In this weeks episode of the Halloween Rewatch, Cory and Nathan find themselves on the run yet again again as they discuss “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.”

Trailer:

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988):

On October 30, 1988, Michael Myers, who has been in a comatose state for ten years since the explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, is transferred to Smith’s Grove Sanitarium by ambulance. En route, Michael awakens upon hearing that Laurie Strode, who died in a car accident, has a daughter, Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris). He kills the ambulance personnel, and makes his way to Haddonfield in search of his niece Jamie. Fellow survivor Dr. Samuel Loomis goes to Haddonfield after learning that Michael has escaped transfer. He follows Michael to a gas station, where he has killed a mechanic for his clothes, along with a clerk and disabled the phones. Michael then escapes in a tow truck and causes an explosion, destroying Loomis’s car in the process. Loomis is then forced to catch a ride to Haddonfield.

Meanwhile, Jamie is living in Haddonfield with her foster family, Richard and Darlene Carruthers, and their teenage daughter, Rachel. Jamie knows about Michael, but she is unaware that he is the strange man she has been having nightmares about. Richard and Darlene head out for the night, and leave Rachel to babysit Jamie, causing her to miss her date with her boyfriend, Brady. After school, Rachel takes Jamie to buy some ice cream and a Halloween costume. At that point, Michael has already arrived in Haddonfield, and nearly attacks Jamie in the store.

That night, as Rachel takes Jamie trick-or-treating, Michael goes to the electrical substation, and kills a worker by throwing him into high voltage, plunging the town into darkness. Meanwhile, Loomis arrives in Haddonfield and warns the new sheriff, Ben Meeker, that Michael has returned. Michael attacks the police station and kills all of the officers. A lynch mob is formed by the town’s men to kill Michael. Rachel discovers Brady cheating on her with the sheriff’s daughter, Kelly, and loses track of Jamie. After being chased by Michael, Rachel finds Jamie.

Sheriff Meeker and Loomis arrive and take the girls to the sheriff’s house with Brady, Kelly, and a deputy. They barricade the house, and Loomis departs to look for Michael. With Sheriff Meeker in the basement awaiting the arrival of the state police, Michael sneaks in and kills the deputy and Kelly. Discovering the bodies, Rachel, Jamie, and Brady realize that they are trapped in the house. Rachel and Jamie flee to the attic when Michael appears, but Brady stays to fend him off, and is killed. The girls climb through a window onto the roof, and Jamie is lowered down safely, but Michael attacks Rachel and knocks her off the roof.

Pursued by Michael, Jamie runs down the street and finds Loomis. They take shelter in the school, but Michael appears and subdues Loomis before chasing Jamie through the building. Jamie trips, and falls down a flight of stairs. Before Michael can kill her, Rachel, who survived the fall, subdues him with a fire extinguisher. The lynch mob and the state police arrive at the school after hearing the alarm go off. The lynch mob agrees to take Jamie and Rachel to the next town in a pickup truck. However, Michael climbs aboard the truck, and kills the men. With Rachael at the wheel, she continuously tries to throw Michael off. She succeeds in doing so, and then rams him with the truck, sending him flying into a ditch near an abandoned mine. Sheriff Meeker, surviving members of the lynch mob, and the state police arrive, but when Jamie approaches Michael and touches his hand, he rises. Meeker, the state police, and the lynch mob relentlessly shoot Michael before he falls down a mine shaft.

Loomis and Sheriff Meeker take the girls back home; Darlene and Richard, who have arrived home, console their traumatized children. As Darlene goes upstairs to run Jamie a bath, she is suddenly attacked by Jamie, who is now consumed with Michael’s rage. Loomis hears Darlene’s screams and races halfway up the stairs, before he stops dead in his tracks. He sees the horrific sight of an emotionless Jamie standing at the top of the stairs, wearing a clown mask, holding a pair of scissors in her hand, and her costume stained with blood (similar to Michael when he killed his older sister Judith). Loomis backs against the wall and raises his gun to shoot her. Sheriff Meeker stops Loomis and disarms him, taking the gun into his own hands before he, Mr. Carruthers, and Rachel also see the horror that Loomis saw. Loomis slowly sinks to the floor, sobbing as his worst fear has come true: Jamie was consumed by her uncle’s rage.

Summary:

We have some fairly major complaints about the plot here. It’s an okay film with some unexpected directions, but that isn’t always a good thing. For a lot of the film, you may find yourself thinking “what are they telling me here?” or “why is this the direction we’re heading.” John Carpenter had a wonderful idea of steering this ship towards having The Ship reappear in a different form, but it seems the higher powers just wanted Michael Myers back on the scene. Having said that, this almost feels like it could be a bridge to that idea, but we won’t know until we see part 5. Soft recommend.

What’s Up Next?:

Just as her mother received before her, Jamie Lloyds terror is hardly over yet as we find Haddonfield in Michael’s grip once more in “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.”

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