“Horror has returned to Haddonfield” Synopsis: Ten years after his original massacre, the invalid Michael Myers awakens on Halloween Eve and returns to Haddonfield to kill his seven-year-old niece. Can Dr. Loomis stop him?

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Calamity Brains:

As retcons go, Halloween 4 isn’t terrible. Unfortunately, it’s also not particularly exciting.

Rather than bring Jamie Lee Curtis back in a fan-favorite role, the filmmakers instead opted to kill off Laurie Strode and focus the story on her now-orphaned daughter, Jamie (Danielle Harris). Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasance) return in their eternal game of cat and mouse as Michael hunts down his niece. The plot is a bit thin here; it’s unclear how Michael would even know he had a niece, much less where she was (as she has been adopted out). But seeing a child in peril is sure to tug a few heartstrings, and Dr. Loomis in his self-assured quest is always a pleaser.

Still, Halloween 4 lacks some of the atmosphere the first movie did well. The tension levels throughout the movie are hit or miss, especially as this entry has Michael immediately losing the element of surprise as all relevant parties are warned of his presence pretty early on. Still, he manages a few interesting kills and some surprisingly involved chase scenes, considering the youth of his prey.

My real gripe with Halloween 4 is the ending. I won’t spoil it here for those few who haven’t seen it, but the setup is fairly lazy and it seems very out of character for those involved. It’s also unclear why the filmmakers would take the angle they do, being as the reason to retcon the series in the first place was that Michael himself was so popular. (If you’re going to do service to the fans, you may as well go all out and keep the focus on their darlings.)

Halloween 4 is still watchable, and has a few good moments. It’s not a bad piece of work for a retcon…. but it’s also not great.

Calamity Brains’ Rating: B-
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