Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Rating:
Summary: 2.75 Star average slasher flick
Review: In Halloween 4, Michael Myers returns to action after 10 years of being in a coma. Also, Donald Pleasance returns as a scarred but still living Dr. Loomis. However, that being said, this movie really fails as a competent sequel to Halloween 2.

First, the movie fails to capture the Halloween theme as John Carpenter did in Halloween 1 & 2. There is just something that Halloween 1 & 2 had that all of the sequels do not and it's not so much the acting as it is mood and/or motif. I think John Carpenter had a lot to do with the genuine Halloween theme in the first two movies and he was not a major contributor to Halloween 4.

The plot is centered around a young child named Jamie Lloyd, evidently the daughter of Laurie Strode, (Jamie Lee Curtis-Halloween) and she is tormented by a nightmare of Michael Myers coming after her. However, these dreams prove to be prophetic in that Michael Myers is enraged when he discovers that he still has a living relative. Myers discovers this while lying down in a comatose state in an abulance being transported to Smith's Grove. In his anger, Myers sticks his thumb into the skull of one some doctor/paramedic...great scene.

Anyway, he returns to Haddonfield and racks up a pretty good amount of victims in his path including shoving a shotgun into the stomach of some teenaged girl. The plot is very predictable as Myers kills his way to try and get a hold of his niece. At any rate, the movie really doesn't deliver the goods, but there are quite a few good kills in this movie and that's why I give 2.5 stars, but definitely nothing special.

However, if you are in the mood for a slasher film, you might want to pick this up, but if you are in the mood for a really good Halloween movie, buy Halloween 1 and 2.

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Sequel That I Highley Recommend
Review: Hello, this is a good scary sequel. It is also very dark and scary. The beginning is great and the music and the mental hospital mood is great. Michael is now after his neice Jamie Lyod, Laurie Strodes daughter. He stalks people and anyone who gets in his way. There are a lot of scary moments in this one when you don't know what will happen which makes it really entertaining to watch. Donald Pleasance does another good job as Michaels' Psychiatrist and warns the town to get people off the streets. The ending is brillantly done and scare the wits out of me. I highly recommend this movie if you want to get scared again!

Rating:
Summary: Halloween 4..!! -A cult Franchise..? -Scary key plots.
Review: I watched this film reluctantly on cable during a spree of similar films around Halloweentime. As a general rule, I've found that horror movies with Roman numerals after them increase in suckiness in proportion to how large the numeral is. In the case of "IV" this proved not to be true. This is a pretty good horror flick, much better than I expected and very professionally done.

OK, the film has a wee plothole or two...or three. I mean, at the end of Part II, Michael Myers took about a dozen bullets in the chest, had both of his eyes shot out, and was set on fire and burned into a giant s'more. He was about as dead as dead gets. His doctor, Loomis, also got BBQ'd. This film, opening ten years after the second, uses the soap opera tactic of simply re-writing its own past hisory. Turns out Michael was only badly burned and the fusilade of bullets he took in I & II missed every vital organ. His eyes regenerated too -- a wonderful thing, modern medicine! Anyway, Dr. Loomis also escaped without too much injury, just a limp and facial scars. Both of them continue to reside at the Pleasantview nut house, Michael as a comotose patient, Loomis as his obsessed shrink. Michael is supposedly comotose, but Loomis isn't fooled. He understands the big fella is just waiting for something to set him off....

The pretext of this rampage is Michael's discovery, through an indiscreet and therefore soon to be dead aylum orderly, that he has a living neice. Since Michael's mission in life is to kill all his female relatives -- we all need hobbies -- he makes bloody tracks for his former hometown of Haddonfield, with the relentless Loomis in pursuit. Unfortunately, the people of Haddonfield have mostly forgotten about Michael. And because Loomis, wonderfully played as always by the late great Donald Pleasance, often comes off as a paranoid nut case, his warnings aren't taken too seriously by the sheriff (horror movie sheriffs never listen!). Before you can say "imaginative and unpleasant deaths for teenage horror-movie fodder" Michael has trapped his neice, the sheriff, the extremely nubile sheriff's daughter, the extremely stupid sheriff's deputy, the heroine, and the heroine's cheatin' boyfriend, in a creepy house and cut the power, and proceeds to pare the group down using various handy household impliments.

This movie has numerous horror movie cliches: mysterious lights that shine through the trees....fog that looks suspiciously man made....a filling station in "Illinois" that appears to actually be in New Mexico...cops so stupid they could work for Chief Wiggum....a posse of vigilantes who can't shoot straight....teens whose combined brain power couldn't light up a GE Soft White....and, of course, a conveniently ambiguous ending. I have to say, however, that none of this really matters. The acting is surprisingly good, especially from the neice, the script is more than passable, and the creep factor is high. I was almost sorry to see Michael put on his trademark "William Shatner" mask (they really should STOP selling that in Haddonfield) because that creepy white plastic restraint mask he wears the first third of the film is even scarier. Michael's child-like body language after he kills someone is very disturbing -- that slow, wonderous tilt of the head (they could have used louder mouth-breathing through the mask, though). There is also a twisted touch in the relationship between Michael and Loomis -- Michael has many chances to kill Loomis and never goes for it, perhaps understanding that
Loomis is a necessary ingredient in the "game" they play together. And the film's end twist, minus the "gee, too bad he fell down that abandoned mineshaft so we can't find his body" is really disturbing.

H-4 is not a great horror film, but it is a respectable one. If you are fan of the Halloween franchise, or just of slasher films in general, but want something that looks more like a real movie and less than a college student film gone horribly wrong (I'm looking at you, Friday the 13th Part VIII) try this one.














Rating:
Summary: Better than the first two Myers movies!
Review: THE STORY: After being burned in Halloween 2, Michael went into a coma, and Dr. Loomis survived the explosion. 10 years later, Michael awakens to stalk Jamie, who is the daughter of Laurie. Now Doctor Loomis must stop him!!

MY THOUGHTS: The Halloween movies were supposed to be a collection of Halloween-themed stories. And the Michael Myers story was one of them. But after HIIISOTW, fans were very angry that Michael wasn't in it. So, back to Michael! This movie has one of the highest body counts yet. Michael is one mean SOB in this one. I loved it! Plus the ending is freaky!!!!

Rating:
Summary: "Halloween 4" DVD Review
Review: After taking a break from the Michael Myers theme with "Halloween III.", the creators of the franchise wisely returned the series to its roots with the fourth installment. This time, Michael is stalking the daughter of his deceased sister on Halloween night. Donald Pleasance is also back and just as good as ever as Michael's nemesis, Doctor Sam Loomis. One of the better entries in the series gets a rather average DVD special edition with a pretty good featurette and not much of anything else. It's better than nothing but an audio commentary or possibly some deleted scenes might have been nice.


Rating:
Summary: Decent flick!
Review: The beginning of this film contains some eerie moments, but it is patchy in areas. It's still worth viewing.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!!
Review: This is actually my favorite out of all the Halloween movies. It has good characters and good acting.

Rating:
Summary: MM RETURNS
Review: After taking a departure with Halloween III: Season of the Witch, which had nothing to do with Michael Myers, MM returns.

This is a very 80's movie, with a very high bodycount, but minimal shocks and genuine disturbing moments.

The best scene is the one where MM skewers a scantily-clad (aren't they always?) girl to the wall with a shotgun, as if to underscore what is apparent in slasher movies: guns have no place here.

Otherwise, very dim-witted and unarresting movie. To say that it is one of the better sequels to the original doesn't say much, given that the sequels are all dire.