have nearly as much runtime as Laurie, she's deservingly well loved by 'Halloween' fans. So is Brady as he's more or less the replacement for Annie as he's the next leading teenage star after Ellie, though is much more of a nice tough guy. Both of them had good chemistry and were enjoyable to watch. Though the third member of the triangle, Kelly (Kathleen Kinmont) isn't really featured that much as she's the wrench in the triangle that doesn't require runtime. But in lieu of this she does have the most memorable exit for a character in the movie.

Danielle Harris who portrayed Annie in the Rob Zombie remakes was the main character in this film in her role as young Jamie Lloyd. She like any little girl is terrified of Michael Myers, and for whatever reason has nightmares about him before ever meeting him. Her performance mostly consisted of screaming & crying, as well as some quick running, but overall she seemed a bit too easy prey for Michael Myers to waste a whole film on while running the risk of it being hilarious. Luckily it wasn't, and Danielle's performance was good for her age, but not great.

Another comical side to the whole thing was the redneck posse lead by Earl (Gene Ross) who is seeking revenge against Michael for killing his son a decade earlier. Though I don't think any specific name was given. His entire posse and scenes featuring them were funny though as it seemed to unreal for a horror movie to work, yet it did. And they provided the famous truck chase down the isolated road in the climax. Funny stuff. Real comical!

The visuals is what really nailed it here, as the Midwestern feel to the original compensated for the suspense which seemed only present in the first half of the film as the second half was mostly an '80s blood bath. The entire thing immediately takes you back to the original and you feel nostalgic for it too. That's what I really like to get out of films like these. And the fact that this being #4 was still good earns it points too. But overall, the visuals, the music, and the feel to the whole thing makes this '80s horror classic one of the best among them. A real riot that's not to be missed.