Stream & Scream: A Look at “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers”
For the last couple years for the Examiner, I have been choosing a couple movies from the “Halloween” franchise. So, for this month, I wanted to take a look at “Halloween 4-6,” also known to horror fans as the “Thorn Trilogy.” This week, I checked out the fourth and fifth movies while I’m saving “Halloween 6” for the Halloween week slate (just deciding whether to check out the theatrical cut or the Producer’s Cut)!
“Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” marks the return of Michael Myers following his absence in “Halloween III: Season of the Witch” (saving for its 45th anniversary next year). Despite mostly negative critic reviews, it has developed a strong cult following since its release and has enjoyed positive reappraisals in the years since its release.
The apparently comatose Michael Myers is being transferred from one hospital to another, but he wakes up when the ambulance crew talk about his surviving niece. After slaughtering his attendants, Myers sets out to find his one living relative who is, fortunately, being cared for by a kind and resourceful foster family.
Meanwhile, the ever-cautious Michael Myers remains on the killer’s path.
While its initial response has been somewhat mixed, hardcore fans of the franchise have celebrated this as a beloved favorite over time. In fact, many franchise fans (myself included) consider it to be one of the absolute best sequels in the series. Audiences and fans welcomed it as a successful “return to form” because it brought back the traditional slasher formula, Michael Myers, and Dr. Loomis after the slight detour in “Halloween III.”
Before the thrills of Michael Myers actually starts, one of the best moments is actually the opening credit sequence. If you haven’t seen it, the opening consists of a slow montage of bleak, foggy farmland, scarecrows and very eerie autumn landscapes set to ominous music. In fact, the entire sequel captures a spooky, small-town Midwestern October vibe better than almost any other entry in the series.
Unlike many 1980s slasher films filled with generic, unlikable victims, “Halloween 4” anchors itself with memorable characters who actually act rationally and root for each other. The Jame Lloyd character (who appears in the whole “Thorn trilogy”) is easily one of the best stand-out characters in the entire series and Danielle Harris’ portrayal of Laurie Strode's orphaned daughter is completely genuine and also delivers vulnerability and fear without
coming across as annoying or helpless.
As Jamie’s foster sister, Rachel is widely regarded by franchise fans as one of the best “Final Girls: in the franchise since she’s a protective and smart character who’s willing to fight tooth and nail to save a child. This movie also gave us the best portrayal of Loomis as the character is more intense, slightly unhinged and his relentless crusade to stop “pure evil” gave this sequel high-stakes gravitas.
“Halloween 4” also delivers some suspense-filled stand-out moments that might also be some of the best in the franchise. There’s an early encounter at a gas station/diner on the highway where Loomis tracks Myers down. As soon as Loomis spots Myers, he opens fire without hesitation, which immediately sets a high-stakes tone and establishes Loomis’ relentless desperation to put Myers down.
There’s quite a a few others, such as an intense and suspenseful rooftop chase, a scene where Michael Myers sabotages Haddonfield’s power and an awesome, tense showdown at the end where they try to run Myers down with a pickup truck and the police get involved. The biggest stand-out moment is definitely the unexpected ending (if you’re a first time viewer) and without spoiling anything, it’s definitely one of the best endings in the overall series.
Audience response to “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” has been largely positive among horror fans, who welcomed the return to the iconic killer after the fan backlash to “Season of the Witch.” While contemporary critics felt the movie was a rushed, un-inspired, re-tread of John Carpenter’s classic, modern audiences evaluate it much favorably. Fans appreciate its gloomy, rural autumn landscapes, its electronic score and its status as a peak, highly efficient late 1980’s slasher.
MPA: Rated R (running time 88 minutes)
Initial release date: October 21, 1988
Streaming: AMC+/various PVOD services (as of working on this review)
Just so Danielle Harris wouldn't be scared, George P. Wilbur would often lift up his mask between takes to remind her that they were just making a movie and that he was not really going to hurt her.
The girl Lindsey who drove Rachel and Jamie to the discount mart was going to be revealed as Lindsey Wallace from Halloween (1978) and have a larger part in the film as Rachel's friend and helping her babysit Jamie, but that was cut for budget reasons. The third boy hanging out with Brady and Wade in the drug store was meant to be Tommy Doyle from the original film.
Dwight H. Little did extensive research on the history of Halloween and many of its harvest images were put in the creepy opening sequence.
Series creator John Carpenter wrote a treatment for this film that had a more ghostly psychological approach to the Michael Myers mythos. It concerned the town of Haddonfield and what effect the events of the first two films had on its citizens. This concept was later rejected by the producers in favor of the typical slasher fare, at which point Carpenter left out of the film, making this the first in the series to have no participation from him.
In the original script the opening shot was of a long hospital corridor suddenly blowing up and throwing Loomis from the explosion, in a reference to the end of Halloween II (1981). In order to show how Loomis survived. It was later decided the film should not have any connections to the previous two films and the explosive opening was never shot. Director Dwight Little later explained: "We decided only to reference the first movie. I think the reason was we didn't want to get tied up with a lot of logic police questions with Michael and exactly what happened to Dr. Loomis. Alan studied it very carefully. So we knew that if we hit any landmines or made any big mistakes he'd catch it. But I didn't really want to be influenced, artistically, by anything other than Halloween (1978)."
In late 1986 The Cannon Group (producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus) contracted producer Debra Hill and director John Carpenter to work on a screenplay for a new Halloween film to be titled "Halloween IV," as they were interested in optioning the rights, much like Cannon had for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986). Cannon did not like the treatment that Carpenter and Hill turned in and ultimately decided not to produce the film. Shortly afterwards Carpenter and Hill sold all their remaining interest in the "Halloween" series to producer Moustapha Akkad, who promptly developed this film with a completely new script, fashioned around the slasher film boom of the 1980s.
In the schoolhouse, Michael's mask appears, briefly, with blonde hair. This mask was the original type chosen for the film. However, it was decided to go with a design with brown hair, resulting in re-shoots. The mask with brown hair was chosen to match the style seen in the first two films in the series, with the blonde-haired mask appearing only in the schoolhouse sequence.
The H4 mask has received a primarily mixed reaction from fans. Many have stated that the mask's appearance is too blank. Some have found its expression to be more clown-like than the original. The quality of the mask has also been criticized as it appears more flimsy than the others. Others have praised its emotionless "manufactured" style look, citing its similarity to cheaper store bought masks.
Many of the pictures in Jamie's (Danielle Harris) shoe box are of her mother, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). One of which is actually a production still of Curtis on the set of Halloween (1978), during the filming of Laurie leaving her house, en route to Tommy's.
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