The Halloween series had many twist and
turns since the first Halloween leapt on the screens back in 1978. It spawned
a decent sequel and a bizarre third entry that tried to shed the Michael Myers character from the series. After the third film, the rights Debra Hill and John Carpenter has in the series were sold off and this
led to the variety of sequels ad remakes in varying degrees of quality. HALLOWEEN
4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS was the first of those films. It had its connections
to the first two films and it begun 10 years after the first two films. Michael
Myers aka The Shape escapes after 10 years of imprisonment in maximum security in a mental institution to kill again in Haddonfield
on Halloween night and stalk his niece Jamie (Danielle Harris who would appear in the fifth film and the two Rob Zombie remakes). Donald Pleasance would have somewhat of a role in HALLOWEEN 4 only to be more
important in HALLOWEEN 5.
The sequel makes for good rental store
fodder or a good scary movie watch if slasher movies are your choice for a horror movie marathon. The sequels suffered from a variety of factors where this one and the following two sequels suffered from
script rewrites and producer interference (HALLOWEEN 6: THE CURSE OF MICHALE MYERS is the biggest case of this tinkering which
resulted in two different versions of the film that are very different from each other).
I liked the twist at the end. Too bad the producers killed the idea for
HALLOWEEN 5 and Danielle Harris was psyched for the idea.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-ray carries almost everything
from the DVD release except for the making-of documentary from the Divimax DVD. Also there is the curious absence of the 30
minutes of deleted scenes that Anchor
Bay announced and mysteriously decided not to include after making the announcement
for the blu-ray.
Audio commentary with actors Ellie
Cornell and Danielle Harris
Audio commentary with Dwight H Little
and author Justin Beahm
HALLOWEEN 4/5 DISCUSSION PANEL
Original theatrical trailer
FINAL ANALYSIS: HALLOWEEN 4: THE RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS has its moments as a slasher film, but it is a shadow of the first
two films and the next entry has more action in it. The extras are disappointing
since Anchor Bay decided not to port
over all extras from the DVD and they left the announced deleted scenes out without an explanation.
This review is (c)10-29-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com
