Ten years after the events of "Halloween" and "Halloween II" (which both took place on Halloween night, 1978), Michael Myers escapes captivity a second time and again returns to his hometown in Illinois with a direly concerned Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) hot on his trail. Myers goes after his sister's daughter, Jamie, and is willing to take down the whole town of Haddonfield if necessary."Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers" (1988) ranks with the best 80's slasher flicks and is actually superior to the somewhat overrated progenitor of the genre, "Halloween" (1978). Whereas the original "Halloween" was an effective low-key but classy slasher and deserves credit for starting the craze, it wasn't without flaws and "Halloween 4" (1.) fixes those issues and (2.) improves upon its strengths.For instance, while the original movie takes place during Halloween in Illinois, you certainly wouldn't know this by the footage since it clearly looks like summer. This movie, by contrast, definitely looks like it takes place during the fall and has an all-around superior Halloween ambiance with trick-or-treaters and so forth. Another example is the original's lack of drive and the fact that Michael only kills a few teenagers and doesn't seem all that formidable whilst this film features a mounting build-up of suspense and potently conveys Michael's deadly formidableness while upping the ante in the body count.Other advances includes the lack of lame dialogue (like in the original when the girls were walking home) and Dr. Loomis has much more interesting things to do than lurk in the bushes by the Myer's dilapidated abode speaking ridiculously ominous words. When Loomis speaks portentously in this entry there's great reason to believe him (take, for instance, what happens to the Police Station).Yet another (arguable) improvement is the women: Although Jamie Lee Curtis, Nancy Kyes (Loomis) and PJ Soles were fine in the original, "Halloween 4" has winsome Ellie Cornell as Rachel and hottie Kathleen Kinmont as Kelly and the movie wisely takes advantage of their presence in a classy way. Rachel may not strike you as anything special at first, but as the story progresses she emerges as an attractive and noble final girl.The "Friday the 13th" franchise debuted two years after "Halloween" in 1980; and by October, 1988, when this film was released, the "Friday" franchise had no less than seven films under its belt. Meanwhile, "Halloween 4" was only the third Michael Myers movie (keeping in mind that "Halloween 3" was curiously disconnected from the Michael Myers mythos)."Friday the 13th" of course ripped-off "Halloween," but simultaneously added original components to the genre (e.g. summer camp and everything revolving around it, easily the best females in the slasher genre, as well as an increasingly devolving supernatural killing machine). "Halloween 4" sort of gets its revenge by borrowing from the "Friday" films; for instance, the character of Jamie Lloyd and what happens to her mirrors Tommy Jarvis' story arc from 3-4 years earlier. Perhaps the greatest revenge is that "Halloween 4" is better than any of the "Friday" sequels after "Part 2" and is at least as effective as "Part 2."The original "Halloween" was shot in the Los Angeles area (South Pasadena & Hollywood) while this one was filmed in the Salt Lake City, Utah, region. Like the first film, it's streamlined and doesn't overstay its welcome.GRADE: A

It's quite humorous when you think about it. Halloween III tried to be completely different from the original Halloween which resulted in pissed off fans, and Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers tried to be nearly the same as the original Halloween but still resulted in pissed off fans like myself. The only difference between Halloween 4 and the original, is that this reimagining is drastically worse. They should've just called this one "John Carpenter's Halloween: Mediocre Edition" if I'm being frank. The newer films simply can't capture the raw and evenly paced direction that at least the first two entries enticed. With that aside, I'm glad they at least beefed up Michael Myers in this one. This is the #1 Myers you don't want to mess around with. Well, that aside Austin Powers.Also, the ending was cute as hell. You'll know what I'm talking about if you've seen the film.

No Carpenter and Co., Laurie Strode is dead and her kid is now a target. Ah, and yes... people weren't thrilled with Halloween III so they scraped the whole anthology angle and went straight to sequel after sequel.None of the main characters are interesting, Loomis is a madman that just drones the same thing over and over and everything feels and looks kinda shitty and cheap.Honestly, whole franchise takes a hard nose splattering dive from here. Timeline gets screwed up, things get recycled into oblivion, and having a kid as a main target, everything is bland and not scary.Ending is also pretty infuriatingly cheap. But, believe it or not, still not the worst movie in the franchise. It's just bland and uninteresting.

Yes he has returned, because that's what the fans wanted, but Michael Myers has returned in a pretty average, but still kind of satisfying sequel, that could have been better, if John Carpenter or Jamie Lee Curtis, were involved, they are not, and the movie sort of sufferers for it. Danielle Harris is very good in the lead, and Donald Pleasence is always fun as Dr.Loomis. The problem with movie is probably the director, really didn't know what he was doing. The idea of putting Michael Myers hiding in the backseat of a car, and the guy driving doesn't notice, is pretty ridiculous if you think about it, Michael Myers is not a small guy. Also some of the slow motion shots are unnecessary, and sort cheesy, and some of the characters are pretty dumb, especially the vigilante group, who turn out to be worst than Myers. Halloween 4 is not scary at all, but it's still kind of fun to sit through. Some deaths are good, some deaths are even pretty gruesome. But the film still feels kind of empty for some reason, like the guy behind the camera is not really excited about directing a Halloween movie. It doesn't really have a style like the 3 Halloween movies before it, nothing inspired in its look, it just looks bleak, period. I don't like the Michael Myers mask look, the gun shots sound weird to me, the explosion at the gas station should have of been louder, instead it sounds, like it went mute there for a second, and no one bothered to fix that problem, very strange. And how do the cops know if Myers is in one place, if they are clearly in another, and no one can tell them that Myers is over there, this happens close to the end, I just don't get it. But Harris and Pleasence's performances are truly worth watching, and the one thing that really stands out here, is the very haunting, extremely effective ending that really sells this movie here, and if the producers had any brains, could have made a really great part 5 of it,using this exact idea, instead Halloween 5 is downright terrible. But Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers, is still entertaining, and sort of fun, see for what it is, which is not much. This could have been better, but I still liked it.