Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers *** (1988, Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, Michael Pataki, Beau Starr) – Classic Movie Review 4243

Director Dwight H Little’s 1988 fourth episode in the long-running slasher franchise started by John Carpenter with Halloween way back in 1978, marks a properly scary return to the plot, theme and characters of that 1978 original and its 1981 sequel Halloween 2 after the unrelated part three (Halloween III: Season of the Witch).

Masked maniac Michael Myers is back on the killing spree rampage again, intent on terminating his only surviving relative, his young niece Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). Myers in turn is being hotly pursued by his lame and disturbed but good doctor, Dr Sam Loomis, played again by our very own Donald Pleasence, resuming his cannily amusing performance as the obsessed psychiatrist who wants Myers locked up forever.

Halloween 4 counts as a happy Return of Michael Myers, since it sees director Little adopting the stylish suspense tricks and camerawork of Carpenter’s original, stoking up the tension, the scares, and the  shocks.

Also in the cast are Ellie Cornell, Michael Pataki, Beau Starr, Kathleen Kinmont and George P Wilbur as Myers, but there is no Jamie Lee Curtis though. Quitting after Halloween 2 in 1981, she didn’t return till seventh episode Halloween H20 in 1998.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4243

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