Halloween IV (1988) - To Conclude

One final post on the blog. I don't think I will have anything else to add...

There are scenes here and there that amused me. I did like that this particular film follows Jamie trick-or-treating, with night scenes in neighborhoods. The kids that mock and poke mean-spirited fun at Jamie inside the school while dressed up already in their costumes (liked the Frankenstein Monster mask!) just deciding to be nice to her during Halloween night left me always baffled…why the 180? Jamie and Rachel separating, having to reunite with a bunch of immature pranksters in white masks freaking Loomis and Meeker the fuck out on different sides of street, and as the police car pulls away, the real Michael standing in the middle of the street, darkened in shadow looking on. The police station with its dead officers and a disheveled and chaotic (and blood-smeared) wreck of a place revealing just what Michael is capable of reminded me of such classics as “The Terminator” and “The Hitcher”. Michael, the boogeyman, appearing as a “Nightmare Man” to Jamie, always distorted in mirrors (like the broken one Jamie backs up to while in a department store) or either there or not according to when Michael gets to Haddonfield, Director Little tries to give him a different kind of superhuman aura. With Loomis saying, “He’s no man,” to Sheriff Meeker as they conduct their search of the police station, in shambles with torn apart bodies, Director Little and screenwriter, Alan B McElroy (there were at least four involved in the story’s creation), attempt to build Myers as an unstoppable force that won’t be denied.

Jamie choosing the clown costume, a nice callback to the first film, plays into the much-debated and polarizing twist at the end. I like the clown costume but I never felt her “replacing” Michael was ever going to be truly accepted although some felt it was a refreshing jolt. If “Friday the 13^th: A New Beginning” (1985) proved that trying to mix things up would result in backlash, I’m surprised anyone concocting the end of “The Return of Michael Myers” didn’t see it coming. Altering the formula always seemed to earn the ire of franchise fans who wanted things to stay exactly as they are. Once again the fifth film tries to add a little something new to the Myers mystique, but there wasn’t another Halloween film until 1995 (and even that struggled to gain footing with its own identity). The franchise with its reboots and reimaginings and sequels ad infinitum…attempts to freshen up the formula or even tell a different story continue into 2020.

*Loomis leaving the Meeker house for Rachel’s home because he thinks Michael might be there is another retreat of Halloween (1978) when he figured Myers would most likely return to his old digs. What this did was move him out of the picture so Michael could get rid of Kelly, Brady, and his one last police officer (shotgun into torso, sticking babe Kinmont to the wall, recalling Halloween (1978) when Bob was stabbed to the wall, crushed neck (and thumb to the cheek) to Jenson, and broken body (arm completely twisted behind the back) of the cop, taking his place in a rocking chair) and pursue Rachel and Jamie, who must leave through the attic and onto the roof. Recalling “Friday the 13^th Part IV: The Final Chapter”, where Beck goes off a balcony to the ground, Rachel tries to hang on but loses her grip and falls to the ground below. Both unconscious, later to try and come to the rescue of children in peril.

*Michael’s mask is no longer the infamous painted Shatner mask…I wouldn’t have a problem with it if the cover of the fourth film didn’t advertise the classic mask we are familiar with. I kind of like the idea of changing it…why would that same mask be available in a department store in 1988 anyway?

*Michael getting through a checkpoint unnoticed by state troopers is ridiculous. He somehow hangs out outside a moving truck, emerges inside the bed, throws off all the local bar patrons turned lynch mob (that kill a citizen, mistaking him for Michael), grabs a hold of the driver’s neck, ripping it apart, trying to grab Rachel and get at Jamie. One of several moments (like Meeker leaving the house to find all the hunters out pursuing Myers, essentially putting his daughter in danger) that are a bit questionable. Michael standing in front of the moving truck waiting for Rachel to run him over, another example of confusing plotting. And to add one final odd plot development, an entire force gunning down Michael, with his “evil transference” seemingly “possessing” Jamie through the touch of his hand.

*Unlike Parts 1 & 2, Loomis is inconsequential to the reign of Michael’s terror in Part 4. His guesses, including a lure to the school, dragging Jamie along with him, don’t have any impact whatsoever.

*Little does mimic the opening of the first film none too badly, but again it was never going to sit well with franchise fans. The music of the opening credits as the closing credits start up is a nice palate cleanser if you didn’t like the final scene.