Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Strong and Moving!

People are voting emotionally.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

I prefer part 3 over this one because I found part 3 to be more enjoyable. Good story, good characters, good pacing and neat script. The reason why it's not groundbreaking to me because it's still the same movie to me. It's not the best but it's enjoyable.

After the "lousy" Halloween 3, fans were not expecting Myers to return and just left the Halloween franchise behind, moving on to something else..and then they got big news, Halloween 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS was on!! The film follows a new story with Laurie Strode's daughter, Jamie who is now Michael Myers newest target and goes after her on Halloween Night, while also killing a bunch of teenagers, because, it would'int be Halloween with out loads of teenagers being slashed to death. I remember watching Halloween 5 before 4 and thinking how bad the film could be as Halloween 5 was not amazing, this film was all over actually not that bad. The acting in Halloween 4 was actually quite decent, the writing was not something to rave over but was still good, Danielle Harris and Donald Pleasence nailed it as Jamie and Dr. Loomis, the other characters were just typical teenagers that I did not really care for, Michael Myers was really good in this film and his mask was very likable. Halloween 4 is not a Halloween 2 but a pretty good sequel!

After the interesting misfire that was "Halloween 3: Season of the Witch," the producer decided it was time to return the "Halloween" franchise to its roots. Released in 1988, the above film succeeds in doing just that and is a worthy sequel to the previous films with the Michael Myers character. Also returning was Donald Pleasence as Dr. Sam Loomis. The "Halloween" films just wouldn't be the same without him, he plays a considerable role in giving these movies their cult status. It is now nearly Halloween once more. Ten years have elapsed since the time when crazed killer Michael Myers attempted to kill his sister Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Both he and Sam Loomis were assumed to have died in the fire at the end of "Halloween 2." Loomis is now facially scarred and walks with a stick. Myers is in a comatose state at the beginning of the film. He is now subject to Federal law and is due to be tried if he should regain consciousness. As is to be expected, Myers is roused from his dormant state and embarks upon his latest rampage of murder. He is making his way back to Haddonfield so he can murder his niece, Jamie (Danielle Harris). Hot on his trail is Loomis who needs to convince the police that the tragedies of before might occur again. It is a race against time for Loomis in attempting to protect Jamie from her psychopathic uncle. The pace never lets up and there are some eerie and effective scenes. The plot is kept quite streamlined which is good. As soon as darkness descends, the danger is upon the town and upon Jamie. Quite a number of people are killed and Myers shows no mercy toward them. With Loomis, he makes an exception. He has a few opportunities to kill him but for some reason, he doesn't. Myers hurts Loomis for sure but never uses much force in finishing him. Could it be that he has a speck of human feeling for his former Doctor? I was a bit disappointed with how Michael Myers looks in this film. The mask he wears, is nowhere near as frightening as in the first film. In the 1978 movie, I thought I was gazing upon a mask where the eyes looked like two dark,bottomless pits. In this movie, the mask looks like something out of a children's toy store. He didn't look physically imposing enough as before either. Even so, it is something I can overlook. The dialogue is actually quite good for a film of this kind. Every scene refers to the plot in some way. Acting honours go to Donald Pleasence and Danielle Harris. They only one proper scene together but it is an effective one. Harris gives her character a lot of depth and conviction, especially when she is made all to aware of her situation. The ending includes a suitably shocking twist, I shalln't say what it is. "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" helps to maintain the style of the first two films well. It isn't surprising that a fifth "Halloween" film was commissioned as the fourth one was being made.

After the failed experiment that was "Halloween III: Season of the Witch", the series returned to its Michael Myers-based roots with this fourth installment. Unfortunately, the end result couldn't have turned out more bland.For a basic plot summary, "Halloween 4" opens with Myers having been in a coma for the ten years after the explosion that ended the second film. However, while being transferred to a new institution, Michael wakes up and begins a new killing spree, this time targeting Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), the niece of Laurie Strode.Yep, seriously...that is the plot of this film, easily illustrating the most glaring fault of this "comeback" effort: the series was creatively exhausted after "Halloween II", so all the rest is just an excuse to make some money.Add to this the fact that the movie really isn't even scary. Whatsoever. Heck, even the Friday the 13th series had 3-4 films that were decent. This one, though, does nothing to re-establish the character of Michael Myers and eventually descends into a combination of slasher (which at times is laughable) and suspense (let's just say it ain't Hitchcock). Plus, to add insult to injury, the Myers mask isn't even the old "Bill Shatner mold" from the first two, instead featuring a cheap knockoff that isn't nearly as spooky. The final nail is driven home with the most insipid, cringe-worthy ending of perhaps the entire series.About the only redeeming factor in this movie whatsoever is the performance of Harris as young Jamie. She really does an excellent job and deserves a lot of credit for creating the only human drama element in the movie at all.Thus, though this film tried to resurrect (quite literally) the character of Michael Myers, it eventually only serves to provide 90 minutes of blandness. I wasn't expecting greatness out of the third Halloween sequel, but I wasn't expecting total boredom, either, and that is exactly what I received.