Halloween 4 - Dark Lord's DVD Collection.

"I'm telling you Michael Myers is here, in this town! He's here to kill that little girl and anybody who gets in his way!" - Dr. Loomis

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Halloween 4 Year of Release - 1988
DVD Release - Anchor Bay - 1999
Region 1 - NTSC - Rated R
Running Time - 88:08

Director: Dwight H. Little
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris
Music: Alan Howarth

John Carpenter intended for Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis to die at the end of Halloween II, as evidenced by Halloween III.

Some would say that the Producer, Moustapha Akkad, bringing them back for Halloween 4 was a cynical exercise in money-making. Sure, that may be true, but Halloween 4 saved itself by actually being good.

SYNOPSIS

Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur) and Dr. Loomis (Pleasence) are alive, both having survived the fatal explosion at the end of Halloween II (figure that one out) ten years earlier.

Michael, during a transfer to another facility (Is it me or is it a coincidence that he is always transferred to other facilities on Halloween Eve?) overhears one of the ambulance staff mention that Michael has a living relative - a niece. Big mistake, buddy. Michael kills him in an amusing fashion and escapes imprisonment yet again! Dr. Loomis gets wind of it and he knows where Michael is heading. Haddonfield, Illinois.

Yes, Michael Myers does indeed have a niece. Laurie Strode had a daughter, Jamie, before she "died in a car accident" (see Halloween H20 for the reason for quotation marks...). Jamie Lloyd (Harris) is adopted by the Carruthers family. Jamie is having nightmares about a big bloke in mechanic's overalls and a white mask (guess who?), is teased at school, and in general is not a happy kid.

The only real happiness Jamie has, comes from her adopted family, especially her sister Rachel (Cornell). They have a strong relationship - they are like real sisters.

It's Halloween and Rachel has to baby-sit Jamie, so they decide to get Jamie a costume for the trick-or-treating after they finish school. They go to the department store for the costume, plus it gives Rachel to talk to her boyfriend Brady (Sasha Jenson), to tell him that their date is off.

While Rachel and Brady have a tiff, Jamie selects a rather familiar Clown costume. Jamie sees the man from her nightmares in the costume shop and screams. Rachel gets to her, but the man, if he was really there at all, has disappeared by then.

Meanwhile, Dr. Loomis arrives in Haddonfield and manges to convince the Sherriff (Beau Starr) that Michael Myers really has come back home.

All the pieces are in place. Michael Myers has tracked down his niece, Jamie and Ellie will be alone for the night, and Dr. Loomis is on the warpath. Let the terror commence!

VIDEO

The transfer is in 1.85:1 and is 16:9 enhanced. It's in very good shape. There is a little grain, but it's barely noticeable, and there are practically no artefacts. I give this tranfer an "A", that's for sure.

The Director of Photography for Halloween 4 was Peter Lyons Collister. He does a great job of preserving the feel of Dean Cundey's atmosphere of the frist two Halloween films.

AUDIO

There are two audio tracks, one being in Dolby 5.1 and the other in Dolby Surround 2.0. Though I would have liked to have had a Commentary by Little and Harris, or something like that.

Alan Howarth preserves the Carpenter-like sound for Halloween 4, having worked closely with John Carpenter scoring other films.

EXTRAS

Halloween 4: The Final Cut - Featurette

This is a great Featurette made specifically for the DVD. At a running time of 16:47, it has interviews with Dwight H. Little, Moustapha Akkad, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris and others. They took the effort to make this Featurette for the DVD, but didn't bother doing a Commentary... The mind boggles.

Theatrical Trailer

This 01:34 trailer is in 1.85:1 and is of very good video and audio quality.

OVERALL

Halloween 4 is probably my favourite of the Halloween sequels. It has one of the best endings to a Horror film ever. Yes, I do like Halloween 4.

Donald Pleasence really cranks up the obsession in this one, which continues througout the following sequels. The obsession has even more impact for Dr. Loomis given the ending and there isn't enough praise to afford Pleasence over his performance.

Danielle Harris is probably the only American child actor I don't want to throttle when I watch them. She is incredibly genuine and she isn't annoying! Truly a revelation! And, boy, has she grown up...

Ellie Cornell does a great job of filling the "Jamie Lee Curtis" role of the responsible, intelligent, resourceful, yet still helpless heroine. Cornell, now Ellie Gottwald, co-owns and runs her own production company with her husband, Mindfire Entertainment, which produced the film Free Enterprise.

Dwight H. Little has managed to direct a very creepy film. The atmosphere is very much like the first two Halloween films.

Halloween 4 was a box-office success, and while I usually don't take notice of the box-office as the sign of a good film (just look at Titanic for a start), it is an indication on how much the public loved the character of Michael Myers.

As I said earlier, it helped that the movie itself was very good.

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is a great film and worthy sequel, with a strong story, competent acting performances and one of the greatest endings ever.

The DVD is of excellent quality, but there could have been more extras.

The Film: 1/2
The Disk: