Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers-1988

Director Dwight H. Little

Starring Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell

Scott’s Review #1,312

Reviewed October 27, 2022

Grade: B

Give me a good slasher flick any day, and I’m a pretty happy guy.

Especially if it’s one from the Halloween franchise (my favorite series other than Friday the 13th, naturally), and viewed around the demonic holiday is the perfect flavor.

There is so much atmosphere to embrace with pumpkins, masks, and trick-or-treaters nestled seemingly safe in a small town ripe for the picking by a knife-wielding maniac.

By 1988, though, the slasher genre had severely waned, feeling redundant amid watered-down sequels and copycat patterns, resulting in a stale crop of films.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) is an okay film and a worthy entry to the franchise. It is most notable for correcting what many fans considered a terrible mistake.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) omitted maniacal Michael Myers entirely, which made many fans seethe with rage, so Part 4 corrects this miss by adding his name to the title card.

John Carpenter and Debra Hill, the main contributors to the original Halloween (1978), were not involved, so executive producer Moustapha Akkad went for a conventional, safe route, creating a standard slice-em-and-dice-em affair.

The allegedly comatose Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur) is being transferred from one hospital to another. Still, he wakes up when the ambulance crew chatters about his surviving niece, Jamie (Danielle Harris).

Out for fresh blood, he slaughters his attendants and sets out to find his one living relative, who is being cared for by a kind and resourceful foster sister named Rachel (Ellie Cornell).

Meanwhile, the ever-cautious Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) remains on the killer’s path, intent on destroying the monster once and for all.

The overall tone of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is by-the-numbers, offering an experience that would satisfy only fans of the franchise and would not dare ruffle any feathers or attract new fanatics.

Even the premise of Myers escaping a hospital and targeting a family member is identical to the original film and its sequel. The familiar Haddonfield Hospital and Smith’s Grove Sanitarium return like good friends not seen for years.

There are no points given for originality, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, Halloween III tried to reinvent the wheel and was largely derided for its efforts.

I liked the film, and I like Part 4 for different reasons.

Myers is front and center with his pointy butcher knife and hulking frame, and that’s pleasing and comforting. The mask is a bit paler and his height shorter, but it’s the same Michael we all know and love.

Missing is Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, presumed dead, but the return of Pleasence is a major win, as he takes center stage and has more screen time than he ever has as Loomis. Scarred and looking older and more withered, he is even more determined to best Myers.

In a neat little twist, Michael looks to pass his killing baton to his niece as she attempts to butcher her stepmom, similar to what Michael did to his sister many years earlier.

Borrowing heavily from its predecessors, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) is satisfying but not revolutionary.

There are enough nods to history combined with a new batch of teenagers to make ground and continue the legacy.