Trick or Trailers: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

Even though the original Halloween was still regarded as the gold standard of the slasher genre, by the late '80s the competition had left Michael Myers behind. While the Halloween franchise had spent most of the decade languishing, Jason and Freddy had racked up body counts, sequels and multiple Fangoria covers. But for the tenth anniversary of Carpenter's classic, producer Moustapha Akkad was out to reestablish Michael's boogeyman cred. In the fall of '88, the long-awaited return of Michael Myers was finally due to hit theaters.

When the trailer was released, it had everything that fans had been waiting for, save for the return of Jamie Lee Curtis. The message was clear: Halloween was back, with none of that Silver Shamrock crap.  

 

After so long away, having a "real" Halloween movie again, with Michael back as the OG slasher was cause for celebration. While the fact that he kept coming back eventually made his return a case of "beware what you wish for," back then it was a legitimate thrill when 4 was released. All the better for the fact that 4 felt like it was assembled with real care rather than being just a crass cash in.  

After 4, the series frequently struggled to maintain the same level of quality but back in October of '88, it was exciting to be a Halloween fan. At the time, returning to what made Halloween work felt as natural as Loomis slipping back into his familiar trench coat again. 

Trick or Trailers: Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988)

The fact that this year marks the 35th anniversary of John Carpenter's Halloween has been just cause for celebration. However, the fact that this year also marks the 25th anniversary of Halloween 4 hasn't gotten nearly as much notice. Subtitled The Return of Michael Myers, this was an effort on the part of Moustapha Akkad to save the series, after the Michael Myers-free Halloween III: Season of the Witch had been roundly rejected.

From a commercial standpoint, going back to basics was an excellent call on Akkad's part and while subsequent entries might've made fans wish that Michael could be permanently retired, 4 was a very good effort all around. For me, it's the pinnacle of the Myers sequels. Director Dwight Little is no John Carpenter but he did an admirable job just the same. The atmosphere is dead on, the suspense is effective, and there's a clear reverence for the original.

Alan McElroy's script picks up where II left off, building on the familial aspects that Carpenter's screenplay introduced in II, but without burdening his screenplay with the kind of mystical mumbo-jumbo that 5 & 6 went for. And the cast is terrific, populated with a set of genuinely likeable young protagonists (why Ellie Cornell's career never took off, I don't get) and topped by the irreplaceable Donald Pleasence.

I'm predisposed to having fond memories of 4 because it was the first installment of the series I was able to see in the theater but I think by any objective standard this remains the gold standard of the series. If they were going to continue the saga of Michael Myers, this showed how to do it right and bringing back Pleasence as Loomis was the real masterstroke. While it would've been easy to leave the character dead, having Loomis miraculously survive an explosion that should've reduced him to ash was the smartest decision anyone involved in this film made, giving it a stamp of legitimacy. As soon as you saw Pleasence ranting about Michael in the trailers and TV spots for this, you knew Halloween was on again.