Banana A Day – Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

After the poor reception of Season of the Witch, Michael Myers returns in the aptly named Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers. Even though Michael was shot seven, eight times, then lit on fire by Laurie Strode and Dr. Loomis he did not die. For ten years Myers is kept alive by life support in the basement of a sanatorium. On the day before Halloween he is to be moved to a different sanatorium. Unfortunately evil never rests even if it has been dormant for a decade. After hearing that Laurie Strode had a daughter Michael snaps out of his coma and heads back to Hadonfield to finish what he tried to do ten years previous. Fortunately Dr. Loomis has yet to retire and he immediately starts following the trail of bodies that Michael leaves behind. This is the first Halloween to have zero involvement by John Carpenter and it shows. The movie is the worst looking in the entire series; it looks like a T.V. movie. Dean Cundy was not brought back as cinematographer and his style is what makes the original Halloween so frightening. Return of Michael Myers tries to emulate many of the shots from the original film and fails miserably. Aside from the look of the film, the movie is decent. Donald Pleasance is the only actor who returned to the franchise, and he is good in the film. He just is not given much to do. Almost all the scenes with Michael Myers happen when Dr. Loomis is somewhere else. The explanation to why Laurie Strode is not in the film is given, but it makes no sense. Apparently she died in a car accident, but this is only mentioned in passing. The Return of Michael Myers is the return of the character only not a return to the quality of the original film. I would take the third film over this any day.