Including sequels, remakes and sequels to remakes, there have been ten Halloween movies so far. But let’s face it, there’s only one truly great film there – the original, John Carpenter classic.
That being said, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers stands out as the second best film in the entire series. Intended to revitalize the brand, following the unsuccessful, Michael Myers-free Halloween III, the 1988 sequel -- released ten years after the first film -- did what the title promised and brought back the masked serial killer. With Jamie Lee Curtis’ days fighting her onscreen brother behind her (for the time being), her character was killed off-screen, as Michael set his sights on his niece, a young girl given the in-joke name of Jamie (Danielle Harris).
Halloween 4 may be operating in the shadow of the original, but it’s a lot of fun in its own right. Screenwriter Alan B. McElroy and director Dwight Little go against the grain when it comes to several horror movie cliches, in very appreciated ways.
Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) returns as well, once again laser focused on finding Michael. And when he tells Haddonfield’s new sheriff, Meeker (Beau Starr) about Michael’s return, instead of spending the next hour of the film saying, "Yeah, right! You're crazy!", Meeker actually immediately decides to play it safe, goes to investigate and puts a curfew into effect. And while their portrayal might be a bit over the top, the lynch mob that is formed by a bunch of over-zealous locals is also a nice touch that was rarely used in slasher films at that point, which usually managed to keep the killer away from any sort of large groupings of people, outside his intended victims.
Best of all, the film delivers a truly great twist ending, which is creepy and surprising and seemed to hint at either a bold new direction for the series, or a satisfying, full circle conclusion. (All of which, alas, would be undermined by the very weak Halloween 5)
Danielle Harris deserves a lot of credit for her work in Halloween 4. It's hard to find truly believable child actors in general, and in the realm of a film like this, it's easy to expect the worst, yet she is very credible and relatable and took an idea that probably had some fans cringing -- a little girl as the hero of a Halloween sequel! -- and made it work. The rest of the cast is strong for this sort of material too, and the film is a well-crafted one start to finish. All in all, Halloween 4 did a solid job of showing that Michael Myers still had what it took to make for a fun night of movie scares. And even the sillier and campier moments, including the likes of "Jamie's an orphan! Jamie's an orphan!” and “S**t Earl, that’s Ted Hollister!” are memorable ones.
This is the first time Halloween 4 has been released on Blu-ray, though Anchor Bay used a then-new remastered HD film transfer of Halloween 4 for its second DVD release in 2006. At the time, I was quite impressed by how good it looked, and this Blu-ray is another notable upgrade. For a 24 year old, low budget slasher movie, Halloween 4 looks very clean and clear and perhaps better than it ever has. The sound isn’t quite up to par, but is serviceable enough.
The extras are all ported over from previous DVD releases with one notable exception: a new audio commentary with director Dwight Little and Justin Beahm (editor-in-chief of halloweenmovies.com and author of the upcoming Halloween: The Complete Authorized History). For fans, it’s a very good listen and it was very helpful to have a fan like Beahm present, as he asks questions of Little throughout, keeping the discussion going.
The ported over extras include a fun commentary with Harris and costar Ellie Cornell, a Halloween 4 and 5 panel discussion from 2003 and the film’s trailer.
So here’s the complaints: It’s a shame that two notable extras from previous releases are not included here, including the 2001 Making Of (also included on the 2006 DVD), which was a well done featurette. And the 2006 DVD release debuted a very strong commentary by Alan B. McElroy I was particularly disappointed didn’t make it over to the Blu-ray. Which is to say, completists will want to hold on to that 2006 DVD! The early press release for this release not only promised the McElroy commentary, but also 30 minutes of deleted scenes, but those are MIA.
However, that being said, the extras provided here are still solid ones in and of themselves, especially if you didn't have the 2006 DVD. And this is a very well done presentation of Halloween 4, a film which still stands out as a noteworthy high point both among this series specifically and also among the bevy of 1980s slasher sequels it was a part of.
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers will be released on Blu-ray on Tuesday, August 21st.
Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.
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