Review of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) by Ben F — 13 Jan 2010

While the first movie was fantastic, the second movie was dissapointing, the third movie was just...wow I don't know...."Halloween IV" just seems like the same stuff over and over again, and it's completely unessecary. I actually liked it a bit more than the second one, but this movie still falls way short.

I guess that the production team decided to go with a new approach with the fourth installment in the Halloween franchise. Instead of hiring Jamie Lee Curtis to come back with this one, they hire Danielle Harris as her daughter. The movie reveals to us that supposedly Curtis is dead, and Jamie (played by Harris) is living with her foster family. But for some strange and ridiculous reason, Michael Myers wants to kill her too. So this is when the horror begins. He awakens in an ambulance, kills the passengers, and escapes. First of all, how the hell did he even know about Jamie? Oh well, it's too late to ask questions. What the difference between this movie and the first two installments are, is that this movie is more of an action horror. Their are countless shootout scenes with Michael, and a lot more killing sequences, which seem more like a badly made action movie than a horror film. This is a very different approach, and it didn't really work.

I actually felt that some of the scenes that were made in this movie were done quite well. The scene where Jamie is praying and we see Michael in the background is actually done quite well. There are a few scenes where Donald Pleasence is running with Danielle Harris that I actually liked for some reason. Suprising, I know. But this didn't change the fact that this movie was still pretty ridiculous.

This film is much more 80's as well, so theres parties, and 80's music and clothes, as well as more body counts, and that's to be expected.

Not much more is to say about "Halloween IV". To me it was better than the second one, but it STILL is pretty stupid, and it can't even touch the first one. No suprise here.