Starring: Donald Pleasence, Danielle Harris, Ellie Cornell, George P. Wilbur, Michael Pataki, Beau Starr.
Director: Dwight H. Little.
This is probably my favorite of the Halloween sequels. After the commercial and critical failure of Season Of The Witch they apparently realized that going back to the well was what was necessary and, considering the longevity of the franchise and the character, were absolutely right. If memory serves, Director Dwight H. Little does a decent job of offering up a mostly entertaining and somewhat suspenseful continuation that takes the somewhat half-assed premise of Myers wanting to kill living relatives and manages to do something with it.
The security guard here at the beginning is quite possible one of the most irritating and obnoxious characters I've ever seen.
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| Jesus ain't got nuthin to do with this place...or my acting choices. |
Has anyone ever used the words "locked and loaded" and "let's roll" un-ironically? The screenplay just tried to make me believe that was a thing. I will say that this movie really doesn't waste time. Quick recap of the story thanks to our weird security guard friend, they mention that Myers has a neice in Haddonfield, he wakes up and pokes his thumb through a guys forehead, and away we go.
Kind of neat that Danielle Harris, seen here playing a young girl who is now the new target of Myers(given that Laurie Strode is apparently dead and young Jamie is her Daughter and Michael's neice), would grow up and become something of a scream queen again. The Hatchet films really weren't so bad...well, okay, a little bad but not overtly so.
The Myers mask is a bit more polished here. I wouldn't say that makes it any better or worse than previous incarnations...just shinier. It is nice that Jamie's foster family aren't huge assholes. That happens a lot in horror films (like in that terrible movie June that I've attempted to wipe from my memory...and had almost succeeded until I had to reference it just now), but it's nice to see a decent family unit. Rachel is a pretty okay sister at the end of the day, played with small town, girl next door charm by Ellie Cornell. Cornell doesn't LOOK like a normal horror film girl, but that's totally alright by me.
Loomis looks pretty good for a guy who got blown up. But that's fine, because he's back to gravely speak more dramatic one-liners. Actually, for me, a lot of this sequel is summed up greatly by the scene I am watching now: Loomis shows up at the gas station that Myers has just annexed for his own use. Loomis enters, sees Myers, and quietly asks Michael "Don't go to Haddonfield. You want another victim take me. But leave those people in peace. Please. God damn you." and opens fire at him. It's just such a nice moment, two enemies facing one another down and one of them trying one last time to reason with the other. It's the type of thing you can only do in a sequel, and it's always when sequels are at their best.
The kids picking on Jamie might be 1)one of the most awful examples of bullying in film and 2)one of the funniest. It's wholly unbelievable in a lot of ways...I don't remember kids making jokes about someone's Mom dying when I was in school. But the kids chanting "Jam-ie-s an or-phan" made me laugh just a little, and hate myself for doing so. It's really horrible, but kinda funny in that upsetting way. I'm linking it here: it must be seen to believe.
It's an odd scene, but I've always had a soft spot for the "Dr.Loomis hitches a ride with a wandering Preacher" scene. The guy is a bit of a kook, but Loomis finds him charming anyway. "Oooh, you're a huntin' it, ain'tcha?!"
Another wonderful reaction from the Police. Haddonfield PD is just not fucking around. Loomis walks in, shouts a bunch of crazy shit, there's thirty seconds of disbelief and the Sheriff just says "Okay, let's go" and they're after Myers. Most horror films would have the police be dragged kicking and screaming into it, if they got involved at all, but here they're just all-in. Old guy says there's a killer from the town's past in town to repeat his thing again, they're in. Unfortunately, so is the local good ole' boy militia, out to assuredly get someone killed. I'd forgotten about that plot point, too. How long has it been since I've seen this?
That weird scene with the punks pretending to be Myers wouldn't be so bad except that, when the jig is up, one of them shouts "You thought it was me, didn't you" which makes...absolutely no sense.
Actually, I kind of like where they take the lynch mob story. I'm sure it doesn't go well for everyone-they do shoot an innocent kid or something, don't they? I seriously can't remember-but Loomis isn't wrong: with the police force gone, they're the only force they've got. Oh, wait, here it is now: drunken idiots open fire onto a gazebo and killed some guy named Ted. Ladies and Gentleman, an excellent example of why we need gun control in this country.
Well, Brady, you were clearly a pretty shitty boyfriend but you didn't entirely embarrass yourself against Myers. Actually, the escape from the house is pretty good stuff. The chase to the roof, Rachel attempting to lower Jamie down to the ground and getting tossed off...it's pretty intense and well performed. Harris gives a strong performance, especially for a child actor, and seems utterly terrified.
One of my favorite things about the character of Dr.Loomis (and there are many) is how completely ill matched he is for Myers, and how much MORE ill-matched he is each subsequent film. Even here, the characters third appearance, he's clearly in his late sixties, covered in scar tissue from being blown up, and needs a cane due to injuries that Michael almost certainly gave him. And then Myers throws him through a window. He's such an excellent underdog, and really underscores how dangerous Myers really is: you can tell Loomis is actually pretty formidable-intelligent, capable, a decent shot-but Myers is just this unstoppable force of nature. Yet, Loomis keeps on trying.
I guess the militia earned their keep in the end, aiding the state police in emptying hundreds of rounds into Myers. Loomis seems pretty confident that Myers is gone forever...that seems a little out of character for him. Shouldn't he just be assuming Myers will come back as an evil butterfly or a dream demon or some shit? Seems more in line with Loomis and his eternal alarm at Myers and his very existence. Of course, we instead get the film's final moments of Loomis seeing Jamie having killed her Foster Mother and just...going absolutely out of his mind. It might be my favorite moment of Pleasence's career: "....NO! NOOOOO! NOOOOOOOOOOO!" and raising his gun to open fire before being disarmed and subsequently sliding to the floor to weep at the idea that the evil lives on in Jamie...until the sequel anyway, where she has gotten significantly better.
Final Thoughts: This, like many other sequels in general, gets more derision that I think it probably deserves. It's by no means a classic or compares to the original in any way but in the end it manages to have some fun as a continuation of a story that is largely impossible to beat. Sequels are supposed to do that, really: the idea that a sequel is supposed to compete with the original installment in any way, shape or form is really kind of absurd. But, given it's status as a sequel, Halloween 4 gives enough fun slasher moments, suspenseful sequences and performances (mostly by Pleasence and Harris) that it works more often than it doesn't. It lacks a lot of the punch it's predecessors had, but it's not nearly as watered down as many claim. It's simple, it's fun, it barely avoids being mindless...it's not a bad flick.
Final Rating: Three Stars.
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