Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers(1988)

You can see why some people love Halloween 4, and going to the Alamo’s sixth year showing, in a room with Owen Edgerton giving a good defense, and a crowd full of fans, it would be easy to be swayed. Halloween 4 also made a lot of money, and brought back Michael Myers again, putting him, like Halloween 1, 2 and H20, in a secure position to survive as a franchise through some less than stellar installments- Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers(1995) anyone? I hated Halloween 4 when I first saw it on video, but a couple of theatrical experiences later, I can see its limited charms, it does try hard to plug any holes from Halloween 2(1981), and continue the story with as few bumps as possible, some shots are very good, the characters are not as annoying or as thinly drawn as they later became, and of course Donald Pleasence is still fantastic value( although for my money, he’s the only thing that actually improved between this and Halloween 5:The Revenge of Michael Myers(1989), where he roughs up a child and beats Michael Myers while screaming at him, with a four by four- the Inspector Dreyfus of the Horror world, Halloween 5 is his Curse of the Pink Panther(1976). Even how 80s it looks, which originally used to irk me, now gives it a period charm. Against this though, sorry Owen, but you must be on crack to think this is better than Carpenter’s original, the kills seem toned down and tame compared to Part 2, the hunters are very annoying, as are nearly all of the characters with the exception of the Jaime and Rachel- making you not really care who gets killed, and Michael himself looks slightly off. Here is the first mask that looks wrong to me- a problem that caused reshoots on Halloween H20(1998). The climax also seems strangely anti-climatic after the great endings of the first two installments(Halloween 3:Season of the Witch(1983) was of course a totally different story), or even later sequels, like H20. In the history of the franchise, Halloween 4 deserves recognition for keeping it, like Michael himself, alive and kicking, but not much else. 6/10