Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

1988 Trancas International
Directed by: Dwight H. Little; Written by: Alan B. McElroy
Starring: Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle Harris, and Michael Pataki
MPAA Rating: R; Running Time: 88 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 7/10

It's been ten years since masked maniac, Michael Myers, sliced and diced his way through Haddonfield, Illinois. It looked like Michael and his Michael-hating psychiatrist, Dr. Loomis, both died in a fire in 1978's Halloween II, but actually, that fire somehow just put Michael in a coma and left Loomis badly burned, but still on his feet. Now, Michael is being transferred to another facility, but uh-oh, you didn't tell Dr. Loomis! Now, Michael is free and headed toward Haddonfield, murdering everyone in his path, with Loomis giving chase and hoping to end Michael Myers once and for all. Back in Haddonfield, not much has changed, except Laurie Strode, Halloween's heroine, has died offscreen in a car crash, and her young daughter, Jamie (get it?), is living with a Haddonfield foster family. Oh yeah, also, since Laurie was Michael's sister, Jamie is his niece. I guess those EMT's in Michael's ambulance shouldn't have talked about his personal business so loudly. Can Jaime's foster sister, Rachel, and a two-steps behind Loomis protect her, or will Jaime become her brother's latest victim?
After the series tried its hand at a Michael Myers-free feature, Halloween 4 brings back the iconic, Shatner-masked murderer. Not unwisely, Halloween 4 essentially tries to recreate some of the thrills of the first film. A babysitter tries to protect her charge, and survive the near mystical Michael Myers' violent onslaught. Director, Dwight H. Little, might not have the greatest directing credits listed in his filmography, but he is up to the challenge here. Despite a small budget, Halloween 4 looks great, atmospheric visuals lent great cinematography by Peter Lyons Collister. Little clearly studied Carpenter's work, as Myers is back to popping up in unexpected places in the frame, face hovering like a ghost in the darkness. While the script doesn't present much we haven't seen before, Little directs it well, and amps up the suspense and terror to maximum levels, particularly in a haunted house-esque sequence late in the film.
As for what's new, there's a much younger protagonist taking up more screen time with Danielle Harris' Jaime. Harris' line delivery isn't always great, but when it comes to panicking and screaming, which is almost all she does for the second half of the film, she's great. Really, the same goes for just about every performance in this film, except for Donald Pleasence, who lends Dr. Loomis the same gravitas as usual. There's also a posse of pickup-driving, shotgun-waving Haddonfield rednecks out for Michael's blood, and their foibles are strangely handled better and more subtly here than they are in a near identical lynch mob storyline in a more recent Halloween film.
Overall, I'm surprised at Halloween 4's quality. It's not great by any means, but as a fun adrenaline rush, it's wildly successful and highly rewatchable. It's no wonder the film was dismissed by the slasher weary critics of the late 80's, but embraced by audiences once the lesser films from that period started to fade away. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers gives "serviceable" a good name.