Mikey's Return: Michael Myers Week
The Return of Michael Myers is a film I remember seeing on video as a kid when I was starting to get my feet wet in horror. These kinds of films are a nice shallow water to the big deep. This isn't Hellraiser, which was one of the litmus tests for my generation in terms of what you could handle. But it is a stepping stone, just the same.
Anyway, I left a blog post for the credits and mentioned Beau Starr in another so those are done.
I wanted to mention that I felt the fifth film was more stylish, but Little has his moments, too. I think the way Michael appears to Jamie (his niece) as The Nightmare Man is well done. I liked the scene in the discount store, for instance, and the way he appears in her first scene, in the bedroom. I didn't think the diner scene with Loomis worked, though. Loomis sees Michael, never taking his eyes away, telling him not to go to Haddonfield. He draws his weapon and Michael isn't there with Loomis shooting at nothing. I think Little wanted to make Michael seemingly *more than a man*, a personification, but for some reason it just felt like bad continuity. I could be the only one who felt that way, though. Still, overall, Little establishes that Michael is more than some crazed silent predatory murderous thug. Still, I felt this is little more than Jason Voorhees in Michael Myer clothes. There is one clever lighting choice right out of the first Halloween, where the face of the white mask can be seen at a distance in another room as Rachel (Jamie's relative *big sister*) wants to know from Meeker's deputy when they will be able to leave. He's in the house!
One of those lasting annoyances is how those involved in the making of the film had to get Meeker and Loomis out of the house just so that anyone inside can be easier to kill by Mikey. The posse that forms (something right out of Universal Monster Movies) when they hear of Michael's return (as if he were the Frankenstein's Monster) and see what has happened to Meeker's men. Loomis goes to the house where Jamie lives (right out of Halloween when Loomis goes to the old Myers house) which is rather head-scratching considering Michael *always* goes right where he needs to. Loomis should know this.
There are times where I think the guy behind the Myers persona is okay but when Michael puts Meeker's daughter through a wall with a shotgun, he doesn't even admire his handiwork. The way she is killed is very similar to how Michael put a strong teenage male into a wall with a butcher knife in Carpenter's film. But he just doesn't quite get it right.
Little makes Michael one strong mother, though. He lifts another healthy male in Part 4 (Sasha Jensen) off his feet, crushing his throat and multiple times buries a thumb into a poor soul's face. He has grace in his feet the way he can walk the tops of roofs, too.
Great scene at the top of Meeker's house where Jamie and Rachel are trying to get away from Michael. The conclusion is once again, this attempt, later to be aborted, of a change in the franchise with Jamie "substituting" as Michael. Learning from the mistake (which I think wasn't) of how those looking for Michael's return in Part 3 were pissed, you'd think the ending of Part 4 would get a clue.
Anyway, I left a blog post for the credits and mentioned Beau Starr in another so those are done.
I wanted to mention that I felt the fifth film was more stylish, but Little has his moments, too. I think the way Michael appears to Jamie (his niece) as The Nightmare Man is well done. I liked the scene in the discount store, for instance, and the way he appears in her first scene, in the bedroom. I didn't think the diner scene with Loomis worked, though. Loomis sees Michael, never taking his eyes away, telling him not to go to Haddonfield. He draws his weapon and Michael isn't there with Loomis shooting at nothing. I think Little wanted to make Michael seemingly *more than a man*, a personification, but for some reason it just felt like bad continuity. I could be the only one who felt that way, though. Still, overall, Little establishes that Michael is more than some crazed silent predatory murderous thug. Still, I felt this is little more than Jason Voorhees in Michael Myer clothes. There is one clever lighting choice right out of the first Halloween, where the face of the white mask can be seen at a distance in another room as Rachel (Jamie's relative *big sister*) wants to know from Meeker's deputy when they will be able to leave. He's in the house!
One of those lasting annoyances is how those involved in the making of the film had to get Meeker and Loomis out of the house just so that anyone inside can be easier to kill by Mikey. The posse that forms (something right out of Universal Monster Movies) when they hear of Michael's return (as if he were the Frankenstein's Monster) and see what has happened to Meeker's men. Loomis goes to the house where Jamie lives (right out of Halloween when Loomis goes to the old Myers house) which is rather head-scratching considering Michael *always* goes right where he needs to. Loomis should know this.
There are times where I think the guy behind the Myers persona is okay but when Michael puts Meeker's daughter through a wall with a shotgun, he doesn't even admire his handiwork. The way she is killed is very similar to how Michael put a strong teenage male into a wall with a butcher knife in Carpenter's film. But he just doesn't quite get it right.
Little makes Michael one strong mother, though. He lifts another healthy male in Part 4 (Sasha Jensen) off his feet, crushing his throat and multiple times buries a thumb into a poor soul's face. He has grace in his feet the way he can walk the tops of roofs, too.
Great scene at the top of Meeker's house where Jamie and Rachel are trying to get away from Michael. The conclusion is once again, this attempt, later to be aborted, of a change in the franchise with Jamie "substituting" as Michael. Learning from the mistake (which I think wasn't) of how those looking for Michael's return in Part 3 were pissed, you'd think the ending of Part 4 would get a clue.
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