I'm hoping to get this all over with this weekend and focus my attention to anything else but the old franchises. I just wrapped up (again) "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" (1988). I have old user comments I'll post here. At this time, my rating for the film was 6/10. I think the film has its logic problems, sure. Anyone who has visited this blog sure knows I've commented on them aplenty. But the film has definitely grown on me. I couldn't watch it all the time if I didn't have a soft spot for it.
October 5th, 2007.
The series brings back Michael Myers, the mystique and terror of The Shape far removed. He's just some supernatural killing machine who can be anywhere he pleases and survive every scrape it seems. The Shatner mask he wears this time produces about as many chills as a Disney cartoon. The cast is pretty good, though. Michael has niece Jamie(Danielle Harris, oh so cute as the little girl..just a doll)he wishes to kill. Standing in his way, of course, Sam Loomis(Donald Pleasence)who warns Sheriff Ben Meeker(Beau Starr)that Michael has escaped from an ambulance killing the paramedics inside and is probably somewhere in Haddonfield. Michael is quite a busy man. He has time to knock out the power lines by tossing an engineer into the power grid, follows in the shadows after Jamie and foster sister Rachel(Ellie Cornell)who are trick-or-treating before accidentally separating, and sneaking into a deputy's car as he drives to the Sheriff's house for a shut-in to watch out for the killer. The film's main setting is Meeker's home where his daughter(the uber-hottie Kathleen Kinmont who knows how to where a guy's shirt)and Rachel's boyfriend Brady(Sasha Jenson of DAZED AND CONFUSED)are making out before Daddy barges in with Loomis, Rachel, Jamie all in tow. The point is to hold out for State police since Michael seemingly wiped out an entire police station as if he were the Terminator. But, despite the gang's best efforts to board up the whole house, Michael somehow can manifest himself within the place..he doesn't need an entrance way in, not Michael. My favorite portion of the film is when Rachel and Jamie are out in the neighborhoods trick-or-treating and we get a sense of what John was going for in the original..this vast area of houses where the killer could be anywhere. One great(probably the most inspired moment in the film)scene has Meeker and Loomis caught on a street..after finding Rachel and Jamie..with several men wearing Shatner masks not knowing who among them is the real Michael Myers. Sadly, though, the film barely registers past mediocrity. The kills are off-screen except when Michael plunges his finger into someone's face or forehead. The film works best, I guess, with the angle of a poor innocent child being stalked by the killer..there's a harrowing escape sequence on Meeker's roof that seems to work rather well. Good thing is that Cornell, who is cute, and Harris are both quite likable and easy to root for against the killer. My question is, does this film rise amongst the pack of the countless Friday the 13ths and slashers that came before it? Oh, and the film's little novel twist had my sides splitting..
One of my favorite sequences in the film. I always look forward to this part of the film more than almost anything else. I love Pleasence in it, and he has one of those great Loomis lines about Myers. He knew that the bloody ambulance was a sure sign of the Shape's rampage to come. That old rusting bridge is included in the new slipcover art for the Scream Factory 4K edition that came out this year. I understand why. It pops onscreen with the turned-over ambulance under it and the fog. You don't have to see Michael paint that ambulance red. All you have to see is the aftermath.
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| I should have included the blurred pumpkin behind her |
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| One of my favorite shots in the film |
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| Kinmont is just stunning and sexy in this scene |
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