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

People in the Movie:  Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell

Director:  Dwight Little

Pigeonhole:  Horror / Slasher

The Basics: It has been 10 years since the Halloween night massacre in Haddonfield, Illinois, at the hands of Michael Myers, who has remained in a coma since being severely burned in a fiery explosion, ignited by Dr. Sam Loomis (Pleasense) which brought Michael’s bloodbath to an end.  While transferring Michael in between psychiatric facilities, 2 medics converse out loud that Michael has a living relative, a niece, and she lives in Haddonfield.  This somehow awakens Michael from his coma (if he was actually in one), and he begins a new reign of terror trying to kill Jamie Lloyd (Harris), who is revealed to be the daughter of Laurie Strode, Michael’s sister. 

Recommendation:   Fans of the Halloween movies should enjoy it.  Although formulaic and predictable, there are still some decent scares, while Harris and Elle Cornell provide very good acting.  As a standalone (meaning you had not watched the prior Halloween films) this still works reasonably well, all the prior plot elements are explained.  ‘R’ rating is for violence, language, and brief/ partial nudity.

My Take:  The purist in me says “they should have left the Michael Myers character and storyline alone”; both John Carpenter and Debra Hill, the creators of the first 2 Halloween films wanted the Michael storyline ended there.  The horror film fan in me noted “even a semi-successful horror movie (or horror movie character) will spawn multiple sequels, prequels, or reboots, no matter how horrible those films might be.”  Acknowledging this latter fact, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a decent addition to the Halloween series: it creates its own identity while still using 2 of the original characters and at 88 minutes does not get bogged down with too much fluff.

**spoiler alert**

The Bad: I didn’t feel like Dr. Loomis was developed in this installment.  Maybe that was a time constraint or editing choice not to have more about him in the movie, but he has been part of the story all along and didn’t offer as much depth as his character could/ should have.  Remember, Loomis is Michael Myer’s borderline obsessive psychiatrist who set himself and Michael on fire in order to stop Michael’s killings in 1978.  Ten years have passed, yet all Loomis seems to bring with him to this film is his old cliché’s of Michael being pure evil.  I suppose if the intent was to make him seem like a broken down, slightly crazy old man, then it worked – however, I don’t believe that was the intent, and I think it was a disservice to Pleasence, because this series was as much about his pursuit of Michael, as Michael’s murders in Haddonfield.     

The Good: Danielle Harris played her role extremely well.  For being a younger girl in a horror movie, there was not an excessive amount of whining, which can be a huge pet peeve of mine.  She seemed genuinely scared at the right moments, and her behaviors seemed age appropriate, as well.

Ellie Cornell plays Rachel Carruthers, Jamie’s adoptive sister and “protector” as the movie progresses.  She is the somewhat innocent teen; we see shades of the Laurie Strode character, but without being the lead actor, or Michael’s target.  She catches her boyfriend cheating on her Halloween night, but don’t worry – justice will served for him and the cheating girl.  Rachel’s resolve ends up saving Jamie several times, and Rachel also hits Michael with a truck near the end of the film leading up to his demise.  Outside of Harris, she probably had the best role in the film.

Start to finish: Michael awakens from his 10 year coma, proceeds on a stalking and killing spree to get to Jamie Lloyd (his neice), Loomis pursues.  He is eventually shot multiple times by a drunken angry mob and falls down a mine shaft, presumably dead.

The movie ends with Jamie stabbing her adoptive mother while wearing a costume similar to Michael’s the night of his first kill.  Loomis, at the house, see Jamie standing with the still-bloody scissors and screams “no!”, as he seems to realize that Michael’s “evil” has been passed to Jamie – subsequently setting up the next sequel.   
All in all, a nice rekindling of the Halloween franchise.

Extras/For Fun:  Harris’ character Jamie was named paying homage to Jamie Lee Curtis… Upon viewing the original edit, it was decided the film was too “soft”, so a special effects guru was brought in to bloody it up… This is the third Michael Myers film, Halloween III was not about the Michael Myers storyline…