Halloween Retrospective: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Halloween Retrospective | #4 | Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

After Halloween III, it tooks 6 years for the franchise to get back on its feet. It eventually did so in the form of Dwight H. Little’s Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. It is, as you might have guessed, following the return of Michael Myers to Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween night ten years after the events of Halloween and Halloween II. Somehow, he survived the ending of Halloween II (as did Dr. Loomis) and remained catatonic – until, that is, he learns of his one surviving relative; his eight year old niece Jamie Lloyd, Laurie Strode’s daughter. Laurie Strode herself died between the events of the films (read: Jamie Lee Curtis didn’t want to return).

This film marks the beginning of a trilogy of films, ending with 1995’s Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. These three are among the most panned in the franchise, and there are definitely some things in this one that suggest a decline in quality. Michael Myers has always supposed to resemble an unstoppable force of nature rather than a person, but it takes that idea perhaps a bit too far in this one, as he survives a frankly ridiculous amount of blows and even seems to at one point completely teleport to avoid a gunshot. There’s also a much hokier, melodramatic approach to a lot of the plot developments and scares that really contrast with the grounded, minimalistic approach of the original film. Plus, it just has a sense of sequelitis-induced redundancy that so many of these slasher sequels wind up having eventually.

All that aside, though… I actually enjoyed this one quite a lot.

The most striking thing to me is that, unlike so many slasher and horror sequels, the world has actually been affected by the events of previous films. The slaughter of so many people left a wound on Haddonfield that can be still felt. When Dr. Loomis shows up again, the police remember what happened before and immediately take his word, declaring a town-wide curfew and holding Jamie up in a safe house to prevent civilians from getting caught in the crossfire. Upon hearing the name Michael Myers, a gang of vigilantes forms, led by adults whose children and relatives died in his previous killing spree. These trigger happy locals roam the town and create even more chaos, throwing at least one extra wrench in the plan.

It’s genuinely refreshing to see the town respond like this. There are so many bad horror sequels where the world doesn’t seem to have been affected by their predecessors at all. Here, it makes the world feel more interesting and immersive, and also makes it feel like a genuine story. As far as that goes, it also seems to take a more symbolic approach to the idea of Michael Myers; a villain that everyone claims is taken care of but is ultimately inevitable. One whom the adults in the film seem helpless to protect the children against, despite their claims to be able to keep them safe. The Return of Michael Myers seems to be poising Michael Myers as a force of trauma; of representing the loss of innocence, the wounds of family, the scenes that repeat themselves over and over in a survivor’s head no matter how much they try and stop it. There’s actually a really great line early on that sticks with me; “You can’t kill damnation, mister. It don’t die like a man dies.” It all leads up to an excellent cliffhanger ending that nails this idea down and provides one of Donald Pleasance’s best scenes in the franchise.

Perhaps I’m looking a little too deep into it, and this definitely isn’t the masterpiece that the original was. It’s sometimes pretty hokey and by the numbers. But at other times it really shines, such as an incredibly tense and memorable third act and a genuinely compelling dynamic between Jamie and her adopted sister Rachel. The Halloween franchise has yet to have it’s Dream Warriors, but honestly I’ve enjoyed all of the sequels so far, and this is probably one of my favorites yet.