Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

• Directed by Dwight H. Little
• October 21, 1988

Ten years have passed since his last rampage and now on Halloween Michael Myers escapes custody once again to hunt down his niece and terrorize the town of Haddonfield.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a prime example of the cinematic excesses of the 80s-and I mean that in a good way. Some of my favorite films come from that time. Our on-screen action heroes from the time were practically Superman and at times our on-screen villains bordered on superhuman as well. Michael Myers falls into the latter category by this movie.

In the first one Michael Myers was just durable. In the second one he was stronger but still mostly human. Here he takes all sorts of punishment and dishes it out in a capacity that would leave a Terminator impressed. He takes hit after hit and just keeps coming. It’s ridiculous but it fits with what we have come to expect from the character. Plus you need to up the impressive factor. Previously had been done in by a fire (or so we thought) so they needed to justify his ability to survive.

This is the fourth film in the series but only the third at this point to feature Michael Myers with Halloween III: Season of the Witch being a completely independent narrative of its own that went so far as to imply its predecessors were fiction in its world. While a series of Halloween themed films is intriguing people wanted more Michael Myers.

For whatever reason Jamie Lee Curtis chose not to return as Laurie Strode and the character was replaced by her now orphaned daughter Jamie Lloyd with Laurie being killed offscreen like a Disney mom. Danielle Harris does a pretty good job as a child actor. She’s not stiff and actually gives her character of Jamie Lloyd personality. She does what few child actors can and that is passably act.

And what is a Halloween movie without Donald Pleasence? His character of Dr. Loomis here is essentially Paul Revere shouting “The British are coming! The British are coming!” as he attempts to rally the forces of Haddonfield against Michael Myers. His fear and general descriptions of Michael is what helps build the character up into more of a force of nature than a mere crazed killer. At 88 or so minutes there’s not much time for character development of everybody involved but his dialogue helps build up Michael Myers.

One thing that stood out to me was that this came off as an extremely slasherless slasher film. We see plenty of the aftermath of what Michael Myers does, but we see surprisingly little of him actually doing it. That adds to the mystique of the character. You see all this devastation he has wrought but you don’t see him committing it. This causes your mind to create these fantastic scenarios which is a great narrative technique.

In The Return of Michael Myers the character with the most significant arc in the story is Jamie’s foster sister Rachel Carruthers (Ellie Cornell). She starts out the film not only wanting to date a jerk who’s cheating on her with another girl (Kathleen Kinmont) and also kind of resentful of Jaime and the need to care for her. By the end of the film Rachel comes to view Jaime as a sister and has gone to great lengths against Michael Myers to keep this girl alive. 

I’m not sure if it was intentional or not but before the mayhem begins Jamie is out buying a Halloween costume and buys a clown costume which could be seen as a parallel to Michael. This is important because in the final shot of the film Jaime has taken to trying to kill her foster mother (Karen Alston) thus implying that the two are closer in nature than is good for the town of Haddonfield.

As horror films go this isn’t frightening at all. Then again you go into The Return of Michael Myers or films like it to watch the kills and the action and it satisfies on both of what it does show. But in place of action and actual kills you get to see plenty of gore and significant destruction in the aftermath.

The Return of Michael Myers gives you exactly what you want. You get Michael Myers. You get plenty of victims. You get gore. And though I think there should’ve been more, the kills you do get are great. This doesn’t try to be anything deep or intellectual. It just tries to be violent and enjoyable. Its main flaw is that there is not enough of the iconic theme. That music in all its simplicity says you’re watching a Halloween movie with Michael Myers. It is haunting and disturbing and perfectly sets the mood.

Aside from Beau Starr as Sheriff Ben Meeker, Donald Pleasence, and Danielle Harris the acting is not spectacular here. It’s all serviceable but not spectacular. They knew exactly what they had and it was a slasher movie that was a part of a franchise they wished to revive and they did pretty well here. Michael Myers comes back full throttle in this.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a great re-introduction of Michael Myers to the Halloween film series. It’s also a great encapsulation of 80s horror movies. For fans of that era of horror I highly recommend it!